Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Cramps vs. Calcium


It's time for an update on the cramps versus calcium fight. This is month four now...

So I'd been taking about 1700mg of calcium everyday--it's the higher end of the threshold, just FYI, but I'm still taking the calcium carbonate tablets (because I have them) and it's harder for the body to absorb that variety so...

Anyway, leading into the onset of my last period, I didn't notice any cramps. Only maybe a slight feeling of being uncomfortable in my mid-section, but only if I really focused and felt for them.

First day was a light day and still no pain to speak of. Second day was a normal flow day and I could definitely feel the cramps. I held off on taking ibuprofen until mid-day as I wanted to see how bad they might get. They were tolerable, but just barely. I really hate pain, so my tolerance is rather low. I finally decided the heck with it and took some pain reliever. It seemed to kick in faster than I remember, so I'm not sure if that's due to the calcium or my activity levels or what, but it was a bonus.

I stayed active once I got home and even though my dose of ibuprofen wore off, the pain didn't return. Even better.

Day three was another normal flow day, but the cramps remained minimal all day. No pain reliever needed.

In the interest of full disclosure, it had been a week (six or seven days) since I had any ice cream, but I did have bowl of cereal or two within one or two days of starting. It seems direct dairy intake is always involved so not sure how that skews the results. But I guess the point is calcium ingestion one way or the other, so...

So far, things are leaning toward calcium helping to reduce cramping overall, but not eradicating them altogether.

On another note, I discovered that the body cannot absorb that much calcium all at once, so it I had to alter the experiment. It was recommended that the dosages be taken with a meal so that was my intent. It didn't work out so well. I had a really hard time remembering to take my tablet with lunch and then dinner, so this month seemed pretty much a bust. At the first sign of cramps I caved and popped some ibuprofen.

Getting back on track and determined to remember to take that darn calcium when I'm supposed to.


1 comment:

Unknown said...

Sounds like you're finding some things that help, which is good!