Muscle cramps are then a major feature – previously known as miners’ cramps and stoker’s cramps, as they were common in English coal mines and ships.
Miners’ cramps or heat cramps which usually occur after strenuous exercise and excessive sweating. They are common to athletes, individuals in the tropics and miners working in hot pits. Muscles of the arms and leg exhibit painful spasms due to the loss of salt from the body.
Here the patient complains of painful spasm of voluntary muscles of body due to excessive perspiration and loss of body fluid and electrolytes. Drinking a large volume of water after heavy perspiration can lead to seizures and delirium.
Examination of the blood reveals that there is an increased concentration of the red blood cells and deceased concentration of the sodium and chloride. Prevention and treatment consist of consuming more salt (sodium chloride).
K. Neville Moss, professor of coal mining at Birmingham University in England, was one of the first to undertake relevant studies of ‘heat’ cramps in 1923. J B S Haldane showed in 1928 that extra salt prevents or cures these cramps; as with miners in hot mines, some military rations in hot climates are supplemented with high-salt foods to replace the salt lost in sweat.
Miners’ cramps
