restless legs and your brain

[bajo]

HI, EVERYONE, I AM NEW TO THIS SITE AND LIKE THE REST OF YOU SUFFER FROM RLS AND WOULD JUST LIKE TO SAY THAT I APPRECIATE THE EFFORT AND INVOLVEMENT OF ALL OF YOU. YOU ARE THE EXPERTS, NO ONE ELSE.

JUST ONE QUESTION, WHY DOES YOUR BRAIN TELL YOUR LEGS TO `MOVE`. IS IT

BECAUSE THERE IS A SHORTAGE OF DOPAMINE AND EXERCISE HELPS TO IMPROVE THIS LEVEL?. IS YOUR BRAIN SAYING, `HEY` I NEED SOME MORE DOPAMINE, START MOVING!

ALSO IF THERE IS LIGHT FOR US ALL IT HAS TO BE IN GENE THERAPY DOESNT IT?

HOPE IT`S NOT TOO LONG NOW.

REGARDS BAJO

[Joolsg]

Yep, definitely gene therapy or stem cell therapy but, as there are so many of us with RLS, the time & cost involved with those means it'll be a long time before we can access them. So.. for now, drugs, supplements, diet etc will have to do.

[involuntarydancer]

Agreed; the gene therapy is surely the one to provide answers. For me, the new search for a dopamine agonist that does not cause augmentation is also a ray of hope though I know that not everyone gets on with the d/as even apart from augmentation. Failing scientific avenues, I have found that piecing together information from such as this forum has helped hugely in getting to grips with my rls.

[yohlense]

I've been informed by medical doctors that RLS begins in the same area of ganglia in the brain as Parkinson's Disease, but you won't get Parkinson's from it. I asked since they had had some success in treating Parkinson's why can't they just move over and "snip" the one causing the RLS (sorry, I'm sure my comment about snipping is a bit drastic, but when you are in the throes of a flare up, you get desperate). Their reply, this isn't as debilitating as Parkinson's so doesn't warrant the same priority, very low on the list so to speak.

[bajo in reply to yohlense]

I wouldn`t wish RLS on anyone but if an expert had a` session` I feel that the efforts to find an answer could suddenly get more urgent.

[Joolsg in reply to yohlense]

I disagree with the so called experts. I have MS and RLS & the RLS is far more debilitating and horrendous than MS. I tell that to my GP & MS neurologist as well.