How to Get Rid of a Charlie Horse

Have you ever been awakened at 2 AM by an excruciating pain in the back of your lower thigh? Well you wouldn't have been the only one to feel the burn of the Charlie horse. Friends of mine have recently been talking about how they get Charlie horses late at night. So I ask them how they get rid of them. Their answer is usually something along the lines of getting up and walking around and/or stretching. My wife would bring her knee into her chest area and try and massage it out.

I pointed out that all of those are quite bad solutions to the Charlie horse, if it did solve the problem that is. So I tell them what I do to knock them out in no time. All you need to do is roll onto your back, straighten your legs out, and point the tips of your toes to your head, as much as you can, while keeping your legs straight. This just stretches your hamstring out, relieving the Charlie horse. And just lay on your back for another few minutes, while stretching, in case it decides to come back.

That’s what you can do during the middle of the night to get rid of them. After doing some stretches during the day, you will be able to eliminate them all together. Just perform the same stretch, only not in bed. I like to get on the first step of a stair case, or a curb maybe, to do some really good stretching. Just put the front half of your foot on the curb or step or whatever you are using, and drop your heel down as far as you can go. If you constantly get Charlie horses, you will feel the best stretch in a long time when you do this.

And that’s my health break. Now for a chain mail that I received from my myspace account that struck me as funny, then painfully sad:

A man walks into a drug store with his 8-year old son. They happen to walk by the condom display, and the boy asks,”What are these, Dad? To which the man matter-of-factly replies, "Those are called condoms, son."

Men use them to have safe sex. "Oh I see," replied the boy pensively. "Yes, I've heard of that in health class at school."

He looks over the display and picks up a package of 3 and asks, "Why are there 3 in this package? " The dad replies, "Those are for high school boys, ONE for Friday, ONE for Saturday, and ONE for Sunday." "Cool" says the boy.

He notices a 6 pack and asks, "Then who are these for?" "Those are for college men," the dad answers, TWO for Friday, TWO for Saturday, and TWO for Sunday."

"WOW!" exclaimed the boy, "then who uses THESE?" he asks, picking up a 12 pack!

With a sigh and a tear in his eye, the dad replied, "Those are for the married men. ONE for January, ONE for February, ONE for March....etc."

That should make your day! If your not married that is. :(