PLMD worse with common cold/flu?

[GreatOak]

Does anyone experience their PLMD being worse when they have a cold/flu?

I have recently had a string of colds/flu. I have taken to my bed for a week or more each time, being completely exhausted. I used to just take cold remedies and push on with my daily life, now I’m off work sick. I’m wondering if it’s because my PLMD has got worse with the cold/flu.

I have PLMD with no RLS. I take iron supplements to keep my ferritin levels up which keeps it under control (which I realise is a very fortunate situation compared to many of my fellow sufferers). It was diagnosed two years ago at a sleep clinic, after months of extreme exhaustion and tests to rule out everything else under the sun. I’m unaware of my PLMD movements so I can’t tell if it is worse or not, I only know that I am more exhausted during the day.

[Raven123]

So sorry to hear you are not well. Is it possible your cold/flu medicine is kicking up your rls?

[GreatOak in reply to Raven123]

Thanks, I’m just taking paracetamol, which I don’t have any trouble with

[FLAME43 in reply to GreatOak]

got a cold and my rls is rioting, also taking Paracetamol

[Hidden]

Just a quick suggestion.

If you're taking some medicine for for your colds, particularly if the medicine contains an anti-histamine, anti-histamines are known to make RLS/PLMD worse.

It's also possible that what you think is a cold/flu is some other virus and some viruses can affect your nervous system.

[GreatOak in reply to Hidden]

Thanks, I’m only taking paracetamol which I’m ok with. That’s really interesting about viruses affecting the nervous system, I hadn’t thought about that.

[Hidden in reply to GreatOak]

People oftem say they have had flu, when really they've just had a bad cold. I had "real" flu once, it nearly killed me, I was very ill. Real flu can kill.

It may be that you have had real flu. The symptoms of flu are caused by the immune systems response to the influenza virus. When I had real flu, the symptoms kept getting better and worse again over several weeks.

I have just read that the immune response to flu can affect the brains production of several neurotransmitters including Dopamine and Glutamate both of which are implicated in RLS.

It may help if you boost your immune system. Extra protein and mulitivitamins would help this.

[GreatOak in reply to Hidden]

Thanks again. I’ve had ‘real’ flu a couple of times, one in October last year. This time it’s ‘just’ a cold. That is really interesting about the immune response to flu affecting the neurotransmitters.

I’m convinced now the cold has triggered my PLMD - I took a Tramadol last night as an experiment, I don’t normally take them for PLMD but have some for emergency pain relief after a bad accident a few years ago. I had the best night’s sleep - I work up at 5am feeling amazing. I then dreamt and dozed till mid morning as the Tramadol affects me for 12 hours. Not a long term solution but helpful for diagnosis (and an excellent night’s sleep). Hopefully my PLMD will settle down once I’m completely over the cold.