Bed Soap

I am a reasonably intelligent person. I have lost my confidence in the medical profession, but I do still insist on a scientific explanation to almost everything.

I have had neuropathy in my lower legs since 2007. Just a couple of years ago, I started getting cramps in my legs at night. Not the "stomp it out" kind of cramps you get down the back of your calf after you spend a day riding your bicycle too far, or maybe square dancing too long. These were cramps that started in my foot and worked up my leg, all the way to my hips. My entire leg would be stiff and hurt like heck. I would jump out of bed, but couldn't stand on a foot that was frozen out of whack, on a leg that didn't function. If you've ever had a cramp on the inside of your thigh, you'll know what I mean about the pain.

I was concerned because I couldn't find a reason for the horrible cramps. They were happening almost every night. And while I've never heard of anyone dying from leg cramps, the heart is a muscle, too. What if it cramped?

I asked the doctor about it. "Take some calcium," she suggested.

"I already take 1200 mg per day," I said. "Is that not enough?"

"Oh," she suggested further, "take some magnesium."

"The calcium I take has magnesium in it, if you take too much magnesium, doesn't that cause diarrhea?"

"Well, then, you should take vitamin D3." That was her third guess, her entire repertoire, as it turned out.

I already take that, too.

Over the years I've tried everything I heard about. Magnesium cream applied on the skin, a heating pad, a whole host of things I tried and forgot because they didn't work. I figured I was the only one suffering from this, and I'd just have to live with it.

When Julie and Marta went to the Red Bluff chicken show with me, the subject of leg cramps came up. Julie suggested putting a bar of soap under the bottom sheet near my legs.

If I didn't know that Julie is also an intelligent person who tends toward scientific explanations, I might have rolled my eyes right out the top of my head. But I listened. She claimed it worked, so I thought "What's the harm in trying? It won't cost anything, I already have soap, and if it doesn't work I can still use it in the bathtub."

I tried it the first night I was home. It worked. I swear it, it worked. I haven't had a leg cramp, a foot cramp, or any other kind of cramp since I started sleeping with a bar of soap in the bed.

I went online, of course, to see why this would be. I couldn't begin to think of any sound reason, based on the science I know.

First, I was amazed (and somewhat relieved) at how many people have terrible leg cramps. What the heck is wrong? And why isn't anyone in the medical profession doing anything about it beyond giving bad advice?

Then I checked the Snopes site, and they had concluded that it's a really stupid-sounding thing that appears to have validity. At the very least, lots and lots of people swear that it works.

In my investigation, I found a company that sells soap that's made specifically to put in your bed. The bars are long and flat (5-1/2 inches long x 2-3/4 wide x 3/8 thick) and it's delightfully lavender scented.

I ordered some. It just came today, so I haven't tried it. But if plain old soap works for no good reason, there's no reason why this shouldn't.

Here are a few views of the box label.

Thank you, Julie, for the good advice. To my doctor: Nuts to you. (After I typed that I wondered, what does that mean? Nuts? I'm assuming it's not nasty.)