Painful foot cramps. Too much kava?

[kavanoob]

I've been having painful foot cramps in my left foot for the past 3 days. I'll have a foot cramp every 20-50 minutes, but more like every 10-20 minutes if I walk around. They last 5 seconds each. I don't know if the cramps in my left foot are caused by dehydration, or from the scrape it got last week.

I just got back from the doctor with advice to lay off the kava for a week, a tetanus shot (to be safe), and a week's worth of antibiotics.

Prior to today, I was drinking 2 tablespoons of kava per day. More specifically, the 11 year waka kava micronized powder. It helps me sleep like a baby, it's amazing and I love it. I take each tablespoon with 16oz coconut milk & a teaspoon of olive oil. I weigh about 110 pounds, for reference. I dunno if 2tbsp/day is too much or if it's okay. Been doing this for a month already. But during the past 8 days I've been noticing extremely dry skin, all over my body. My palms were literally peeling from dryness. Not today though, because I put a crapload of lotion & hydrocortizone on myself these past 2 nights, massaged my hands with olive oil during these past 2 days, and didn't drink any kava last night.

Last week, I was moving some things in my closet and my old plastic LCD monitor (which was already on the floor but is still quite heavy) faceplanted into my left ankle and scraped it about 1 millimeter - 1.5 millimeters deep. The scrape is smaller than a dime but larger than a nipple.

So I googled some information on foot cramps. Results suggest it can be caused by either dehydration, or localized tetanus.

- Is kava the culprit?
I don't think the cramps in my left foot are caused by dehydration by kava, because I don't have any cramps in my right foot. It's happening in my left foot only, the same foot that was scraped.

- Is localized tetanus / a bacterial infection the culprit?
But I don't think it's being caused by the scrape either, because my old LCD monitor isn't even rusty. It's clean as heck and made of plastic. Well, just a little dust here and there. Kava's also a diuretic, so it's probably sucking up all my water & electrolytes. And although I don't feel any nagging thirst after drinking kava, the dry skin/dermo might be a huge sign that I'm definitely losing water & electrolytes.

What does everyone think? Huge thanks in advance to any advice and any opinions on this. Has anyone else ever had kava-induced foot cramps?

Edit: I'd also like to mention that I've never had these foot cramps prior to my foot scrape. So the three weeks that I've been drinking kava prior to my foot scrape = no foot cramps.

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

I've never heard of kava-induced cramping and have personally never experienced any, despite being a daily drinker of high doses. Sometimes people who take Ecstasy report intense cramps afterward, it's usually attributed to dehydration, lack of salt or the need for more potassium.

 

[kavanoob]

I've never heard of kava-induced cramping and have personally never experienced any, despite being a daily drinker of high doses. Sometimes people who take Ecstasy report intense cramps afterward, it's usually attributed to dehydration, lack of salt or the need for more potassium.

How many tablespoons of noble kava do you drink per day?

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

How many tablespoons of noble kava do you drink per day?

8-11 strained medium grind
5-7 micronized

 

[kavanoob]

8-11 strained medium grind
5-7 micronized

5-7 micronized, wow. Maybe I should start doing that. I don't know if it's too much for my body weight though. Give me a ballpark figure of how much you weigh so I can scale it down to my ~110lbs. Maybe you weigh about ~200lbs so I can maybe take 3-4 tablespoons per day.

Anyways, if no one else has kava-induced foot cramps, I think I'll continue with the kava after I finish these antibiotics.

 

[sɥɐʞɐs]

I'm not sure weight makes much difference...your personal kava tolerance seems to be a 'born in' thing.
I weigh 155 ... if i drink mirconized kava i'll mix 2 Tbsp into some water and chug half...then chug the other half 20 minutes later...then I'll mix up two more tablespoons...and gauge how much more i want as i proceed.

 

[Groggy]

I've been having painful foot cramps in my left foot for the past 3 days. I'll have a foot cramp every 20-50 minutes, but more like every 10-20 minutes if I walk around. They last 5 seconds each. I don't know if the cramps in my left foot are caused by dehydration, or from the scrape it got last week.

I just got back from the doctor with advice to lay off the kava for a week, a tetanus shot (to be safe), and a week's worth of antibiotics.

Prior to today, I was drinking 2 tablespoons of kava per day. More specifically, the 11 year waka kava micronized powder. It helps me sleep like a baby, it's amazing and I love it. I take each tablespoon with 16oz coconut milk & a teaspoon of olive oil. I weigh about 110 pounds, for reference. I dunno if 2tbsp/day is too much or if it's okay. Been doing this for a month already. But during the past 8 days I've been noticing extremely dry skin, all over my body. My palms were literally peeling from dryness. Not today though, because I put a crapload of lotion & hydrocortizone on myself these past 2 nights, massaged my hands with olive oil during these past 2 days, and didn't drink any kava last night.

Last week, I was moving some things in my closet and my old plastic LCD monitor (which was already on the floor but is still quite heavy) faceplanted into my left ankle and scraped it about 1 millimeter - 1.5 millimeters deep. The scrape is smaller than a dime but larger than a nipple.

So I googled some information on foot cramps. Results suggest it can be caused by either dehydration, or localized tetanus.

- Is kava the culprit?
I don't think the cramps in my left foot are caused by dehydration by kava, because I don't have any cramps in my right foot. It's happening in my left foot only, the same foot that was scraped.

- Is localized tetanus / a bacterial infection the culprit?
But I don't think it's being caused by the scrape either, because my old LCD monitor isn't even rusty. It's clean as heck and made of plastic. Well, just a little dust here and there. Kava's also a diuretic, so it's probably sucking up all my water & electrolytes. And although I don't feel any nagging thirst after drinking kava, the dry skin/dermo might be a huge sign that I'm definitely losing water & electrolytes.

What does everyone think? Huge thanks in advance to any advice and any opinions on this. Has anyone else ever had kava-induced foot cramps?

Edit: I'd also like to mention that I've never had these foot cramps prior to my foot scrape. So the three weeks prior to my foot scrape = no foot cramps.

I'd say that TV falling on your foot probably did it, I doubt 2 tbs a day would dehydrate you that fast. I drink about 8 tbs a day of medium grind, strained (just about everyday). The only time I get cramps is when I don't eat well or drink enough fluids. Also bare in mind coffee & Alcohol are diuretics.

 

[kavanoob]

Damn, never had anything bad happen to me from a scrape all my life, until now. I always thought Neosporin & band-aids were useless. Now I know why they were invented. I did rub Neosporin onto the wound 10 minutes after the scrape, but forgot about it for the next few days and never covered it with a band-aid. I never knew you could get muscle cramps from a meager 1.5mm scrape. I seriously thought it'd be like throwing a stick at Godzilla. I was wrong. Damn. Like seriously, damn. This reminds me of Khal Drogo's demise in Game of Thrones. One little scrape can bring down a king.

 

[blindy107]

Hah yes it can @kavanoob. I also have never had this happen despite being a daily kava drinker for nowhere near as long as shakas. I get them from work often. I'm on my haunches 1/4 of the day and sometimes my arches will cramp up something fierce.

 

[kavanoob]

Damn, never had anything bad happen to me from a scrape all my life, until now.

I also haven't had a tetanus shot in over 10 years until now. No wonder nothing bad happened to my scrapes when I was a kid. Mom must've taken me to get my tetanus shot while I was fiddling with my Gameboy at the doctor's office. I was probably like "Oh a shot? Sure, just stick it in." Didn't even know what kind of shot.

 

[Jerome]

I do get feet cramps and have always attributed it to kava induced dehydration. I don't know why its always the feet and no where else. But i find plenty of water and fruit generally helps. I also drink a lot of coffee throughout the day so might be chronic dehydration.

 

[Jerome]

My money would be on mild dehydration.

 

[kavanoob]

I do get feet cramps and have always attributed it to kava induced dehydration. I don't know why its always the feet and no where else. But i find plenty of water and fruit generally helps. I also drink a lot of coffee throughout the day so might be chronic dehydration.

So I was just looking over the Wikipedia article for tetanus and it says local tetanus is more uncommon than generalized tetanus (which is the most common).

If it was generalized tetanus, by now I would be feeling something in my neck and jaw. But I'm not.

So yeah, these cramps are probably either due to dehydration (which is weird since I'm never thirsty) or a bacterial infection. It's probably not local tetanus. We'll see. I'll keep you guys updated in a few days.

 

[kavadude]

You're probably fine on the tetanus. It's generally the result of puncture wounds.

Generally with kava I try to follow a 1:1 water:kava rule (like drink 1 glass of water for every glass of kava), regardless of whether I'm thirsty or not.

 

[kavanoob]

I do get feet cramps and have always attributed it to kava induced dehydration.

1. How often do you get feet cramps?
2. Have you ever had feet cramps as often as #1 before you started drinking kava?
3. Only one foot, or both feet?

 

[nabanga]

What was that about nipples?
Interesting choice of scale reference!

 

[Jerome]

1. How often do you get feet cramps?
2. Have you ever had feet cramps as often as #1 before you started drinking kava?
3. Only one foot, or both feet?

I get feet cramps maybe once or twice a week. I'm sure I've had foot cramps before, but I've been drinking kava for over fifteen years and I couldn't bring up a specific incident of a foot cramp before that time. I generally notice that the cramps only happen on one foot, they are usually quite mild, and go away with a little stretching.

One thing I notice about kava dehydration vs. alcohol induced dehydration is the lack of overwhelming thirst. If I drink alcohol all night I wake up and guzzle a gallon of cold water. When I drink an excess of kava, I generally start my day with coffee and must remind myself to rehydrate from the prior night's kava-ing.

 

[VictoryRider]

I would guess that since you also have very dry dermo-esque skin that dehydration is at least partially to blame.
Drink MORE water, and eat bananas (gives you potassium to help prevent and lessen muscle cramping).

 

[kavanoob]

No foot cramps at all yesterday. I've been putting fresh applications of Neosporin and a fresh bandaid every morning. My wound's starting to heal. I've also been taking Benadryl these past few nights instead of kava to help me sleep (I'm a chronic insomniac). But as someone mentioned in another thread, I don't like feeling depressed for no reason at all--this is a side effect of taking Benadryl. And the Benadryl tolerance is starting to kick in. I have 6 days left on my antibiotic regimen, should I keep taking Benadryl and finish my antibiotics? Or since there are no more foot cramps, would it be okay to switch back to kava and stop taking my antibiotics? I miss kava already, I miss the mellow buzz, I miss the fact that there's no tolerance, I miss the healthy brown powdery goodness.

Or would it be okay to combine the antibiotics (Keflex) & kava? I checked two drug interactions checkers, Webmd and drugs.com, both found no interactions.

Also found an article saying that longer antibiotic treatment is worse than short-term antibiotic treatment. Here are some excerpts:
"...the longer the antibiotic course, the greater the risk that antibiotic-resistant bacteria will take their place and cause harm..."
"...They can do worse damage too. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria include Clostridium difficile, which can be carried harmlessly in the bowel until a course of antibiotics kills off its competition. This allows it to multiply and produce toxins, potentially causing life-threatening diarrhoea."

 

[Edward]

Cramps could easily be to do with dehydration, low salt levels. I can get a bit of dermo from 11 yr waka. It is an awesome kava but that's one thing I have noticed about it. I've been taking coconut oil capsules daily for over a month now and I haven't had any dermo to speak of at all, could be something to consider?