What helps with everyday aches, cramps and dizziness?

Seven small problems with real fixes, and each page carries a line about when the small problem is not the problem. Those lines come first here, because the pages put them first.

When to stop reading and get help. From the leg-cramp page, in the NHS’s wording: calf pain that is not a cramp, one leg that throbs and lasts, a leg that swells, skin around the painful place gone red, blue or darker, or veins that stand out, can be a clot, and that is an urgent GP appointment or 111 in the UK, your doctor the same day or urgent care in the US; with breathlessness or chest pain it is 999 in the UK, 911 in the US, or the emergency room, because a clot can move to the lungs. From the back page, and it is not people’s but named public-health guidance: back pain with numbness or tingling around the genitals or buttocks, trouble controlling bladder or bowels, difficulty passing urine, or weakness in both legs is an emergency tonight, 999 in the UK, 911 in the US. From the headache page, in the NHS’s list: a headache with a seizure, numbness or weakness in the body or face, one that started suddenly and is extremely painful, one following a head injury within the last three months, or one with difficulty speaking, balancing, walking or remembering, drowsiness or confusion, loss of vision, a rash that does not fade under a glass, or a very high temperature with a stiff neck and light hurting the eyes, is 999 or 911 or emergency care. And from the standing page: if you have ever actually fainted from standing up, or it happens often, that is a doctor’s job promptly, because the same feeling can come from low blood pressure, a heart-rhythm problem, a medication, anaemia, pregnancy, dehydration or internal bleeding, and a fall can do more damage than any of them.

Tense your legs before you stand. Tense your legs before you stand says the grey-out is blood pooling in your legs, and many people arrive at the clench, with some refining it toward the legs, which is where the cardiology guidelines on fainting also land, listing leg-tensing and leg-crossing as counter-pressure manoeuvres. Squeeze thighs, buttocks, calves, cross and press the legs, and better still tense as you stand. The correction the page is built around, from the paramedics there and from people who corrected it: straining with your breath held is a different manoeuvre that can slow the heart and drop you faster, and so can coughing, and one person went down anyway and broke their nose. Tense, do not strain, do not cough, keep breathing. If it is not clearing within a breath or two, get low, so that if you do go, you go from a foot off the ground.

Pull your toes toward your shin. Pull your toes toward your shin is for the calf that has turned to stone in the night: straighten the leg and pull the toes toward the shin, or stand with the heel flat, because both stretch the calf while standing on your toes tightens it. Many people pull the toes up, and one person says doing it at the first twinge stops it seizing; many stand on it, and their clarification is that the heel is forced to the floor. The NHS page on leg cramps says both may help. Some people then untuck the sheets, because tucked bedding restricts leg movement and sets cramps off. The page’s smaller cautions: do not stand on a cramp if pain makes you faint or your balance is poor; slamming the foot down or onto a stair edge is how people get hurt, and punching or wrenching the muscle can tear it.

The bed is the wrong place for a bad back. Get up and move; the bed makes it worse is people saying the same thing first: get up and move, gently, because staying active heals a strained back faster than rest and lying still lets the muscles around it waste. Build back in small steps, and if a movement aggravates it, do less of it next time rather than nothing, because one caution there says aggravation is not damage. UK health-service guidance, named on that page because people did not cite it, says the same: keep moving, avoid long rest, see a doctor if it is not improving after a few weeks. The one stop is sharp pain. The page also carries the argument you were raised inside whether to squat down to a load or hinge at the hips with a flat back, and the correction that sits under both camps: the spine does not need to stay vertical, it needs to stay flat and braced.

The knot, and the moving car. Roll the tennis ball against the wall traps a tennis, lacrosse or golf ball between your upper back and the wall, finds the knot and leans in until it lets go; some people do that, some put two balls in a sock and lie on it, and some others say the cheaper fix is a sentence, unclench your jaw, drop your shoulders, stretch now, because some people did not know they were holding anything until they were told. Some say drink water first, and the NHS says the same. Show your eyes the motion explains travel sickness as a mechanism rather than a weakness: your inner ear feels every swerve while your eyes, fixed on a seat-back or a page, report a still room, so show your eyes the motion, face forward, watch the horizon or the road ahead, and do not read. People there recover faster looking out the front windscreen than the side windows, where the world smears past. The stomach levers are humbler and well attested: travelling empty backfires, so something plain beforehand, and ginger is that subject’s favourite remedy. The page carries the reading argument with no winner and one honest note, that susceptibility varies and the compensators may simply have milder wiring.

A desk that leaves your back, neck or shoulders aching. Raise the screen and stand up before you buy a chair says to raise the screen so its top edge is at or just below eye level, put your feet flat on something firm, break up the sitting by standing and moving often, and ask your employer for equipment before you pay for any. Its safety lines come first. If your back pain comes with numbness or loss of feeling around your genitals, anus or buttocks, weakness or numbness in both legs, trouble passing urine or controlling your bowels, or changes in how your genitals feel during sex, that is an emergency: call 999 in the UK, 911 in the US, or go to emergency care now. The UK health service says to call 999 for these signs. It says the same for chest pain, or back pain after a serious accident. It also says to phone 111 for severe back pain that starts suddenly or is getting worse quickly, or if you feel hot, shivery or generally unwell with it (in the US, call your own doctor or urgent care for those), and to see a GP if the pain has not improved after several weeks of home care, stops you doing your daily activities, wakes you at night, or comes with weight loss you cannot explain. In the US, those last signs are a reason to see your own doctor. Stop any exercise or stretch that makes the pain sharper, and if you have a diagnosed spine problem or have had back surgery, check the exercises with a clinician first.

The US workplace-safety agency’s guide to computer workstations says the top of the monitor should sit at or just below eye level, and some people raise a low screen with things they already own, such as a stack of books or reams of printer paper. Some people warn that a laptop needs air along its underside, and that a stack can trap heat or fall. If you have only a laptop, a raised screen puts the keyboard too high for your arms; some people say the fix is a separate keyboard and mouse, and without them the page says to leave the laptop where it is. The same guide says feet flat on the floor, lower back supported, shoulders relaxed, elbows close to the body and supported; if the desk is then too high, some people say to use a footrest rather than raise the chair and leave your feet hanging. Some people say that perfect posture matters less than moving often, and one person says to get up roughly every half hour. People disagree about how much the setup matters for the lower back: one person says fixing chair height and posture is critical, and another says research has found little effect from ergonomic changes on lower back pain. The page asks for the cheap parts of both: set the desk up once, then move. Hanging from a bar draws warnings as well as praise, and the page found no health authority’s guidance on it and gives no how-to; a physiotherapist can say whether it is safe for you.

On who pays, the UK Health and Safety Executive treats the setup as an employer’s duty for people who use a screen daily for an hour or more at a time: it says employers must assess the workstation, reduce the risks, make sure people take breaks from the screen or do something different, and give an eye test on request. In the US, the Job Accommodation Network says that when a disability is not obvious, an employer can ask for limited medical documentation to support an accommodation request. People disagree about whose job it is to pay, and what you can get depends on your employer’s policy and on the law where you work. The page is not for someone who is self-employed and cannot ask an employer, for the employer part, and it does not give an exercise routine, name a chair, or say what to do when a desk will not go low enough. After a few weeks of moving more and a screen at the right height, pain that has not budged is a body question, not a furniture question, and a physiotherapist or doctor is the next door.

A rice sock for a cheap heat pack: cotton, dry rice, short bursts, and never in the bed. Heat the rice sock in short bursts says a rice sock comes with no label telling you how long to heat it, and it can burn you or start a fire. Its safety lines come first. If you cannot feel heat properly, for example because of nerve damage from diabetes, or if you cannot move it off your body yourself, ask a doctor or nurse before using one: a medical paper on burns from heated grain bags found that people with reduced feeling were at particular risk. Do not put it under blankets, do not use it as a bed warmer, do not fall asleep with it, and do not leave the microwave while it heats. Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, a UK fire service, says a hot bag kept under blankets or in warm places can catch fire, that you should heat it only for the time on the label and never for more than 3 minutes, and that you should let it cool completely, about 2 hours, before heating it again. If it smells burnt, let it cool in the kitchen sink and throw it away. If there is a fire in the microwave, keep the door closed and switch the microwave off; if the fire does not go out at once, leave, close the door behind you and call 911 in the US or 999 in the UK, or your local emergency number elsewhere. If it burns you, hold the burn under cool running water, not ice: the NHS says for 20 minutes, and the US National Library of Medicine says 5 to 30 minutes. In the UK, call 999 or go to A&E for a burn that is very large or deep or on the face, genitals or bottom, and call NHS 111 if you are unsure what to do or the person burned is under 5. In the US, call 911 for a burn the size of your palm or larger, a deep burn, or a burn on the face, hands, feet or joints.

The sock matters. Some people say it should be a natural fibre such as cotton, because nylon, polyester and plastic elastic can melt in the microwave, and some warn that metal thread is a fire risk; a sock with no elastic, or a small cloth bag you sew yourself, settles the question at no cost. Many people say the rice must be uncooked and dry, and one person warns that instant rice may start a fire. With no label to follow, start at 30 seconds and add short bursts rather than guessing a long one. The figures people give are small: one person says 30 to 40 seconds for a cup of rice, and another about 45 seconds for an ankle sock. Stay by the microwave, and stop it at once if it sparks, crackles or smokes. When it comes out, leave it a minute, because the steam inside is very hot, then feel it with your hand, and put a layer of clothing or a towel between the sock and your skin. Then let it cool completely on a non-combustible surface such as the kitchen sink before you reheat it.

What it is good for is a short spell of warmth for a sore spot or cold hands and feet; a rubber hot water bottle suits a long night, and the fire service advice is that the grain pack is not for the night. The page is not for you as written if you have lost feeling in your skin, as can happen with nerve damage from diabetes, spinal injury or spina bifida, if you cannot move it off your body yourself, or if you want it to warm a bed. It does not cover heating one in an oven or on a stove, electric blankets, or using one for a baby or small child.

Who this is not for. The headache page carries an NHS line people did not have: painkillers taken too often or for too long can themselves cause headaches, which it calls overuse or rebound headaches, and you should see a GP if you get headaches several times a week, if they are severe, if they are not getting better or are getting worse, or if painkillers and relaxing do not help. The back page names cautions from the people behind it, including a diagnosed spinal condition or surgery pending, a herniated or bulging disc, and heavy lifting without instruction. The cramp page says pregnancy, usually later on, and some medicines including statins and diuretics are among the NHS’s listed causes, and if either is you, the cramp is a thing to mention to whoever prescribes for you. And the standing page says anyone with high blood pressure, a heart condition or a hernia should ask a doctor before making a straining habit of any of it.