Rls and veganism

[Lulin]

Hi anyone on here vegan with rls. If so do you think there is a link with diet?

[Hidden]

There is a HUGE link between diet and RLS. I went vegan and found a definite improvement.

[mrpenguin]

It's not really a Vegan diet that would have huge health improving qualities because what is a Vegan Diet? Veganism is a lifestyle choice where you don't consume any animal products so you can be eating as much if not more junk food quite easily and be equally as unhealthy as any meat eater.

A whole food plant based diet on the other hand is where the health gains are made..

[jane221288]

Yes definitely little sugar and sodium

[Joolsg]

I found switching to veganism ( healthy - lots of fresh organic vegetables) has helped my RLS- but I have raised my serum ferritin from 140 to 205 at the same time. I’m not sure if it’s the omission of animal products or the raising of ferritin that has caused the improvement.

I should test it by eating animal products again for a month but I’m actually happy that I’ve switched- I started for health reasons but I don’t think I can go back to eating them now.

But, it won’t work for everyone- it’s clear that what helps one person with RLS may not work for another.

[rls_optimist in reply to Joolsg]

Hi, Jools, I forget - how did you elevate your ferritin level? Was it iron infusion(s) or oral iron? And if oral, what type was it? Was it ferrous bisglyconate? How much, how often, and what time of day? Thanks!

[Joolsg in reply to rls_optimist]

Hi there,

I raised serum ferritin by taking a 25mg ferrous bisglycinate pill (Gentle Iron from Holland & barrett here in the UK) and putting on a 45mg iron patch from PatchMD every OTHER night just before bed.

PatchMD are in the USA but post quickly & cheaply to Europe & always have good price reductions/offers.

[LotteM in reply to Joolsg]

Thanks joolsg, for writing this down again. I have just been advocating this approach to someone else (upbeat56) with low ferritin (45). And following it myself.

[Graham3196]

I thought veganism was the philosophy of not exploiting any other animal species. So eggs are out, milk is out, meat of course is out. I don't know if insects are included as animals. There is a looming problem as someone was recently claiming that trees have empathy for other trees. I think you have to draw a line somewhere. If we ignore plants then we will probably be able to make protein that is (almost ) as good as real meat. Last I heard it made quite a good replacement for hamburger meat.

Can you take it to a third level and argue that killing insects to grow plants is exploitative??

I just try not to think about it and stick to my FODMAP diet that gives me 95% protection against RLS.

The answer to the original question is that for many people RLS is highly influenced by what you eat. One of the best ways to determine which foods cause the RLS is to follow a methodical approach and apply the FODMAP diet routine until you have a list of all the foods you are able to eat. Then you just eat only these and (if you are lucky) you don't have any more symptoms of RLS.

Of course you don't have any choice but if you did then it would be much better to find that your symptoms disappeared when you raised your ferritin to 300 and you could eat anything. If that happens to me I will probably enjoy dreaming of food!!!

Cheers

Graham

[Svengolly]

Yes ! ... Me too .. great for everything but .. Iron !

Meat iron is easily absorbed .. veggie iron not .

Have you had your iron and Ferritin levels checked ?

Low ferritin is the number one cause of rls .

[Eryl]

A vegan diet is low in vitamin B12. Low vitamin B12 is associated with rls, so I would assume that veganism isn't good for rls without taking a vitamin B12 supplement.

[RLSgirl]

I think there is definitely a connection between diet and RLS. Although it may not be the only causal factor. I think most people on this board can tell you at least some foods that are triggers for their RLS, but once again, with RLS there doesn’t seem to be a one size fits all answer.

I think eating a Vegan diet can have it’s upsides in that they tend to eat more fresh veggies etc. But it would seem that the vegan can lead to iron and other important nutrient deficiency’s which are especially concerning for RLS sufferers.

These days there does seem to be more and more information pointing to an unhealthy gut microbiome playing a key factor in causing some of these RLS symptoms. And I personally have noticed that quite a few people that have bad RLS also have other gut or autoimmune problems. Which would also seem to point back to the gut as a possible cause for RLS.

I don’t have all the answers, but you may want to look into some low sugar and low carb diets rather than veganism. A lot of people seem to have success managing their RLS symptoms with Paleo or keto or FODMAP diets. And you may want to do some research on SIBO or just gut microbiome health in general.

Like I said, I really don’t have any answers, but this is where my RLS journey has been taking me. I personally am still learning about all this, but I am considering doing some kind of cleanse right now. And hopefully help to heal my gut and get it into a healthier more balanced place since I know things are not great down there as I have been experiencing growing intestinal issues the past few years. Which, perhaps not coincidentally coincides with an increase in my RLS symptoms the past few years.

[BoldMove]

I am vegan, take my B 12 and iron but still have RLS