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Modern medicine is skeptical of most home remedies. It relegates them to the category of anecdotal old wives’ tales. Instead, prescribers prefer FDA-approved medicines that are supported by clinical trials. We too like randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies. But sometimes evidence comes in the form of experience, and sometimes experiments vindicate the old wives. That seems to be the case with pickle juice to treat muscle cramps.
How Can You Combat Nighttime Leg Cramps?
Q. Last night I was awakened by the worst pain I have experienced in recent memory. If an enemy asked me to reveal state secrets, I would have gladly done so in exchange for relief from that pain. I think I brought this muscle spasm on by riding my stationary bike before bedtime.
Do you have any remedies to ease nighttime leg cramps? I never want to experience that excruciating pain again!
No Medicines, But Several Remedies:
A. There are no FDA-approved medications to prevent or treat nighttime leg cramps. Once upon a time, people could buy quinine pills over the counter, but the Food and Drug Administration banned that practice. It also warns doctors not to prescribe quinine for anything other than malaria.
That’s why home remedies may be your best bet. Stretching or massaging the tightened muscle often works. If it does not, swallowing a sip of pickle juice or a teaspoonful of yellow mustard usually helps within minutes.
Although coaches have sworn by it for decades, pickle juice seems an improbable remedy. However, scientists have tested this in a randomized trial among a vulnerable population (American Journal of Gastroenterology, June 1, 2022). People with cirrhosis are especially prone to muscle cramps. The investigators compared people sipping pickle juice at the onset of the cramp to people sipping plain tap water.
Those on pickle juice reported that their cramps were far less intense at the end of the month.
If you would like to learn more about pickle juice, mustard and other ways to deal with painful muscle cramps, you may wish to read our eGuide to Favorite Home Remedies. Keep reading for more information about using pickle juice to treat muscle cramps.
Dill Pickles to Prevent Leg Cramps:
Q. When I spent winter in Arizona, I learned from an older woman to eat a dill pickle every day. That stops leg cramps from occurring.
A. Pickles, or even a sip of pickle juice, can reverse a painful leg cramp. If you are trying to prevent nighttime cramps, you might eat your pickle at supper. Timing might be important, although we do not have studies to determine this.
You will learn about pickles, mustard, tonic water, turmeric, V8 juice and vinegar for muscle cramps in our book The People’s Pharmacy Quick & Handy Home Remedies. Keep reading to learn more about pickle juice to treat muscle cramps.
Coaches Love Pickle Juice to Treat Muscle Cramps:
For years, coaches have kept pickle juice on hand for players who might experience leg cramps during a workout or game. No doubt this remedy is regarded as improbable by some medical personnel. However, exercise physiologists have done studies to see whether pickle juice to treat muscle cramps really works. What they found is that the old wives were right!
A study by scientists at the University of Michigan, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Harvard Medical School was published in the respected American Journal of Gastroenterology (April 13, 2022). The researchers enrolled 82 patients with liver disease that caused them frequent painful muscle cramps.
These individuals were told to sip the study liquid when a cramp began. A random process determined who got pickle juice and who got tap water. The patients also rated the severity of their cramps. By the end of the month, 74 people had completed the study. Those sipping pickle brine had significantly less pain from their cramps than those assigned to sip tap water.
Previous Studies of Pickle Juice to Treat Muscle Cramps:
This is not the first study to find that pickle juice could ease muscle cramps. In one, college students experienced cramps in their big toes triggered by electrical stimulation (Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, May 2010). Those who got pickle juice had a significantly shorter cramp time than those ingesting water.
The scientists could find no evidence of any change in body fluids or electrolytes rapid enough to explain the benefit. In a separate study, researchers looked for changes in sodium or potassium concentrations (Journal of Athletic Training, May-June 2014). They found no changes in plasma levels within an hour of ingestion, although the cramps disappeared within minutes.
Does Pickle Juice Work Through Transient Receptor Potential Channels?
Increasingly, investigators have turned to transient receptor potential (TRP) channels for an explanation of how pickle juice might work. One research group recruited 39 individuals and induced muscle cramps in the triceps to test a potion that activates TRP channels (Muscle & Nerve, Sep. 2017). The product, containing cinnamon and capsaicin, made people more resistant to cramps, reduced the duration of the cramp and resulted in less post-cramp muscle soreness.
Such TRP triggers can result in a higher cramp threshold frequency, making people less susceptible to muscle cramps (European Journal of Applied Physiology, Aug. 2017). We suspect pickle juice and olive brine activate TRP channels. If they do, that could help explain why many readers have found them helpful.
People Who Use Pickle Juice to Treat Muscle Cramps:
Most readers don’t really care why a home remedy works. What matters to them is that it does.
Here is just one example:
“I would like to comment on pickle juice for leg cramps. I live in a retirement home and asked the kitchen what they did with leftover pickle juice. ‘Throw it away,’ they said.
“Now they save it for me. I have about three medicinal sips before bed and seldom have a leg cramp!”
Pickle juice for an emergency:
“I experienced leg cramps that started in my toes and went up almost to my diaphragm. I tried sublingual homeopathic tablets without success.
“My son, a handball player, told me the professional handball players use pickle juice for cramps. I tried it when I was ready to call 911. (The pain under my diaphragm made it hard to breathe.)
“The pickle juice worked almost instantaneously. I now keep a bottle of it in my refrigerator at all times in case of an emergency.”
If you would like to learn more about pickle juice and other unusual treatments for leg cramps, you could read our eGuide to Favorite Home Remedies.
Mary
Pickle juice works for cramps. A popular big chain store sells it in gallon containers.
Chris
This works for my wife every time!
Cyn
Pickle juice is such a popular remedy for muscle cramps in Texas that a company near Austin produces pickle pops sold at our local area grocery stores. Proves to be a convenient way to have pickle juice while out and about.
Jeff
I haven not found pickle juice or mustard to be effective in preventing night cramps. But I have found Magnesium Citrate very effective. Now, after 2 months I rarely have leg cramps, and on those rare occasions they are very mild, not at all crippling like they used to be before waking in the morning. I use Magnesium Citrate 400 mg, consisting of 3 softgels: 1 taken at breakfast, 1 taken at dinner, and 1 taken with a glass of water about an hour before bedtime. That’s 133 mg per softgel. The most important time to take it is a hour or half-hour before bedtime.
By the way, the People’s Pharmacy lavender bed soap remedy was totally worthless, but was worth a try. The Magnesium Citrate remedy is the only remedy that has worked.
Jill
I read about pickle juice here on your site and thought,”Why not try this?” Nothing else was working. I hadlmost immediate relief. I just wish you could buy bottles of pickle juice. The heck with the pickles.
Susan
I’m a commuter cyclist in Texas, I ride all year even during our 100 degree summers. I used to get leg cramps at night. Then I tried drinking a shot glass full of pickle juice with dinner, and I no longer have leg cramps. I love dill pickles, and I now slice them for my hummus and pickle sandwiches.
Thank you for this article on pickle juice for cramps and the reader comments. Your website kept me healthy when I didn’t have health insurance. Now that I have health insurance, I always try your less invasive, home remedies first before I go to the doctor for my age-related aches & pains.
Anni
Apple cider vinegar works for me every single time. 1 tablespoon straight followed by a little bit of water.
Janie
My husband had severe cramps in his inner thighs to the point of being almost physically sick. I read your email every Tuesday and told him about using mustard. The mustard worked almost immediately. Also, I had a lady friend who drank pickle juice every evening for her leg cramps and said it worked. I asked him to try a couple sips every night. Being a little skeptical about pickle juice, he started having a couple of sips in the evening, and he has had no cramps since he started sipping the pickle juice. Whatever the reason, mustard and pickle juice work differently and beautifully. I make sure to keep several containers of mustard on my pantry shelf and keep all our pickle juice.
Charlotte
The magic of Pickle Juice:
“We don’t really understand, still, what causes cramps, but the idea of the pickle juice is that when you put it in your mouth, there’s receptors in the back of your throat and we think it hits them, and they basically send a signal back to the muscle to ease the cramp,” says Austin, who was the Hawthorn Football Club’s dietitian from 2008 until 2020, and is author of the book Eat Like An Athlete.
This is why, she adds, some athletes don’t swallow the juice, but just gargle it, which many find to be sufficient.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/wellbeing/300775099/should-we-be-drinking-pickle-juice
Patricia
Is pickle juice safe? I mean, isn’t it very acidic and filled with sodium??
Susie
About leg cramps. I found that the brine from fresh sauerkraut works great, also juice from a jar of pimento stuffed olives if sauerkraut brine is not available. I just drink a couple of gulps straight from the jar, no need for measuring. I always have 2 jars of sauerkraut in my fridge.
Barbara Z
I have 100% success eliminating my leg cramps with drinking pickle juice. I am never without it.
Paul
That’s funny. It’s milk for me, from my dry-head days.
Ginger
Was the pickle juice studied dill or sweet?
Netra
I drink pickle juice when I have indigestion and heartburn. Take swig of it and it goes away immediately. I definitely recommend it if you experience one or both of them frequently.
Andrea
Massachusetts
Pickle juice works for me! Since my sister told me about it I was skeptical and then, I read about it here. I use dill pickle juice and drink about 1/4 to 1/2 cup after the first cramp or when I first feel the tightening in my legs.
Janet
Omaha
I was told by my doctor to drink 2 Tb of Apple cider vinegar a day for glucose and to help kidney and liver function. Also I have read that garlic is also good for your health. So I always buy the kosher dills with garlic. Might as well cover all bases. No leg cramps so far and blood sugars starting to lower
Joanne
United States
I tried both sweet and dill. I take a rather high dose of lasix which never fails to cause cramping widespread, cramping in my toes,feet, legs,up into my groin, in my abdomen, and back, arms shoulders,everywhere.. I do take a substantial amount of potassium, and magnesium, which must help, but doesn’t feel like it does when I’m cramped up….
I’m not diabetic, nor do I have high blood pressure, but I have a problem with swelling.
Both sweet and the dill worked great, and very close to instantly.
My thoughts on high salt content, would be to make your own.
Also, I’ve canned pickles before, so I know there’s a shortcut.
It’s pickle mix. (Do a Google search)
It has the ingredients included,and you mix it with vinegar and water (sugar for sweet).
So, for those of us who have more cramps than juice, mix yourself up a batch of pickle juice,which can be kept a couple weeks in the fridge. (I’d end up freezing some, or only making enough to me kept in a mason jar, or…the pickle jar I emptied drinking the juice.)you may want to invest in a gallon mason jar…or use a gallon pickle jar you may already have.
For low sodium recipes, this takes a bit of work.
Google low sodium pickle mix,then scroll til you find a result linked to a site called “pick your own.” They have a low sodium pickle recipe, which will even make sweet pickles with spends or stevia, for sugar free sweet pickles.
Whichever, if your not especially fond of pickles themselves, or want a larger quantity of juice, try the mix.
Rod
New Mexico
I am a diabetic and experienced leg/feet/thigh cramps, but I started taking Magnesium capsules and I don’t have muscle cramps anymore. Avoid drinking sodas that quickly deplete your magnesium levels. Pickle juice seems to also help satisfy that quench that water can’t, but I haven’t tried vinegar/water combination (which would do away with problems with salt and kidney damage.
Debbie B
Texas
I am tried Dill Pickle juice for leg cramps, I stand all day on my feet at work.
Believe me Dill Pickle Juice is great!
Brenda
Michigan
I am a Diabetic and my sugar keeps spiking up and I would like to know what I can do to bring it down? please help me!
pat
pickles have worked for me at night, along with yellow mustard to be sure!
BJ
My son and I both are bothered with “charlie horse” like cramps. We get several C.H pains weekly but when the pain gets up in the thighs they are one of the worse pain you can get, nothing helps.
I went to my foot Dr and he said I was flat footed and he made insoles for my shoes that seems to be working as I have not had the pain in my thighs since the new insoles. At $300.00 they better work.
I did try “Mothers vinegar” about 1 T. per 2 oz. water that helps the pains in the calfs of my legs. I have fewer of them also.
Helen M
I like sour pickles, never throw the juice away because I am diabetic and vinegar may help with blood glucose rises after eating. As always, your mileage may vary.
I don’t have cramping, have not since the beginning of the diabetes. When the pickles go below the juice, I just take a nice sized swig out of the bottle, enough for one or two swallows. You will find out fast enough how much you need to reduce cramping.
Giving an amount might not necessarily be needed because everyone is different. When cramping, try starting with a small swallow and if that is not enough, you can always increase the amount taken until the cramping is relieved. Next time you can start with that amount as your dosage.
As for bp, it depends on whether you are salt sensitive or not. Might be a good way to find out. There are salt free pickles available, usually in the health food section of your supermarket or at a health food store.
If you don’t like pickles, find someone who does and ask them to save the juice for you.
bt
Is juice to be taken as preventative daily, or just when experiencing leg cramps? I have them in my legs, toes, feet frequently, rarely hands. Tried ivory soap under sheets, did not help.
PEOPLE’S PHARMACY RESPONSE: PICKLE JUICE IS TAKEN ONLY TO TREAT A CRAMP.
SEY
I tried the tonic water remedy for nocturnal foot cramps… It worked wonderfully for a week then I had to stop because the tonic water with quinine in it was adversely affecting my liver… This happened about 10 yrs ago as well . At that time we thought it was an interaction w/ a new antibiotic… This time, I am not sure what caused it. Taking Hawthorne Berry extract pills was recommended to me… but I’m wondering how they will interact with the other meds I am taking…
cg
why not try apple cider vinegar? it’s used in some pickle recipes. 1 – 2 T in 4 – 8 oz water should work.
bep
My husband has used this remedy with great success. We have kosher dills. The person that told me about this said to drink about 1/4 cup of juice. I keep meaning to pick up some little packs of the mustard. He could just keep a pack on the nightstand for when it is needed. I have never heard an amount for the mustard – just squirt some in the mouth.
cpmt
I think is just regular pickles (vinegar) juice, not sweet or butter pickles (at least I don’t use them). Yellow mustard also helps.
anne c
Are there answers to the questions/comments re: dosage/types of pickles/etc. from your readers?
I also have strong ankle & calf muscle cramps and would welcome specifics. No amount of tonic water I’ve consumed has ever been enough to affect my leg cramps at night.
What kind of and how much pickle juice is helpful?
Is there a lot of sodium in the juice? (I take prescription meds for blood pressure control.
I’d prefer not to use prescribed quinine capsules, although they do work for me, contrary to what the AMA says.
But I think that they, like other prescription meds, do affect the liver. Thanks for your help
Bob P.
I have found tonic water or mustard to be of great help with leg cramps that come in the night. I keep a bottle of tonic water by the bed. It doesn’t happen very often, but the water stops the cramp within about 4 minutes.
JT
Sounds good, but dill or sweet pickles juice? There’s a huge difference.
Judy
I appreciate knowing about the pickle juice being effective for leg cramps as I have this problem from time to time a/c a particular RX drug I take. Will definitely try this remedy. I am assuming that a teaspoon or tablespoon is sufficient.
My comment is: When a respondent sends you a home remedy solution to a particular problem, why do you not include the dosage this person used to achieve success? You publish this info then people receiving your newsletter have to write to ask for further information if they want to try this remedy. Sometimes the dosage is subsequently provided and sometimes not.
Is there a legal issue preventing you from supplying this information from the start? I have encountered this lack of information many times and when it is not fully disclosed I ‘discard’ the idea immediately.
DS
Pickle juice is also great for indigestion. I also keep left over juice in my fridge. Works when other remedies don’t.
B.T.
Is sweet pickle or dill pickle juice recommended? What’s the recommended dose?
LF
Re: Pickle juice remedy for cramps
Pickle juice is basically vinegar and salt; Is this all that is required or do we need need the one with tumeric, alum, etc. added also??
B Barnes
It would be more helpful if you said what kind of pickle juice. Dill? Source? Bread & Butter? Sweet?
Noah T.
Which kind? Sweet, sour salty, etc?
Wendy H. R.
Pickle Juice? Does this work with menopause?
Lily
I wanted to know what kind of pickle juice do I have to buy for my leg cramp. Can you give me the name of the pickle juice? Sweet or sour? Please let me know. Thanks
SS
Hello, I just wanted to find out which type of pickles are good for the leg cramping? The jar on your website looks like kosher pickles, but can any type of pickle work?
I was also told the taking in a teaspoon of mustard will help with stopping the cramping? True or not? Thank you, SS