Causes and Prevention of Muscle Cramping

Dr. Bruce Bean is a professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. He is also the co-inventor of HOTSHOT.

While sea kayaking with a friend and his respective co-inventor, and experiencing severe cramping in their arms, they became intrigued about why we have them and how to prevent them.

Here's a highlight reel of our conversation with Dr. Bean.

Dehydration: the original myth

• According to Dr. Bean’s research, electrolyte imbalances and dehydration are the classic myth that the causes cramping.
• One study found no difference between water loss and sodium levels of runners that cramped and runners that did NOT cramp

So what does cause cramping?

• Finding: muscle cramps are largely due to the hyper-excitability of the neurons that actually control the muscle contraction. This loss of control is what leads to the spasms, cramping.
• In lemans terms, uncontrolled firing of the neurons that signal a muscle to contract.

Pickle Juice

• Dr. Bean found that people in hotter climates had been using pickle juice/brine to reduce cramping. After Miller, et al. ran a study utilizing pickle brine, they found that ‘yes’ it did reduce cramping.
• However, this effect happened within 90sec of consuming it; an effect that is way too quick to be related to electrolyte balancing.
• The suggestion was that somehow the brine was stimulating some neurons in the mouth/esophagus to stimulate a reflex that was reducing cramping.
• They used this information to formulate a beverage that included as many of these compounds as possible (garlic, mustard seed, pickle, etc.) to stop cramping in its tracks.

How does this work?

• Dr. Bean says we are activating nerves (especially vagus nerve) in the mouth that stimulate neurotransmitters in the brain > spinal cord which control the excitability of the motor neurons.
• HotShot utilizes this from a chemical perspective
• Found to also reduce muscle soreness after intense training.