While enjoying that hot dog with a little mustard on top, here’s something else to consider. Mustard not only tastes good on your hot dog, but it can help with muscle cramps too.
Most of us have experienced cramping at one point, especially leg cramps. It can be extremely painful and frustrating to deal with. It can come about during the day while sitting, playing sports, or even during the night while sleeping. Cramping can strike anyone at any time, but it can become more common with age.
There are several reasons for cramping up. It can be caused by dehydration, overuse of a muscle, holding a position for an extended length of time or muscle strain. Sometimes it’s not known what causes muscle cramping. Sometimes it can be due to a medical condition.
According to Dr. Bruce Bean and Robert Winthrop, Professor of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, leg cramps are muscle spasms caused by “mini-seizures” of motor neurons or nerves that power muscle contractions.
We often hear that it is caused by dehydration, fatigue, or electrolyte imbalances.
Proper hydration is important for many reasons and cannot be stressed enough.
If dehydration is not the issue, consider your diet. Are you taking in enough vitamins and minerals? Getting enough rest cannot be overlooked either. Cramping may be the result of all of the above.
If experiencing cramping, the first thing to try is to stretch the affected muscle. Start with light stretching to improve circulation and increase blood flow to the muscles. This can offer temporary relief. If stretching does not help, then this is where you might want to try using an inexpensive and safe home remedy like mustard.
Take a teaspoon of spicy yellow mustard and put it in your mouth. Let it stay there for a bit and then swallow.
How does this work you ask? According to Dr. Bean and his colleague, Nobel Prize winner Rod MacKinnon, M.D., they suggested that strong flavors such as mustard would trigger nerves in the mouth, throat, and stomach.
Yellow mustard may work by stimulating the same nerves that cause cramping. This stimulation or trigger effect might overwhelm the misbehaving nerves that were causing muscle cramps thereby alleviating the cramps.
There are skeptics who may doubt that mustard can indeed help with muscle cramps but when it comes to trying a home remedy that doesn’t pose a risk and has garnered some results, why not give it a try? You have nothing to lose.
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