Dr Mosley UK on Sleep

[2everett]

Hi

Dr Mosley briefly mentioned RLS in an article in the Daily Mail on sleep issues. He said RLS can generally be caused by anemia or kidney problems. Some people still have RLS without these issues. (From memory).

Don’t have article.

Hope that helps.

[Joolsg]

Yes anaemia & kidney problems both cause RLS.

Once you sort out the anaemia ( by iron supplement or infusion) the RLS disappears. My friend had kidney failure and bad RLS. She was lucky that her husband was a match & he donated a kidney to her. Her RLS disappeared.

Sadly, most visitors to this site have primary RLS that cannot be controlled without heavy meds.

[Graham3196]

Is it strange that the medical experts are prescribing drugs for the brain and nervous system? Perhaps the logic is that we can't fix the problem so we treat the symptoms? I wish someone with the capability would collect statistics on how many people are diagnosed with RLS and of them how many can't live a normal life. The people having a hard time and writing to this forum might be a very small minority of RLS patients. Big Pharma might be doing a good job

Unfortunately that doesn't help our forum contributors but it would be interesting to know if most people with RLS are leading normal happy lives.

Graham

[Hidden in reply to Graham3196]

I suspect, Graham, that it really depends on how serious your symptoms are and what else is going on. For me - On a scale of 1 to 10 (ten being the worst) I have about a level 5 or 6 RLS scale. It is secondary to my RA, Sjogrens, Fibro, etc.. I take Lunesta, Calcium, Magnesium and Zinc, Tryptophan and Melatonin to sleep. I also use a Lobelia tincture to spray on my legs on bad nights. To answer your question, yes, I live a more-or-less normal life and am very happy. Things can be bad if I go too many nights without sleep, but eventually sheer exhaustion will take me down - ha ha. Best of luck getting it under control

[2everett]

Hope this doesn’t cause offence but it seems to me at times that if you suggest a less medical approach on thus forum it quickly disappears down the chatter and is drowned out by the medical approach. I’d hate to think that there are people on here who could benefit from a few tweaks of diet and a few supplements but mainly read about the ‘heavy drug’ approach and could end up with other problems. It is because of this I rarely post any more. I really feel for the people on here who are clearly suffering but for a lot of other people there is a another way to try before going down the medical route. (There , I’ve said what I’ve been thinking for ages - I’m sure I’ll be put in my place and disappear down the thread)

[Graham3196]

I have had great success with diet as a treatment of the symptoms. I keep mentioning it to make sure any new comers know about the possibility. I find that many people here are interested in any suggestion that might help them.

Unfortunately diet doesn't seem to help everyone and so many are pushed into trying the drugs with mixed results. Dont forget that some people take the drugs for 20 years with no problems and get a good nights sleep.

In your case what diet have you been trying? What supplements have you been trying? Do you still have any part of the problem?

I have found relief by following a FODMAP exclusion diet with a few extra exclusions.

Initially I just excluded gluten and this showed a welcome improvement. Then I added the low FODMAP rules and excluded lactose and caffiene, Gaining a bit of health back with each change

Cheers

Graham

[2everett]

Hi

I eat very little meat - and a lot of spicy lentil/vegetable/pulses stews. I batch cook then add fresh veg on use. If I fancy a dessert, I bake frozen fruit with cinnamon and whole cloves and add flax and chia seeds for crumble. I make homemade biscuits from oats and mashed banana. I add peanut butter, flax seeds chopped dates etc. I avoid sugar and high GI carbs. Alcohol affects my sleep as well. I take iron tablets around 3 times per week (at night), B12 in spray form and magnesium spray. I have found walking around 4 miles several times per week helpful.

Before this I used to punch my legs every day and would have no sleep for 3 consecutive nights.

I still have problems getting to sleep but a lot less thrashing around.

Hope this helps someone.

[involuntarydancer]

That’s very interesting because Raffs has been having great success with a vegan diet and it sounds like yours is not dissimilar. It doesn’t sound like you have a lot of dairy in there. What do you eat for breakfast?

When you say you still have trouble getting to sleep is that because of restless legs (urge to move and creepy crawly sensations) or just insomnia?

I would say that most people on here are keen to hear of any success story - whether dietary or pharmaceutical. The difficulty with diet is there is little consensus about what really works with some diets working reasonably well for some and not at all for others. Often there are maybe only one or two adherents. With the drugs on the other hand there are large scale studies and lots of information.

And again there is a cohort who lacks the necessary discipline to adhere to a strict diet and sadly I could probably run for leadership of that band. I have in the past managed to last on a no sugar or refined carbohydrates for about six months. There was some improvement in symptoms but nothing overwhelming. There was a lot of fish and some meat in that diet however. I do wonder if there is something in a more plant based diet that is helpful to rls.

[2everett in reply to involuntarydancer]

I forgot about breakfast, I usually have a good quality wholemeal toast with organic peanut butter or organic porridge made with water and a splash of organic cold milk added at the end. I might add some stewed fruit to that and some flax seeds. I make enough for two days.

[2everett]

Hi

Thanks for message. I am not a saint, I crave sugar like most people but I try and eat substitutes like high cocoa organic chocolate and drink organic cocoa GandB. I use blueberries in my baked fruit desserts. They seem add sweetness to any other added fruit. I add a dollop of sheeps yoghurt. It’s like fresh cream. Good for the gut and contains B12 and Vitamin D(at least that’s what it says on the container) I’ve also changed to sea salt as it contains more minerals than table salt. I was watching a cookery programme and it showed a pink salt from France which contains lots of minerals. I haven’t seen that in a supermarket as yet. I also use a mostly organic body cream which contains Dead Sea minerals.

Perhaps it’s a combination of these things that is helping. I haven’t punched my legs in ages and can watch TV without contorting my body all evening. I think it’s more like insomnia now with a bit of RLS.

[2everett]

Hi involuntary dancer.

I forgot I open my bedroom window all day. I figured it might help with oxygenating my blood.

About a year ago Dr Mosley UK also recommended having good gut health to help RLS suffers. He said lentils and bananas feed good gut bacteria so I started eating more of these.

[involuntarydancer]

Thank you for all that information. I will allow it to settle on my mind and in the meantime make some lentil stews (I looked at some of your previous posts and saw your recipe). By coincidence, I do have the pink salt. I’m not sure whether it genuinely tastes better, let alone whether it has any health benefit, but I really like it. Maybe it’s just the pretty colour - I am that shallow!