What is your body trying to tell you when you get muscle cramps in the form of stabbing pains in your toes, back of your legs, and arches of your feet?
It was discovered in 1930s, through various research studies that with “effective communication”, human beings understand and resolve conflicts in relationships while, at the same time, allowing individuals to cope better with stress. Additionally, various studies showed that relationships that are based on effective communication tend to nurtures and enhances our health and self-esteem.
Couples, for instance, that communicate by listening and addressing issues in a positive way end up building a solid relationships where they can support one another and hence live longer, smarter, happier, and in fact, healthier. Individuals who feel that they cannot communicate with others and feel others do not understand them, end up feeling frustrated and misunderstood which is linked to a higher rate of depression, weakened immune system, and making them more vulnerable to chronic diseases.
This much most scientists, researchers, socialists, and psychologies agree upon. In fact, most non-scholars (like the rest of us) agree simply because of our own experiences in our relationships.
However, what is not commonly discussed is how an individual can also communicate with his or her own body and how the body communicates back. No, this is not weird science or witchcraft or anything paranormal:
Your body tries to communicate with you through pain, joy, tiredness, pleasure, frustration, happiness, or through various organs in your body. Do you think your body tells you when you are tired and need to sleep? Do your eyes feel itchy and you feel like passing out? What is your body trying to tell you then?
Have you ever felt wonderful when ate a particular kind of food, or fruits and vegetables, or a smoothie or a juice or something that you absolutely love? That feeling is: your body talking to you. Many people have discovered that they feel wonderful when they have a nutritious vegetable juice in the morning that is filled with vitamins and minerals and well balanced to give the body all it needs.
Our bodies do talk to us, indeed. But are you listening?
When you experience muscle cramps, stabbing pains in your toes, back of your legs or calves, or arches of your feet, your body is trying to communicate with you that there may be a vitamin deficiency that has resulted in impaired functionality of some of your organs and you should see your general practitioner.
Many individuals discover that these muscle cramps and stabbing pains through the leg is caused by lack of potassium, calcium, or magnesium in the body.
The importance of magnesium to calcium ratio:
The recommended dietary ratio of calcium to magnesium is 2 to 1 but current research suggests that the ratio of calcium to magnesium should be 1 to 1. However the ratio of calcium to magnesium in the American diet is about 6 to 1, therefore most Americans are consuming a lot more calcium than magnesium and that is causing some health problems.
In many cases, magnesium deficiency is misdiagnosed by doctors because only 1% of magnesium in the body is stored in blood. In fact, according to researchers, more than 80% of Americans have magnesium deficiency and since magnesium isn’t even included in blood tests, many doctors do not even know if their patients are low in magnesium. Most magnesium in a person’s body is stored in tissues and bones, so the first signs of magnesium deficiency could be leg cramps, foot pain, or muscle twitches.
“When you take high doses of Vitamin D and if you are already low in magnesium, the increased amount of metabolic work drains magnesium from its muscle storage sites. That's probably why muscles are the first to suffer magnesium deficiency symptoms -- twitching, leg cramps, restless legs and charlie horses says Dr Carolyn Dean: http://www.seattleorganicrestaurants.com/vegan-whole-food/magnesium-deficiency-foods-herbs-high-in-magnesium.php
Losing water-soluble vitamins through perspiration:
If you are exercising a lot, or are subjected to excessive heat (in warm climates) and experiencing dehydration, you may be losing many essential minerals as well as water-soluble B vitamins through perspiration. Your doctor may recommend that you remedy is simply eating more bananas, squash, apples, cherries, broccoli, kale, spinach, bok choy, and drinking coconut water.
Excessive perspiration can also deprive your body from electrolytes. These are the smallest of chemicals in the body that are so essential for the cells in the body to function and allow the body to keep itself in balance. Electrolytes (sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, and chloride) are critical because they facilitate cells to generate energy, maintain the stability of cell walls, and to perform their function. They generate electricity, contract muscles, and distribute water and fluids throughout the body and allow the kidney and the adrenal glands to control, monitor, and regulate (through electrolyte sensors) electrolytes within normal limits.
That is precisely why in warmer climates that are also humid (such as parts of Africa, South East Asia, and South and Central America), there is an abundance of consumption (and local production) of coconuts, bananas, potatoes, avocados, nuts, and fruits and vegetables. All of these, are filled with electrolytes which can be replenished in the body as whole or in juice form. Throughout generations, people in these regions have listened to their body (consciously or may be even subconsciously) and are consuming exactly what their body is asking for.
Are you listening to your body?
