Today's true sports drinks are still the classic Gatorade -- packed with the electrolytes potassium, magnesium, calcium, and sodium to provide energy during intense workouts -- as well as competitors such as Cytomax, Allsport, and Accelerade.
Certain medications can also cause Charley horse as a result of their side effects. Drugs such as statins or medicines prescribed for lowering cholesterol, blood pressure, diuretics, asthma medicines like terbutaline and salbutamol, morphine and lithium can trigger muscle spasms.
Nighttime charley horses could also stem from peripheral artery disease, which causes the narrowing and hardening of arteries that supply blood to the legs and feet. But, as Kirschner points out, that condition should also produce cramps while walking.