Magnesium for skeletal muscle cramps.

What It Covers

This meta-analysis looks at Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

To assess the effects of magnesium supplementation compared to no treatment, placebo control or other cramp therapies in people with skeletal muscle cramps.

SEARCH METHODS: On 9 September 2019, the researchers searched the Cochrane Neuromuscular Specialised Register, CENTRAL, MEDLINE, Embase, LILACS, CINAHL Plus, AMED, and SPORTDiscus.

The researchers also searched WHO-ICTRP and ClinicalTrials.gov for registered trials that might be ongoing or unpublished, and ISI Web of Science for studies citing the studies included in this review.

Why It Was Studied

Skeletal muscle cramps are common and often occur in association with pregnancy, advanced age, exercise or motor neuron disorders (such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis).

Typically, such cramps have no obvious underlying pathology, and so are termed idiopathic.

Who the Included Studies Covered

PubMed indexes the participants as adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

What Was Measured

Two review authors assessed risk of bias.

The researchers attempted to contact all study authors when questions arose and obtained participant-level data for four of the included trials, one of which was unpublished.

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Age Factors, Magnesium, Muscle Cramp, Muscle, Skeletal, Pregnancy Complications and Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic.

What This Means in Plain Language

This is a meta-analysis of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

Its findings take up roughly 23 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2020 (The Cochrane database of systematic reviews), a journal based in England.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.