Thinking Nutrition

Pickle juice for muscle cramps: effective remedy or sports myth?

• Dr Tim Crowe • Episode 138

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If you’ve ever been stopped dead in your tracks during exercise by a muscle cramp, you know you’ll try almost anything to make it stop. There have been countless theories and remedies put forward to explain and treat a dreaded muscle cramp, but science still has a bit of catching up to do. But there is one particular treatment that has been gaining traction by athletes as a secret weapon to treat cramps. And it is one that sounds more like a pregnancy craving than a sports supplement: it is pickle juice. Is this just another passing fad, or is there actual science behind downing a shot of pickle brine to uncramp a muscle? In this podcast episode, I’ll cut through the noise to look at the evidence and the surprising mechanism of how it may work and spoiler alert: it has nothing to do with electrolytes.

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If you’ve ever been stopped dead in your tracks during exercise by a muscle cramp, you know you’ll try almost anything to make it stop. There have been countless theories and remedies put forward to explain and treat a dreaded muscle cramp, but science still has a bit of catching up to do. But there is one particular treatment that has been gaining traction by athletes as a secret weapon to treat cramps. And it is one that sounds more like a pregnancy craving than a sports supplement: it is pickle juice. Is this just another passing fad, or is there actual science behind downing a shot of pickle brine to uncramp a muscle? In today’s podcast episode, I’ll cut through the noise to look at the evidence and the surprising mechanism of how it may work and spoiler alert: it has nothing to do with electrolytes.

Muscle cramps are sudden, involuntary, and painful muscle contractions and occur mostly in leg muscles, most often in the calf. The cramps are painful and debilitating and can last for seconds to minutes. After the cramp eases though, the area might be sore for hours or days.

Now there can be medical reasons to explain muscle cramps such as atherosclerosis or nerve compression, but for this podcast I want to focus more on muscle cramps as they happen during exercise in athletes and how they can affect their training and competition.

Considering how common they are, you would think that the cause of them are well known. And for some time, the prevailing theory was simple: cramps are caused by fatigue, dehydration and electrolyte loss, specifically sodium. Stay hydrated and consume plenty of electrolytes and you’ll be fine right? But they still happen and more so in athletes with good hydration levels and healthy levels of blood electrolytes.

Enter a growing popular remedy to treat muscle cramps: pickle juice. Now you are probabl thinking that because pickle juice is salty, it replaces the salt you sweated out, and the cramp goes away. Sounds pretty logical, right?

But here’s where the physiology doesn't quite add up. When researchers actually looked at this, they found that pickle juice relieves cramps incredibly fast, often within a minute of drinking it. Now if you were paying attention during your biology class when the topic of digestion was covered, you’ll know that 1 minute is just way too quick for something to leave your stomach, be absorbed by your small intestine, enter your bloodstream, and travel to your cramping calf muscle to restore electrolyte balance.

​In fact, when researchers look at blood electrolyte levels after drinking a small volume of pickle juice, they don’t see any significant changes within the few minutes when the magic of muscle cramp relief is happening. It takes around 30 minutes or more for fluids and electrolytes to be absorbed and make a meaningful difference in your blood. So, if the salt isn't getting to the muscle in time, what on earth is going on?

This is where the real magic comes in. The secret action of pickle juice is thought to be from a neural reflex effect. And this theory has been championed by one of the leading researchers and his team Dr Kevin Miller and I’ll link in the show notes to one of the landmark studies in this area where they electrically induced muscle foot cramps in hypohydrated men were induced and they found that in those who drank pickle juice, they relieved cramps in about 1.5 minutes, which was 45 percent faster than when only water was taken in. Because the relief was so rapid, they proposed that the mechanism is neurological, not metabolic. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19997012

But I should add that there hasn’t been an avalanche of follow-up research to support this initial study with studies being very small and not always giving a clear result. But considering we are talking about something as simple and harmless as pickle juice, then you can see why athletes consider it worth trying.

So, back to how it could be working by a neurologic effect. The sharp, acidic taste of the vinegar in the pickle juice triggers specific receptors in your mouth and throat called transient receptor potential or TRP channels. These TRP receptors send a lightning-fast signal to your brainstem, which then sends a signal down your spinal cord to inhibit the alpha motor neurons which are the nerves that are firing uncontrollably to cause the cramp.

Think of it like the shock of the sour taste gives a reset to your nervous system, telling the muscle to relax. It’s like a neurological circuit breaker. This explains why you only need a small amount, about 30 to 60 mL, to get the effect. You’re treating the nervous system, not the muscle directly.

But so far most of the research has been in lab situations. Does the science hold up in the real world of sports competition because volunteers who agree to have electrically induced muscle cramps are just a bit different to a spontaneous cramp you get at the 30-kilometre mark of a marathon or during the third set of an epic tennis match in hot and humid weather. However, the mechanism of pickle juice does make physiological sense for fatigue-related cramping, which is often neuromuscular in origin rather than just dehydration.

Interestingly, because the mechanism of pickle juice relies on triggering receptors in the mouth, some research has even looked at whether just rinsing your mouth with pickle juice and spitting it out works. The results here are a bit mixed with some studies suggesting ingestion is better to fully trigger the reflex, while others suggest the mouth rinse might be enough. But generally, swallowing a small shot is the accepted protocol if you have the stomach for it.

So, what does this mean for you? If you are a serial cramper, pickle juice is a low-risk, low-cost option to try. You don’t need to buy expensive "sports shot" versions unless you want the convenience - the brine from a jar of commercial or homemade pickles works just fine. And guidance for dosage is to aim for about 1 mL per kilogram of body weight.

As for when to take it, if the training or competition logistics permits, as soon as you get the cramp then reach for the pickle juice. Some athletes take it prophylactically before exercise, but given the neural mechanism is about stopping an active misfiring nerve, it’s arguably most effective as a reactive rather than a proactive treatment.

Are there any risks? No, where talking about pickle juice here people. And sure, it may be high in salt, but pickle juice isn’t really an ‘everyday food’ – it’s something you use to help treat a cramp and if you’re getting them every day, then there is a bit more going on that you should be getting investigated for by your doctor.

If you do suffer from reflux or have a sensitive stomach, tossing back a shot of acid mid-run might cause some GI distress, but if it helps relieve a muscle cramp faster then that’s a small price to pay.

And following on from the idea that it is more acetic acid vinegar brine that is the secret sauce in relieving cramps, then potentially liquid from foods like sauerkraut, apple cider vinegar, or even kombucha could also work. They just haven’t been studied or tested like pickle juice has.

Fun fact: commercial pickle juice drinks which are marketed to athletes for cramping have usually never been in contact with a pickle. Instead, it is a replica of the pickling brine that is used, including flavouring with dill to give it a pickled cucumber taste.

Adding to the growing support for pickle juice as a cramp treatment, the Australian Institute of Sport nutrition team have prepared a really helpful fact sheet on the supplement which I’ll link to in the show notes so is a great resource to go over if you are considering trialling pickle juice. Under the AIS sports supplement evaluation framework, pickle juice is ranked as a Group B supplement. For context, Group A supplements have the highest level of evidence of a benefit and include things like creatine, caffeine, sports drinks and whey protein. While Group B supplements have emerging or mixed scientific support, deserving of consideration in specific populations or situations. Group C supplements do not have scientific evidence to support a benefit or lack evidence all together. So, a Group B rating for pickle juice shows that the smart sports nutrition brains at the AIS think it is worth considering. https://www.ausport.gov.au/ais/nutrition/supplements/group_b/tastants/transient-receptor-potential-channel-agonists

So, let's wrap all this up. The idea that pickle juice cures cramps by replenishing electrolytes is a myth—it works too fast for that. Instead, it’s a fascinating example of "neuro-nutrition," where the acid taste of the vinegar triggers a reflex that tells your nervous system to chill out and release the cramp. It’s one of the few home remedies that has actually stood up to some reasonable scientific scrutiny. 

As always, nutrition is individual so what works for one person might not work for another. But in the case of pickle juice, it might just be worth the sour face to get rid of the pain. So, if you’re prone to cramping, maybe save that jar of brine next time you finish the pickles.

So that’s it for today’s show. You can find the show notes either in the app you’re listening to this podcast on, or else head over to my webpage at www.thinkingnutrition.com.au and click on the podcast section to find this episode to read the show notes.

If you find this podcast of value, then please consider sharing it with your friends and colleagues. This all helps to increase the reach of the podcast, which means a big win for credible evidence-based nutrition messages and making the world a slightly less confusing place.

I’m Tim Crowe and you’ve been listening to Thinking Nutrition 

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