Why Didn't Aretha Franklin Show Up at Whitney Houston's Funeral?

Many of us watched at least part of Whitney Houston's funeral this weekend. I was disappointed that one person was missing from the impressive list of performers who paid tribute to Houston: her godmother, the legendary Aretha Franklin. 69. Franklin said she couldn't make it to the church in Newark, N.J., because she was suffering from leg cramps, which struck her at 4 a.m. the morning of the funeral.

According to reports, she was in fine form a few hours after the funeral at a performance at Radio City Music Hall in New York, just across the Hudson River from the church where the funeral was held.

How could she be too ill to attend and then fine a few hours later? I don't know exactly what was wrong with Aretha Franklin – aside from her brief explanation. But if she did indeed have common night leg cramps, it's not surprising to see her on her feet so quickly.

The cramps are sudden and quite painful involuntary contractions of muscles in your legs, usually your calf but sometimes your feet or thighs. These cramps are more common as you get older.

Most of the time, they're painful but ultimately harmless although they can also be associated with disorders such as peripheral artery disease, hypothyroidism or diabetes. It's not known whether Franklin suffers from any of these; she has been very private about her health although a year ago, she did reveal that she was hospitalized with an undisclosed illness and asked fans to pray for her.

Other disorders that can increase your risk of suffering from these cramps include alcoholism, kidney failure and Parkinson's disease but many times, these cramps have no known cause. There is some evidence that you may be able to prevent them by drinking lots of fluids to avoid dehydration, cutting down on caffeine (which also causes dehydration) and wearing supportive shoes.

If you are awakened by a cramp at night, try stretching and massaging the muscle. Heat can relax the muscle at the start of a cramp but ice may help after the pain starts to go away.

If you suffer from just one cramp and it goes away without any residual pain, you probably don't have to call your doctor. But if the cramps keep coming, are severe, and don't go away with stretching, then you do need medical attention to see if some underlying and undiagnosed condition is causing the cramps.