In the trial, patients with cirrhotic cramps who sipped pickle brine at the onset of a muscle cramp saw a significant decrease in cramp severity relative to peers who sipped tap water when the cramp hit.
“The acid (vinegar) in the brine triggers a nerve reflex to stop the cramp when it hits the throat. This is why only a sip is needed,” lead investigator Elliot Tapper, MD, division of gastroenterology and hepatology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, told this news organization. The study was published online April 13 in American Journal of Gastroenterology.
Common and bothersome
Cramps are common in adults with cirrhosis, irrespective of disease severity. They can sometimes last for hours, and treatment options are limited.
In a prior study, 1 tablespoon of pickle juice rapidly stopped experimentally induced cramps.
“This is something that athletes use, and kidney doctors often recommend to their patients, so it is nothing unique to cirrhosis,” Dr. Tapper said.
The PICCLES trial involved 74 adults (mean age, 56.6 years) with at least 4 muscle cramps in the prior month. In the cohort, 54% were men, and 41% had ascites.
The median cramp frequency was 11-12 per month, with an average cramp severity of more than 4 out of 10 on the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for cramps.
Some patients were receiving medications for their cramps at baseline, such as magnesium, potassium, baclofen, vitamin E, taurine, and gabapentin/pregabalin.
Thirty-eight patients were randomly allocated to sip pickle juice and 36 to sip tap water at the onset of a muscle cramp.
The proportion of cramps treated was similar in the pickle juice and tap water groups (77% and 72%). More patients in the pickle juice group said their cramps were aborted by the intervention (69% vs. 40%).
The primary outcome was the change in cramp severity at 28-days VAS for cramps. Cramps were assessed 10 times over 28 days using interactive text messages.
Pickle juice was associated with a larger average reduction in cramp severity than tap water (–2.25 points vs. –0.36 on the VAS-cramps), a difference that was statistically significant (P = .03).
There were no significant changes in the proportion of days with cramp severity of more than 5 on the VAS, or on sleep quality or health-related quality of life.
Because pickle juice contains sodium, the researchers also assessed weight change as a safety outcome. They found no significant differences in weight change between the two groups overall or in the subset with ascites.
Pickle juice is a “safe option that can stop painful cramps,” Dr. Tapper said in an interview, but was “disheartened” that it did not improve quality of life.
Dr. Tapper encourages patients with cramps to ask their doctor about pickle juice and doctors to ask their patients about muscle cramps.
“Awareness of a patient’s cramps is often lacking. Asking about cramps is not routine but could be the most important advance relating to this study,” he said.
While sips of pickle juice are “unlikely to cause harm,” Dr. Tapper said, he is “a little nervous about advising patients to address their complex needs alone. [Doctors] are there to think through the root causes and help make adjustments that could prevent the cramps in the first place,” he said.