Muscle cramps? Try pickles

DEAR DR. GOTT: On an almost daily basis, I have muscle cramps in my hands, fingers, legs, feet and toes. They occur during the day and night.

I take 25 milligrams of HydroDiuril and two 595-milligram doses of over-the-counter potassium gluconate. I drink several glasses of water a day plus water with my meals. Is there anything else that I can do to relieve these cramps?

DEAR READER: HydroDiuril is simply hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), a common medication used to treat hypertension (high blood pressure). It can cause muscle and joint pain and a reduction of potassium, which can cause cramping, but you are on supplements to avoid the common side effects.

HCTZ can also cause a reduction in the amount of magnesium in your body. While studies suggest that most people may be deficient already, symptoms are not common. If your low levels are further reduced by your medication, this can lead to symptoms of deficiency, which include cramping.

Try adding a magnesium supplement to determine whether the cramping lessens. Speak to your doctor to determine how much you should take. If this doesn’t help, perhaps a change in medication is in order.

Other possible options include calcium supplements, eating pickles or drinking the juice, consuming electrolyte or sports drinks (pickles, pickle juice and sports drinks can be high in sodium, so be sure to read labels), or rubbing marjoram oil (one part marjoram to one part castor or olive oil to prevent skin irritation) over the affected areas.

To provide related information, I am sending you copies of my Health Reports, “Dr. Gott’s Compelling Home Remedies†and “More Compelling Home Remedies.†Other readers who would like copies should send a self-addressed stamped No. 10 envelope and a $2 check or money order per report payable to Newsletter and mailed to Newsletter, PO Box 167, Wickliffe, OH 44092. Be sure to mention the title(s) or print an order form off my website at AskDrGottMD.com.

DEAR DR. GOTT: My 4-and-a-half-year-old son is developmentally delayed and was diagnosed as having low muscle tone. With the help of therapy, he sat up at 1 year and walked at 2-and-a-half. He is also in speech therapy and isn’t completely potty trained. My concern now is that he often has “oniony†breath and body odor, even when he hasn’t eaten any onions. Could this be a symptom of something that his doctors missed? Your feedback would be greatly welcomed. Thank you.

DEAR READER: The simple answer is yes, it could be a symptom of an underlying condition; however, I don’t know whether it is likely. Certain medications can cause changes in the smell of body odor, breath, urine and even stool. Most often other, more definitive symptoms are present, too.

There are several forums online of parents discussing the various odors their children emit. Most seem to say the children outgrow it, or that their pediatricians say the malady is caused by early glandular development and is otherwise harmless. Some have determined it is caused by diet. Rarely, some were told it is the result of thyroid malfunctioning.

Your son’s onion-smelling breath and body odor are probably not a sign of illness; however, to be on the safe side, take your son to his pediatrician for a complete exam and blood work. Perhaps a referral to an endocrinologist will be helpful. In the interim, try to manage the situation as best you can.

Peter Gott practiced medicine in Lakeville for 40 years.

Latest News

South Kent School’s unofficial March reunion

Elmarko Jackson was named a 2023 McDonald’s All American in his senior year at South Kent School. He helped lead the Cardinals to a New England Prep School Athletic Conference (NEPSAC) AAA title victory and was recruited to play at the University of Kansas. This March he will play point guard for the Jayhawks when they enter the tournament as a No. 4 seed against (13) Samford University.

Riley Klein

SOUTH KENT — March Madness will feature seven former South Kent Cardinals who now play on Division 1 NCAA teams.

The top-tier high school basketball program will be well represented with graduates from each of the past three years heading to “The Big Dance.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss grads dancing with Yale

Nick Townsend helped Yale win the Ivy League.

Screenshot from ESPN+ Broadcast

LAKEVILLE — Yale University advanced to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament after a buzzer-beater win over Brown University in the Ivy League championship game Sunday, March 17.

On Yale’s roster this year are two graduates of The Hotchkiss School: Nick Townsend, class of ‘22, and Jack Molloy, class of ‘21. Townsend wears No. 42 and Molloy wears No. 33.

Keep ReadingShow less
Handbells of St. Andrew’s to ring out Easter morning

Anne Everett and Bonnie Rosborough wait their turn to sound notes as bell ringers practicing to take part in the Easter morning service at St. Andrew’s Church.

Kathryn Boughton

KENT—There will be a joyful noise in St. Andrew’s Church Easter morning when a set of handbells donated to the church some 40 years ago are used for the first time by a choir currently rehearsing with music director Susan Guse.

Guse said that the church got the valuable three-octave set when Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center closed in the late 1980s and the bells were donated to the church. “The center used the bells for music therapy for younger patients. Our priest then was chaplain there and when the center closed, he brought the bells here,” she explained.

Keep ReadingShow less
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Picasso’s American debut was a financial flop
Penguin Random House

‘Picasso’s War” by Foreign Affairs senior editor Hugh Eakin, who has written about the art world for publications like The New York Review of Books, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The New York Times, is not about Pablo Picasso’s time in Nazi-occupied Paris and being harassed by the Gestapo, nor about his 1937 oil painting “Guernica,” in response to the aerial bombing of civilians in the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.

Instead, the Penguin Random House book’s subtitle makes a clearer statement of intent: “How Modern Art Came To America.” This war was not between military forces but a cultural war combating America’s distaste for the emerging modernism that had flourished in Europe in the early decades of the 20th century.

Keep ReadingShow less