What causes knee throbbing?

Knee twitches are what we often call cramps in the knee joint, which are especially common in summer, autumn and winter and in people who are calcium deficient. The former is caused by arthritis and rheumatic bone disease. Once the surrounding environment is humid or cold, leg and joint cramps will occur. If it is caused by calcium deficiency, calcium supplementation is required, combined with a reasonable and healthy diet to allow the body to fully absorb nutrients.

1. What causes knee cramps?

Cold stimulation from the external environment, such as low room temperature at night in winter, using a quilt that is too thin during sleep or exposing legs and feet outside the quilt.

Fatigue, lack of sleep, rest or excessive rest can lead to the accumulation of local acidic metabolic products and cause muscle cramps. Walking or exercising for too long, which causes excessive fatigue in the lower limbs, or lack of rest and sleep, can cause lactic acid accumulation. Sleeping and resting too much or too long can slow down blood circulation and cause carbon dioxide accumulation.

Decreased estrogen levels and osteoporosis in elderly women can cause low blood calcium levels, increased muscle irritability, and frequent cramps.

Bad sleeping posture, such as lying on your back for a long time with the quilt pressing on your feet, or lying on your stomach for a long time with your feet against the bed, forces certain calf muscles to be in an absolutely relaxed state for a long time, causing "passive contracture" of the muscles.

Taking the following different countermeasures according to different causes can quickly relieve spasms and stop pain.

2. Symptoms and signs of knee cramps

Hemifacial twitching refers to the paroxysmal painless contraction of the muscles innervated by the facial nerve. The first symptom often begins with a slight twitch of the orbicularis oculi muscle of the lower eyelid, gradually spreading upward to the entire orbicularis oculi muscle, and then to the lower half of the facial muscles, especially the corners of the mouth. In severe cases, the entire facial muscles and the ipsilateral platysma muscles may spasm. Severe spasm of the orbicularis oculi muscle may make it impossible to open the eyes, thus affecting walking and work, and may be accompanied by mild weakness and muscle atrophy. It worsens during mental stress, fatigue, and spontaneous exercise, and disappears during sleep. Facial muscle twitching is not accompanied by pain, and voluntary contraction of facial muscles is generally not affected when there is no facial muscle twitching.

3. Diagnosis of knee cramps

Need to be differentiated from the following diseases:

Functional blepharospasm occurs in elderly women, often bilaterally, without twitching of the lower facial muscles.

Habitual tics often occur in children and young people, are often obvious muscle contractions, and are related to mental factors.

Patients with facial dyscinesia caused by neuropsychiatric inhibitors have a history of recent use of strong tranquilizers such as perphenazine, trifluoperazine, haloperidol, or metoclopramide (metoclopramide), and the symptoms include compulsive opening or closing of the mouth, involuntary tongue extension or curling, etc.

What to do if you suddenly get leg cramps while sleeping

Emergency measures to take before the doctor arrives:

Immediately lay the patient flat on the bed, with the head tilted to one side and slightly tilted back, the neck slightly raised, and loosen the patient's tie, belt, waistband, etc. Be careful not to let the patient fall to the ground.

Quickly clear secretions and vomit from the mouth, nose, throat and throat to ensure that the airway is open and prevent the tongue from falling back. To prevent the teeth from biting the tongue, a tongue depressor or chopsticks wrapped in gauze or cloth should be placed between the upper and lower teeth. And pinch the Ren Zhong and Hegu acupoints with your fingers. The above requirements must be completed quickly within a few seconds.

Prevent the patient from colliding with surrounding hard objects and getting injured during violent convulsions, but never press down the convulsing limbs with force to avoid causing fractures.

How to avoid cramps in summer

Wear comfortable shoes. Summer is here, and women who love beauty like to wear high heels. However, high heels can cause leg muscles to tighten, which may cause cramps over time.

Supplement sodium appropriately. The weather is hot in the summer, and sweating a lot and drinking water can reduce the sodium concentration in the blood, which can cause cramps. Therefore, you should drink some light salt water in the summer to supplement sodium ions.

Warm up before exercising. Swimming is the most popular sport in summer, but you must warm up thoroughly before swimming, otherwise the large local temperature changes will cause cramps.

Keep your legs warm. Sleeping with the air conditioner on can easily cause calf cramps at night, so be sure to keep your legs warm when you sleep.