Cramp Fasciculation Syndrome

[Mfreeman]

Ripp and anyone else,

I've been dealing with muscle fasciculations since June of 2021. What started out as cramping in both of my adductors, has turned into twitching all over my body. I originally thought I had injured my adductors: I saw an orthopedic doctor, did physical therapy and slowly worked my way back up on squats and deadlifts. After doing light work for several months after the initial cramping episode, the cramping returned as I started to progress. I stopped training my lower body for the last three months, because every time I do the cramping comes back.

I do not have ALS or another neuron disease and all of my vitamin levels are normal (B12, Vitamin D, Magnesium, Potassium, etc). I have been to a neurologist a few times who told me there is nothing they can do except get me on anti-seizure medication, which I do not plan to do.

My question is: Have you seen this before? Do you have any suggestions on ways to work around this?

[Yngvi]

This is all pretty difficult to unpack without asking 20 questions.

I have never seen this before, but I have seen this:
From anecdotal evidence, creatine supplementation causes cramps in many people for reasons that are not entirely known, but apparently unrelated to systemic electrolyte levels.
Also, from mostly anecdotal evidence, pickle juice (and possibly other mildly acidic solutions) seems to alleviate cramps for reasons that are not necessarily related to systemic electrolyte levels.

[Frank_B]

I had this once after I herniated a disc at C6-C7. This was several years before I discovered SS, and I was doing a lot of endurance training at the time as well. One day I was fine. The next day I woke up with a knife in my neck. The best way I can describe things is like the wires controlling my muscles had an intermittent connection. This persisted for almost a year, with the fasciculations MOSTLY contained to the dermatome of the responsible nerve root, but I did experience it all over my body at times.

I got the prescriptions for Gabopentin and all it did was turn me into an asshole when I drank alcohol (and I’m a very happy drinker). Mental stress seemed to exacerbate it the most. That would turn it into a feedback loop where I thought “Oh great, I’m getting stressed, here come the shakes,” and low and behold they would.

Ultimately they decided to do a brain MRI because they suspected MS or ALS. When that came back negative they diagnosed it as BFS (benign fasciculation syndrome). The neurologist told me “Keyword: BENIGN.” A few weeks after hearing that, everything magically went away.

I do believe the injury caused my nerves to be a little touchy or heightened to stressful situations. I believe that caused me to worry. Once the worrying started, it was all shit. I haven’t had an issue in years. In fact, I hadn’t even thought about it until I read this post.

Quit worrying about shit. Have a drink and stop giving a fuck. Took me forever to learn how to do that and I’m so much happier.