Muscle cramps

Quinine is usually associated as being an antimalarial drug, but it is also used to help relieved muscle cramps, especially leg cramps.

Leg cramps are involuntary contractions of the calf muscle, which persist for several minutes are can be very painful. These cramps are most common in elderly people but they can also occur in healthy young people. The cramps are not thought to be caused by a hormonal imbalance in the patients as hormone levels have been analysed in sufferers. It's thought nerves stimulating the muscles and causing them to contract most probably cause them.

Quinine seems to decrease the excitability of the muscle and nerves in the leg of the patient. But taking quinine doesn't affect the severity or duration of the muscle contractions; it just seems to reduce the number of cramps a patient gets a week. It has also been found that the benefit of taking quinine has a cumulative effect and there fore in should be taken regularly. The usual recommended dose to treat leg cramps is 200 / 300 mg per day; this is a lot lower than the dose given for antimalarial treatment.

Another study showed that the cramps are reduced more effectively if approximately 800 units of vitamin E is taken daily along side the quinine.

There is still a lot of research looking at the effectiveness of quinine for treating leg crams and also monitoring any adverse side effects.