Originally Posted by
bruce19
When I saw that your anecdotal experience was different than my anecdotal experience, I wondered what the medical/scientific opinion was. So, I did a search. The article I posted was one of many that concluded that there is a connection with alcohol consumption and leg cramps. If you do a search I'm sure you can find them and perhaps answer some of your questions. I am not invested in either outcome. However, the research does mirror my experience. My issue was not so much the amount of alcohol consumed in any one particular day but the consistency of drinking every day and the accumulation of alcohol in the body over time. FWIW, I also had a skin issue that dermatology could not resolve and the elimination of alcohol fixed that. Which, according to another search, is also supported by medical science.
It's certainly inconsistent. The group I've been riding with are drinkers with a riding problem (our in-joke). No cramps except from overdoing it. That one study, as I tried to point out, doesn't hold up to even casual inspection. AFAIK there is only that one study and zillion references to it, as is common with that sort of thing. People seize onto any explanation for idiopathic events. Yes, we did try Ivory soap between the sheets.
Whatever works is good, but there don't seem to be any cramp cure-alls other than training and quinine. Quinine is no longer recommended because of side effects, so that leaves training. I leave out hydration and electrolytes because studies have shown that cramping is independent of both of these, both idiopathic cramping and athletic cramping. Remember that Lance once lost 7 kg.. during a long hot TT and didn't cramp. Almost lost the GC, though.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445088/
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/38/4/488