General PLMD advice? (Electrolytes and B vitamins)

[vooxxy]

Hi all never posted on this side of the website but recently i went under a sleep study at a hospital to test for why i sleep so poorly. I will wake up randomly through out the night i was putting it all down to sleep apena due to past history of major operation on my neck area etc. However I would randomly jerk my legs during the day like random jolts in my legs and sometimes my arms and fingers. I just put this down to anxiety/stress and never thought anything of it.

I told the sleep tech that sometimes i will wake up and my knees will be bent he nodded and toke note. I never realised then what PLMD/S was and that this could be waking me up during the night time. I would lay down sometimes my whole body would do that jolt feeling and wake me up. Again i just put it down to anxiety which when i do get extra nervous etc it does get a bit worse like anything else.

The day after the sleep test the tech told me i have no sleep apena but they will go through all the readings and give me the results in 10weeks. But again i told him what my body does during the day and he said it does sound like PLMD/S.

So being me i researched on it a little and i look for what could be causing it well I do take thyroid meds as i have no thyroid gland left but my recent bloods for that show its fine now. But other bloods that showed my potassium levels were just on the low end of the normal and my b12 is also the same. So I plan on taking so Electrolyte drink to help boost that as I now know that b12 uses up potassium when making new red blood cells then start to supplement with B vitamins.

I guess my question is has anyone had any success in improving their Electrolytes and b vitamins and "cured" their PLMD? I would rather do this first then take any pharma meds first.

[Hidden]

Hi, your story is interesting and I'm sorry to hear of your disturbed sleep.

Firstly just to clarify a few things.

1 PLMS doesn't usually wake you up. It may mean the quality of your sleep isn't as good, but that doesn't mean waking. I used to have PLMS. It was definite, my wife told me I was kicking her. I didn't know. Do you sleep alone?

2 If you had a sleep study, they would have observed your legs kicking and should have told you this, plus how frequently you were kicking. It shouldn't have been a matter of you "might" have PLMS but you "do" have it. I can't imagine it takes 10 weeks to work that out.

3 A lot of people experience a sudden jolt when they're falling asleep. It's called "Hypnic jerk". It's not related to PLMD.

4 Yes, you can get PLMD when you're awake. It's jot just one or two jerks however, it's repeated jerks every 20 seconds or so - i.e. periodic.

80% of RLS sufferers have PLMD. It's rare to have PLMD without having RLS.

Do you have RLS.

If you don't then I'm guessing, from the above, you don't have PLMD either.

If you're not sure if you have RLS or not, follow this link to check yourself against the diagnostic criteria

irlssg.org/diagnostic-crite...

Great to hear, that at least you don't have sleep apnoea!

[vooxxy in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for the reply well i think they cant say anything definitive because they arent drs. I even bought myself a heavy blanket to help but even that i kick off somewhat so i must be doing a lot of kicking in my sleep enough to wake me up.

I dont have RLS its just random muscle twitches during the day time.

[Hidden]

PS, If you do have any deficiencies e.g. such as vitamin B12 or vitamin D or potassium, then correcting deficiencies will improve RLS symptoms and since PLMD is related, I guess that as well.

Be careful with electrolytes though and if you have heart or kidney disease, check with your Dr first.

However, as I previously wrote, it isn't certain you have PLMD. If you have 'jolts', I'm not sure what your neck surgery was for, but they may be a complication of that.

[willcb923]

Did your b12 fix it? I have this problem now. What were your b12 levels before?