Does anyone else have trouble with Restless Leg Syndrome?
Monday, March 16th, 2009 at
2:35 pm
whodathunkit asked:
I am going crazy with RLS. I feel like it is starting to affect me during the day also. I feel like I need to keep moving my legs even when I am sitting and watching tv. I see treatments being advertised on tv, but do they work? Does anyone have any advice?
I am going crazy with RLS. I feel like it is starting to affect me during the day also. I feel like I need to keep moving my legs even when I am sitting and watching tv. I see treatments being advertised on tv, but do they work? Does anyone have any advice?
Tagged with: Legs • Restless Leg Syndrome • Rls
Filed under: Restless Leg Syndrome
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I have it. According to statistics, about 10% of the population has it. Most of those people have it very mildly, but some of us, like you and me, have it frequently. I have it all day, all night.
Do the medications work? Yes…and no. Or, it depends. It depends on you and the meds – none of us respond the same. Most of us get relief, but a small number of us do not. Some of us have to take multiple medications. I’ve tried over 15 meds in order to find the right combo for me. It was very difficult at the time….but it was worth it. To me. May not be to you. For some people it’s easy….for some it’s not.
1. Get heavily RLS educated. Visit RLS.org. Visit wemove.org. Read. Visit the forum at RLS.org. Find the Mayo Clinic’s algorithm for treating RLS. Buy, at minimum, CLinical Management of RLS, by Hening, Buchfurer and Lee. Consider buying one of the other two books about RLS – the one by Yoakum or the one by Buchfurer, Hening and Kushida.
2. Follow a protocol to cut out all the things that can worsen RLS: alcohol, cigarettes, certain OTC drugs, certain script drugs, etc.
3. Have a doctor check your ferritin level and your hemoglobin level. If ferritin is below 50, immediately start taking iron supplements per the instructions in the book listed above. If anemic, also take iron.
4. Exercise regularly, but mildly/moderately. Heavy exercise can worsen RLS. No exercise can worsen RLS.
5. After doing all of that, assess how the RLS is. If it’s still interfering with your life, find a doctor and review your options. Don’t pick ANY doctor. Make sure that he or she knows about RLS (more than seeing those commercials). Make sure he or she is willing to use different types of medication based on what you respond to, including opioids (they are last resort, but they often work very well). Make sure he or she has a plan; if, for example, the drug they try first doesn’t work, what are they planning on doing next?
6. If you and the doctor decide to try the medications you see on TV (most docs start with those if it’s daily RLS), please know that there is a potential for them eventually making the RLS worse (it’s called augmentation – the first book explains it and what to do about it). That’s not a big problem for most people. The problem is that you have to know to look for it and to have a doctor who knows what to do in that case and a lot of docs do not. That’s why I said it depends. A doctor who doesn’t fully understand about what these medications can do may end up causing you more problems than you even thought you’d have.
One last thought: if you decide to take medication, my guess is that you’ll never stop it. Once you taste the freedom from RLS, you’ll never want to have it again. If a drug stops working, you’ll want a new drug instead. If one isn’t working well, you’ll want to try two. Or whatever. My point is just that treating it can become its own compulsion.
There is a home remedy that alot of my patients tell me works but sounds odd. Put a bar of soap underneath the sheet at the bottom of the bed where the legs lay. Something in the soap is supposed to calm the legs. My patients swear by it. Walmart also sells a pill called “restless legs”, it is supposed to be good also. Goodluck.