What causes stomach cramps?

Convulsion, also known as cramp. Abdominal cramps are a condition that many people experience. During an attack, the patient's stomach will move violently, making the patient feel particularly uncomfortable. In daily life, there are many reasons that lead to abdominal cramps, generally caused by excessive fatigue, calcium deficiency, and cold body. Next, let me introduce to you what abdominal cramps are and what causes them.

1. What is a convulsion ?

Convulsion, commonly known as cramp, is a common contraction phenomenon in the human muscle system. The attack will cause the victim to feel pain. It is often caused by going directly from a static state to strenuous exercise. The muscles in the human body are contractile and elastic. When in a static state, the muscles will remain in a certain state. If they suddenly change to a state of motion, the muscles must also suddenly change their state, from contraction to contraction, or vice versa. This often results in the human body's muscles receiving signals from the brain to exercise, but not being able to react immediately, resulting in a spasm (automatic muscle contraction), which means that the muscles are "out of control." At this point, the muscles will feel tense and stiff to the touch, and you may notice some deformation in the appearance of the muscles.

2. Causes of convulsions

High fever, epilepsy, tetanus, rabies, calcium deficiency, etc. can all cause cramps, which are systemic. There are also local ones such as gastrocnemius (commonly known as calf) cramps, which are often caused by rapid exercise, work fatigue, or severe twisting of the tibia, and often occur when lying down or sleeping.

3. Clinical manifestations of convulsions

1. Generalized tonic convulsion: The muscles of the whole body are rigid and twitching in waves, showing opisthotonos (the head is tilted back and the whole body is bent backward in a bow shape), the eyes are rolled up or staring, and the patient is unconscious.

2. Localized convulsions: only local muscles twitch, such as twitching of only one side of the limbs, or twitching of facial muscles, or twitching of fingers and toes, or eye movements, nystagmus, blinking, staring, etc. Most are unconscious. The above convulsions can last for a few seconds or several minutes, and in severe cases can last for several minutes or recur repeatedly. Convulsions lasting more than 30 minutes are called persistent state convulsions.

3. Febrile convulsions: mainly seen in children between 6 months and 4 years old who have convulsions when they have high fever. High fever convulsions are short-lived, and consciousness recovers quickly after the convulsion. They often occur in the early stages of a fever. During a fever, there is often only one convulsion. Brain diseases and other serious illnesses can be ruled out, and an EEG will be normal one week after the fever subsides.