Hey guys I'm Dr. Jason Barker with the Natural Athlete's Clinic and have you
ever had one of those super annoying little eye twitches? Or maybe a twitch in
your arm or your leg or someplace? Well these are called fasciculations and I'm
happy to tell you that most of the time, these are very harmless.
However they are super annoying of course. So I get a lot of people coming
in the clinic and super freaked out about these. And I'm gonna tell you today a lot
of the causes and of course how you can take care of them naturally. So the first
big reason that you're getting these twitches is too much caffeine. Caffeine
is of course a nervous system stimulant. It's just going to make your nerves go a
little bit berserk-oh. So if you're drinking tons of caffeine or maybe a
sports drink or an energy drink or something like that with caffeine,
this may be why you're getting those fasciculations. So cut that down of
course. Second big cause is alcohol. So alcohol is a CNS or a central nervous
system depressant. So if you've ever gone out on a bender on a Friday or Saturday
night and you wake up the next day and you've got these twitches in your body,
that's because the alcohol is still negatively affecting your nervous system
creating these nerve twitches. So which leads me into the end of course, if
you're drinking too much then cut back on that and the twitches will go away. So
this leads into the third major cause which is dehydration. So of course
alcohol is going to dehydrate you and of course there's a lot of other ways to
get dehydrated too. So if you don't drink but you're still getting a lot of muscle
twitches, you need to really check your hydration levels. And we recommend people
do about half their body weight in ounces per day - that's kind of a general
recommendation to make sure that you're well enough hydrated. So check that out.
Fourth big cause is lack of sleep or fatigue. So we know that when you're not
sleeping of course, that's not good for your nervous system either. That'll set
you up for these twitches. And of course if you have eye strain on top of being
tired - most of us are looking at computers all day - our eyes get tired.
That can really set you up for the twitches up in your eyeballs and which
are especially annoying so think about getting some better sleep. We've got a
lot of other videos and some blogs on how to get your sleep improved naturally
as well. And then the fifth cause is stress. So if
you don't have any of these other things going on and you're super stressed out
or you've gotten to a stressful period in your life and you're starting to
twitch like this, it's because of the stress. So all you need to do is press
that no stress button and it'll all go away right?! Easier said than done!
But seriously that's a big reason for getting these muscle twitches is
being stressed out. So there's a couple of medications too that you need to be
aware of. And the first group are the corticosteroids. These are things like
Prednisone that you take if you have like a really bad joint pain or maybe
you're trying to get rid of our bronchitis. Ideally you're on these
medications for a very short amount of time. But if you're on them and all of a
sudden you get the muscle twitches, well you can blame it on the Prednisone or
the Corticosteroids you're taking. And then the other big class or oral
Estrogens. So these are for postmenopausal women who are trying to
balance out their hormones. The oral estrogen can set you up for muscle
twitches. We see more of that and ladies who are taking these medications. So it's
not necessarily the topical estrogen, but it's more when it's taken by mouth - so
think about that. Now that nutrient deficiencies - there's four main nutrient
deficiencies that will set you up for muscle twitches and then this is how you
can also get rid of them too. So the first nutrient is vitamin D. As you know,
we need vitamin D in our bodies for a number of different things and also
has an important effect on your muscle function. So vitamin D deficiency -
you're going to have sore muscles and you're going to have more of these muscle
twitches. So as you know you need the sun shining on your skin to make enough
vitamin D. Most of us don't have that luxury because we're inside or we don't
live in the tropics. So take a vitamin D pill. I like to have people take about
5,000 units a day. Make sure your blood level is about around 50. Get your blood
level checked before you start supplementing with any vitamin D. Okay
second big nutrient is calcium. So I don't talk about calcium deficiency a
lot because Americans tend to eat so much calcium in the various dairy
products that we consume. However if you don't eat dairy, you can still get a lot
of calcium in your diet through leafy greens, cold water fish, nuts and seeds and
things like that. So if you're dairy-free, you need to make sure that you're
getting enough of those foods in there. And of course if you're drinking
alternative milks like almond milk and coconut milk or soy milk, things like
that - most of these are fortified with calcium these days. But still check out
how much calcium you're taking. We like women to take about a thousand
milligrams a day for their bone health. And of course if you do not do
weight-bearing sports and I'm talking to you cyclists, you need to take some
calcium as well. And of course that vitamin D helps pull that calcium into
your body and will also help get rid of those muscle twitches. Last two nutrients
are vitamin B6 and B12 of course. These B-vitamins have more of an effect
on your nervous system. When you're deficient in these, you can develop
something called neuropathy - which is like pins and needles feeling, muscle
pain and of course those twitches. You don't have to have all those going on to
be deficient, but if you're getting the twitches, you need to look at your B
vitamin levels. And so we like everybody to take a b-complex vitamin just because
it's good for so many different things. Like helps your adrenal glands, help
support neurotransmitter function, good for stress and of course will get rid of
the muscle twitches. So think about taking like the B6 complex. We really
love that one - it's got more B6 in it than the others. That's why it's called
B6 complex. Think about taking B complex and see if that will get rid of
the muscle twitches as well. Okay so I've gone over all the causes and the ways
you can take care of these muscle twitches. If you enjoyed the video, please
give me a like. And of course please share this video with your friends who
are complaining of the muscle twitches and of course subscribe to our channel.
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