Q: I’m a postgraduate qualified advanced practice ICU registered nurse. I had heard of soap for muscle cramps and considered it to be complete nonsense.
Then one night, I had an excruciating leg cramp. The calf muscles had a rock-hard lump of spasmed muscle.
In sheer desperation, I remembered the soap trick and dragged myself into my bathroom to get a bar of soap. I had very low expectations of this working. However, within seconds of holding the bar of soap against the spasm, it completely resolved. If I moved the soap away from my skin, the spasm would return.
I put the soap in a clean sock and wrapped the sock around my calf. This secured the soap against the spasm, and after about 30 minutes, the cramp had completely resolved.
I also get terrible hand cramps and use the same soap-in-a-sock technique where I wrap the sock around my hand to hold the soap in place. It works, though I certainly don’t know why. Currently, I keep a bar of soap in a sock in my nightstand and another in my coffee table.
A: Thank you so much for sharing your story. Knowing that there is a likely explanation for the soap trick may even bolster your enthusiasm.
We believe that the fragrance in the soap activates transient receptor potential channels in the nerves. These in turn communicate with nerves in the spinal column to relax the muscle. Of course, the full details are more complicated and involve ions, since TRPs are ion channels.
With or without a mechanism, we’re glad the soap is helping you fight leg and hand cramps.
Q: I never had chapped lips, but I started using one of the more famous products only to find my lips were MORE chapped after using this product than before. Maybe this product had something in it that promoted dry lips, hence you would buy more of it.
Once I stopped using it, my chapped lips healed. I use regular Vaseline at night now if I experience any dryness.
A: Dermatologists often recommend Vaseline (petroleum jelly) as a moisturizer. We don’t know if they would suggest putting it on the lips, though. You might want to try coconut oil (solid at room temperature) or olive oil to protect your lips when they need it. Flavors such as cinnamon and surfactants such as sodium lauryl sulfate are common culprits in causing chapped lips.
Q: I often have insomnia when I first try to sleep but more often after waking up in the middle of the night. Reading in bed or doing a puzzle didn’t work. Listening to white noise or nature sounds didn’t help either. Neither did melatonin.
I got the idea to try falling asleep while listening to an e-book because I would often fall asleep while watching TV. I found that listening to a calm e-book online, with the volume turned down low, helps to “overwrite” my racing thoughts, enabling me to sleep. It has changed my life.
A: Thank you so much for a clever idea on coping with sleep troubles. We know people who find that listening to talking makes them more awake, but others, like you, find it soothing. Listening to music can be helpful for some people.
For those who would like other ideas on how to manage insomnia without taking sleeping pills, our “eGuide to Getting a Good Night’s Sleep” is a resource. It can be found under the Health eGuides tab at peoplespharmacy.com.
