Aoh, Those Muscle Cramps!

"Experimental data in healthy college-age men suggests that pickle juice inhibits muscle cramps through a reflex involving a nerve in our threats."

"It's why a tablespoon of pickle brine hitting the back of the throat seemed to bring relief within seconds."

"Pickle juice may also work for cramps that aren't induced by exercise. A randomized controlled trial published last year found that a sip of pickle juice reduced muscle cramp intensity in patients with cirrhosis."

"Researchers believe this improvement is due to a similar reflex that occurs almost immediately, rather than by how pickle juice is metabolized by the gut."

Dr. Trisha Pasricha, Ask a Doctor 

Anyone can suffer from leg cramps, they often occur during night-time sleep with no warning; alternately while exercising, and doctors really have no answers that would satisfy the question why it is they occur at all. Muscle cramps are well known to occur frequently among the elderly population and with athletes, during pregnancy, and dialysis, as well as with people with health conditions such as diabetes, cirrhosis or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Midsummer appears to be peak time for leg cramps, while their occurrence has a tendency to decrease during the winter, one study concluded. Athletes experience cramping which tends to increase in periods of hot weather, even while the cramps are not seen to be related to dehydration and electrolyte imbalances from sweating, a popular misconception.

There is no evidence available how best to treat cramps. There are however, two simple solutions that doctors may recommend: to stretch the muscle gently. Or to take a sip of pickle juice. Athletes, it appears, have long sworn by the efficacy and instant relief given them by pickle juice, as bizarre as that may seem. Pickle juice, strained from jars of dill or kosher pickles; alternately other acidic substances like mustard or apple cider vinegar.

"A sip is all it takes. We're not telling people to chug pickle juice", hepatologist at University of Michigan Elliot Tapper said, the 2022's study lead author. Additional research on the effect of pickle juice on muscle cramps is needed. The strategy could be somewhat less helpful for those people with rare leg cramps, or cramps that tend to be of short duration, to justify keeping pickle juice available on short order.

Medical practitioners suggest trial-and-error approaches in the prevention of leg cramps; a few weeks of daily calf and hamstring stretching (reducing the severity, not the frequency of nocturnal leg cramps), magnesium (a recent meta-analysis found this likely produces little effect), or vitamin B complex (which showed some promise in a 1990s small study). Long-acting beta-agonists such as found in Advair or Symbicort and diuretics like spironolactone could be exchanged by a physician for alternate medications.

A double-blind randomized controlled trial published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2017 found that taking magnesium oxide for a month reduced the number of night leg cramps by about three times weekly, significant enough to go from waking to cramps every night in favour of the same every other night.

• Stretch and massage. Stretch the cramped muscle and gently rub it. For a calf cramp, keep the leg straight while pulling the top of your foot on the side that's cramped toward your face. Also try standing with your weight on your cramped leg and pressing down firmly. This helps ease a cramp in the back of the thigh too.For a front thigh cramp, try pulling the foot on that leg up toward your buttock. Hold on to a chair to steady yourself.
  Apply heat or cold. Use a warm towel or heating pad on tense or tight muscles. Taking a warm bath or directing the stream of a hot shower onto the cramped muscle also can help. Rubbing the sore muscle with ice also might relieve pain.   Mayo Clinic