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Soap Works for Card Player's Cramps

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Q. I read your column about using soap in the bed for leg cramps. It really works. My husband had leg cramps for years since he is a fisherman and on his feet 18 hours a day. They brought tears to his eyes, although he is very stoic. He’s had no more leg cramps since we started putting soap under the bottom sheet.

We were playing cards the other night and he got cramps in his hands, holding the cards, as he sometimes does. I got a bar of soap and put it in his hand. Within a minute the pain subsided. He held the bar for about 10 minutes and the cramp never came back. Now we keep a bar of soap near where we play cards.

A. Though many people have told us of their success using soap under the bottom sheet to ward off nighttime leg cramps, this is the first we have heard of using soap to keep away hand cramps.

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I've had great success with the Ivory-soap-under-the-sheet "trick" for my restless leg syndrome. Not only do I use it in bed, Ivory soap also goes to the movies with me and accompanies me on long car and plane trips -- anywhere I've ever experienced that uncomfortable creepy feeling of restless legs. There's a bar under my computer desk, even as I type this.

It seemed totally crazy that a simple bar of bath soap would help me with the chronic muscle pain I experience.

For years I have had muscle pain that has gotten worse, and I actively searched for a solution. Read many articles and visited several doctors looking for relief.

An older woman that was in the hospital my daughter-in-law works at told her about the soap solution. It honestly works!!! I have cramping in my hips, feet, ankles rib cage, arms and neck... and the pain travels. It seems so silly to keep that bar of soap around me all the time. But it works!!!

Change your soap out every couple of weeks to really see improvement. Now if I could figure out what is causing the cramps my life would be greatly improved!!! Try it. It helps!!!

I tried the soap idea for leg cramps and leg/foot charley horses that I've been having almost nightly. I put two, unwrapped, travel-sized bars of soap (don't know the brand) under the sheet at the level where my knees would lie (one on each side of my body). I did this 5 nights ago and have had 5 cramp-free nights in a row! I can't remember the last time this happened. I really don't feel the thin bars of soap when lying down--it's very comfortable.

If you are having back pain in the upper back area do you place the soap under that area? Wouldn't you feel the "lump" which could cause a pressure-point problem during the night? I'm very interested in how this really works. Or for general body pain do you just place a bar of Ivory soap at the foot of the bed under the sheet? I'm assuming it must create some kind of chemical reaction that absorbs into the sheets and then makes contact with the person's body?

In reference to the bar of soap under the the sheets for leg cramps, can you just smear the dry soap over the bottom sheets, so you don't have to worry about rolling over the hard lump?

Try Tonic Water w/ Quinine (or the diet tonic water w/ Quinine). Use approx. 3 to 4 oz. It will work in minutes.

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