RLS, my discovery so far....

[Yoke2]

Hi I am a Dutch lady and have had an adult life long history of rls.

I gave up coffee a few months ago, because of the fatigue it was causing, ok not easy, but to my great surprise, my condition got so much better ! I also noticed the sligthest bit of alcohol cause rls too!

So nowadays I am totally free of rls unless I take the freedom of having one of the above culprits, accepting the consequences!

By the way my symptoms do not always occur on the same day that I had coffee or alcohol. It can be delayed to the next evening.

So I wanted to share this with hou all, maybe it can do one of you some good too.

[Joolsg]

I’m delighted something so simple has led to such an improvement. Thanks for sharing.

[Yoke2 in reply to Joolsg]

Thank you for your reply.

[sweetiepye]

Thank you , I'm sure this will help many people. I don't drink coffee or alcohol . I know everyone of us has different triggers etc. I am wondering if you might be on to something in that whatever simulant we use might be the cause of our RLS. I do drink tea, and soda, I eat chocolate and I take a headache remedy that contains caffeine . So I think I'll try giving up these caffeine loaded things and see what happens. I'll let you know if and when I notice something. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the cause of this torture would be something we could easily give up? Pam

[Yoke2 in reply to sweetiepye]

Yes You can give it a try. It may take a while to clean up.

I also practice fasting to give my body time to heal. Since I also had IBS. It is very interresting what fasting can do to one’s health .

[Madlegs1]

Triggers strike again!🤪

[Yoke2]

I would like to add a thought : Many years ago I had problem with breaking down of medicine. According to my Gp it was the lack of certain enzyme in the liver, had children dosages prescribed later. The problem I had with coffee might have been because of the same reason. It quickly builds up in my body. I cannot get rid of the ‘poison’ very easy obviously. 🧐

[Jelbea]

I had given up coffee some time ago, I drink water, some tea and no alcohol. I occasionally have a fizzy drink. I suffer extremely persistent severe RLS and giving up coffee made no difference. Recently on this forum there has been some discussion regarding coffee and I decided to try taking it again. Coffee in the past never kept me awake and I could take a mug of coffee and go straight to bed and to sleep some years ago.

However, I am delighted to say that now during the evening when RLS kicks in a cup of coffee relieves it quite a bit making it bearable. If I waken during the night with an attack of RLS I now take a caffeine pill and within half-an-hour can sleep again. I am still testing this out but at present I am surprised and delighted with the results.

Just shows we are all different!

I am glad you have discovered what helps you.

[Yoke2 in reply to Jelbea]

That is wonderful! For both of us coffee /cafeïne works in some way. It is so strange.

[Hidden]

I drink coffee in the day and in the night, i find i helps, as do a few more on this forum.

[Yoke2 in reply to Hidden]

That might look like the withdrawl symptoms of cafeïne..I only drank (a lot of) coffee in the morning. It took me months before all symptoms where gone. Now I do not drink over 2 or 3 espresso’s a week.

[sweetiepye]

This is a new direction for me to go in. I haven't searched much for triggers. I do know that sugar is one for me.

[Yoke2 in reply to sweetiepye]

I think many triggers are killers for minerals & vitamins.

[Hidden]

Caffeine and alcohol are triggers for many people. Alcohol is a real trigger for me which is a real shame because I have quite a few different fruit bushes and trees in my garden and I make about 8 gallons (36 litres) of wine each year. Then I can't drink it.

I could make pies, but only have two freezers, (either to keep the fruit or the pies), if not frozen otherwise how could I eat dozens of pies in a short time.

I'm trying to lose weight anyway, Gabapentin's not helping!

I wonder why people only associate caffeine with coffee. Tea has caffeine in too! I believe some teas have more caffeine than some coffees.

Still I'm glad you've found release from your RLS by giving up coffee and alcohol.

Caffeine doesn't really affect my RLS, but it does affect me in other ways, so I don't drink too much coffee.

But I really don't think I could manage with my RLS without taking some nasty drug or another.

It's good that, at least, some people can.

[Jumpey]

Very pleased for you.x

[Yoke2]

It was nt simple for me either. It only looks simple from the outside. I did not even try it for my rls it was the unexpected result of my fight for a better common health situation, The past 5 years I tried everything. Lowcarb, clean eating, cetogenic, fasting, less plantfoods, grainfree, giving up cafeïne & sugar & alcohol. I had allergie, IBS, asthma, cronic pains and was overweight. The results are amazing. Painfree, rls free, lost 80 lbs, , bloodpressure down from 100-160 to 80-125 ( age 67), never had any cold or flue in the past 4 years, my tinnitus almost disappeard, my (since 30 + years) vertigo is gone, no more allergie reactions like asthma or hayfever, yeah this fight was totally worth it. My GP was in ‘shock’ and is encouraging me in my journey!

[gfischer4]

Thank you..Gene 69 years old.. on Ropinerole.

I created a good aerobic exercise probgram with whirlpool reward when done. This has to be no later than mid day.

[Yoke2 in reply to gfischer4]

Whishing for a whirlpool ! Thanks Gene for your reply.

[gfischer4 in reply to Yoke2]

Hotels offer a program for using their facilities.. Here in Western Wisconsin its $40.00 a month.. usually very quiet there.

Good luck..

Gene

[Yoke2 in reply to gfischer4]

That is agreat idea, maybe we have something like that in Holland too! I used to weekly visit a swimmingpool for the same reason. Unfortunately that pool was closed for financial reasons. It also had some sort of stream one could swim up ugainst and a wildwatertrack that was great fun too.

[Diana7224]

I am opposite. If I drink alcohol, my RLS is almost nonexistent most of the time. It's crazy how it affects people in so many different ways.