[pct-l] leg cramps - potassium

[mceverj at qwest.net (Jim McEver)]

On Sat, 2004-02-28 at 12:10, Jim Keener wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> I have bad leg cramp problems and I add a packet of salt to each quart of
> water. 

As others have noted, potassium is much more critical to maintaining
proper muscle performance than is sodium - has something to do with
maintaining proper permeability of of the cell membrane or something - I
can't recall exactly. In any case, the body doesn't need a great deal of
sodium and will dump it thru sweat. Unfortunately, potassium is dumped
along with the sodium, so taking NaCl may actually exacerbate the
problem. 

Jim McEver