It is beyond my comfort level to give any advice on these drugs for your situation.
I would also take it as an opportunity to review your RLS as often it only gets worse. Magnesium, potassium and iron helping is a suggestion that oxalates could be an issue. Alternatively, careful slow addition of potassium citrate, with advice from your doctor, combined with the magnesium and iron may be of benefit.
It appears once the RLS pharmaceutical train is boarded, RLS can be more difficult to treat and live with, so definitely try everything else before then.
Thank you soooo much for that advice and the links..
I'm one of those people who hates to take any medication but it seems almost inevitable as we age.
I much prefer to try all known alternatives first.
I'm only a smallish woman..8.3 stone so I guess any tablets from doc could be too much for my body weight.?
It'll be tricky getting to a doctor now so might have to write to him..
Might ask if I can half the dose of amlodipine..?= 2.5 mg...
I do realize that rls or periodic limb movement... which wakes one up..is a complicated issue...soooo wish more doctors knew more about it and understand how it affects our general lives so badly..
I will now read those links you kindly sent me.... and try to save or copy.
Very kind to give your time.. thank you very much...
Dont give up or change any blood pressure tablets without your doctor's agreement!! You can die from high blood pressure and I am told by sufferers that the high blood pressure makes you feel quite good - for a while.
Have you been through the list I sent you a year or so ago? I'll send another copy because things have changed.
In my experience diet and ferritin can be the two most effective non-drug treatments but there are lots of other things that help some people. For example just wearing track suit bottoms and warm socks helps me a little bit and if youi put a few little bits together you might get a good nights sleep. JUst to show the individuality of RLS some other people find cold helps them so how can we possibly come up with a fixed solution? You have to experiment
In my case increasing ferritin to 250 by an intravenous iron infusion didn't help at all but my daughter had quite bad RLS and an iron infusion fixed it 100% the night she had the infusion.
From what I have seen I would say that if you are forced to try the drugs treat your doctors ideas as "suggestions" and run them past the experts on this forum because your doctor can't keep up with every minority disease that walks into his surgery.
Quite apart from rls, coffee and tea will cause insomnia. Decaf or not doesn't seem to make any difference for me.
On the caffeine causing rls--- that is simply not supported by research.
It's rather like spinach and iron, or butter and heart disease. Both myths that have been discredited, but live long in the human psyche.
The caffeine one came from a Japanese study into I forget what, but one ( yes ,just one ) participant observed that they got rls after drinking coffee. That's how the myth started.
Many people on this site have observed that coffee actually helps with their rls.
Others, that it keeps them awake ( which is what it is supposed to do 🥵)
Freshly made coffee has virtually no caffeine. The caffeine increases with the brewing.😆
I will now don my motor cycle helmet to help sustain my brain from the hail of abuse that this comment will attract. 🤓🤠
The caffeine point you make is interesting. I make coffee for my wife and I at or near to 11.00am. Hers is normal espresso and mine is decaf as I had understood that non decaf would further impair my sleep. Are you saying that we could both have the espresso freshly brewed as neither would have much caffeine.
I weaned myself off caffeine about 5 years ago and found no difference in RLS symptoms. Over the past few months I've had days with a lot of caffeine and again, no increase in RLS symptoms. I'm glad you brought it up.
Melatonin is something that never helped me. I've given it a long try twice with no effect. Glad it works for others and wonder why it doesn't work for me?
15mg??!! Maybe you forgot the decimal point in 1.5mg?
Melatonin does not promote sleep, lit only helps (resetting) the onset of sleep when it has gotten delayed, e.g. owing to jetlag or working at night. This is knowledge based on many years of scientific sleep studies.
Yes I stopped at 15 mg. I had two bottles of 5 mg tabs (melatonin is also available here in 10 mg tabs). I worked my way up to 3 tablets totaling 15 mg and didn't notice any help with sleep in any way.
15mg is simply crazy! Sorry to be blunt, but it really is at the dangerous end of the dosage.
That's why it has gotten a bad name.
I take about 300micrograms 20 mins before bed, and as soon as I feel sleepy I turn off light and set my music timer to 30 mins. Never hear it switch off, and sleep very deeply.
Loads of energy for next day. They call me Duracell bunny here!🥴
Where do you find such a small dose? Are you in the UK. I'm in the states and the lowest dose I've been able to find is 2.5 mg. I just took a look as webMD to find that dosages range from 0.5 mg to 12 mg. Here's the link should you be interested. They say these dosages are used for blind people. webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingre...
I have to get it on the inet, from somewhere in Europe.
Amazon.uk will get you there.
I get the liquid-- it says it's a 1mg dose-- but that's for a full dropper. I've measured it that I can use a proportion of the dropper ( about 3 to 4 drops) to give me about 250 micrograms. It's easy enough to vary the dose from there.
I'm in Ireland and have had no problems getting it in the post.
It will take the medical world a few years to catch up with the latest research. As usual.🤕
Good luck.
I've found webmd to be a bit out of date for some recommendations, and downright incorrect for others.
The article you link to only describes what has been tried in the past and does not actually recommend any dose as such. 🙄
Caffeine may trigger "RLS like" symptoms for some people, with other people caffeine seems to relieve symptoms. It doesn't seem to affect me either way.
I don't take much caffeine in any event as it can keep me awake, even without RLS symptoms. I don't need RLS to have insomnia!
I don't know if this helps, but alcohol does trigger RLS symptoms for me, but only in the day I drink it. If something's triggering you a "bout" of symptoms (not just one night) then it may be something that you're using or taking regularly.
The "usual suspects" as RLS triggers can include -
Tricyclic or SSRI antidepressants
Proton pump inhibitor antacids (anything ending in "prazole), these can cause malbsoprtion of iron and vitamin B12.
H2 inhibitor antacids e.g. ranitidine
Some antihistamines
Beta blockers.
Some anti-nausea medicines e.g. metoclopramide, domperidone, prochlorperazine.
These don't affect everybody equally, but they are more likely to trigger RLS.
Amitriptyline had no effect on me , but an SSRI caused major symptoms.
Iron deficiency even in the absence of iron deficiency anaemia can be a factor in RLS. This can creep up on you over time, e.g. because of poor absorption (see antacids above) or a lack of iron in the diet. It could also be that you're losing small amounts of heamoglobin for some reason and your body is using up iron stores to compensate for this.
Blood tests for haemoglobin, serum iron, transferrin and ferritin might indicate if there is a problem.
Yes, they sure were!😃 Mine was a Yamaha Vino and was maroon. I miss it so much! I donated it to Kars4Kids when we moved. I remember crying so much because it had been my first vehicle. I got a nice note from them saying someone got it at their auction; I hope that person is enjoying it as much as I did!
Long ago I had a Yamaha Virago 700cc I think. Fun bike but dangerous in the mountains on tight curves. Got run off the road one day and sold the bike immediately thereafter. Still have the helmet in storage somewhere. I do miss that bike though.
Hi...yes..I was quite suspicious when the restless legs flared up again for me... having no sleep each night is very difficult for coping in the day time..
It's tricky now to get a doctor's appointment and I think one has to be weaned off bp tablets gradually ?
I would be interested in knowing the sources that point to bp tablets amlodipine being a possible cause...as levothyroxine might be antagonising rls as well..?
As some already wrote cafeine can indeed reduce rls. I tried an rls diet including to avoid cafeine and it had no effect on me. After some cafeine free months I started to drink coffee again and it reduced my rls a bit. Then I thought drinking cafeine free coffee in the evening would be better to sleep but my legs thought differently.
My RLS seems very similar to yours. It comes in phases and then goes for a few days or weeks. I have tried all sorts of things (but never drugs of any kind) but have come to the conclusion that nothing works consistently, although some things seem to work for a bit. Like you I kept off caffeine for a long while. Now, I find that during an attack if I get up and have a cup of tea it stops the twitching and the insistent 'creepy' feeling and I can get back to sleep. So, caffeine can be useful, at least for me...but it only relieves, it doesn't prevent.
I'll try that.. having a cuppa in middle of night...ha ha ha..
I've also come to the conclusion that my new blood pressure tablets are to blame for the latest episode of rls...
I've not had blood pressure tablets before...but now my rls or periodic limb movement is much worse and I'm hardly getting any sleep then feel washed out and tired all-day..
I have been off caffeine and alcohol for a week now and my symptoms have improved... but I have also started taking iron, magnesium, vitamin D and B complex... so I don’t know what has worked (don’t care too much either!) I will stay off the caffeine for another while and then reintroduce it and see if it starts the legs up again.
I had a blue Puch moped and a yellow helmet for a while🙂
I stopped caffeine about two years ago. It helped. There is still a small percentage of caffeine in decaf tea and coffee but nothing like the full strength. I take Ropinirole and have done for 13 years and my legs are quite well controlled but they do have their moments and when they kick off it’s awful. I don’t know how anyone copes with the feelings when it just doesn’t stop.
I can drink tea in the morning. But if I drink it after midday I can get into trouble.
Hi Jan!
I wanted to respond, but got caught up in the MC talk first. I apologize. I clearly still miss my moped even after 7 years.
I'm so sorry you're having trouble! One of the things about RLS that is no different than other syndromes, but which make it no less overly frustrating is that no two people experience it in the same way. Here is my experience: Caffeinated drinks....I can't have these after about 6pm or I won't sleep due to insomnia. RLS-wise caffeine ca sometimes actually help my RLS. Now sugar is a different story. If I have too much sugar in a 12-hour period I sometimes notice it negatively affecting my legs. If I have too much sugar over let's say 3-4 days, I'm definitely in for a bad RLS night.
I hope things settle down soon and you can get some sleep!
Thank you for that.. caffeine or sugar...it's so confusing..
I do try to stick to a natural diet..but.. caffeine is natural isn't it?
Raw cane sugar could be natural...in small amounts might be ok..but its as if the body has an allergic reaction via restless legs...
Iron is good if one is slightly low..so ate a bar of dark chocolate last night...not tooooo bad a sleep...but I got rls slightly... much worse previous nights..
For me, and i had this issue for 40 years the very best thing I have done for my RLS is drinking a ton of water. I have tried every single thing, including pain medication, Parkinsons drugs, iron, Quinine, etc. etc. But if I don't drink at least a litre of water every single day my RLS goes thru the roof. Water and lots of it.
How on earth to do you sleep at night after drinking so much water? Don't you have to get up frequently and run to the toilet? I probably drink less than half what you drink and I have to go every couple hours at night but only every 5-6 hours during the day.
I think that, genetically, we all of us metabolise caffeine differently.
I know people who won’t sleep if they have tea or coffee after lunchtime. It has never stopped me from sleeping.
When my RLS became a regular problematic thing and I joined this forum by chance I read about someone finding that it helped settle their legs.
This also works for me often. I used to take a flask to bed but now I have caffeine tablets next to my bed. It doesn’t seem to prevent, rather it can help to relieve.
I facepalm when a newbie is told that they should stop caffeine...it’s not the case for everyone!
Caffeine and alcohol are probably the worst things for restless leg. I have also found sugar to be an issue. The unfortunate thing about RLS is that a lack of sleep also seems to make the condition worse. It can just become an ongoing cycle.
See my posts concerning caffeine as the thing to stop the symptoms. I have severe full body RLS. I've had it close to 50 years. I've tried many drugs. Some helped. Some didn't. I found the caffeine answer on my own by accident on night. It is the best thing ever and have been using it for about 12 years now.
1/4 to 1/2 cup of coffee or 1/4 to 1/2 200 mg caffeine pill .
And yes I fall asleep at night
And yes, I drink 2- 4 shots of espresso in the morning to wake up😂
I find the herb valerian very effective for RLS. It’s available from (UK) pharmacies and one 45mg tablet settles my legs in a few minutes. It doesn’t work for everyone though. It’s wise to check if there are interactions with any other meds you are on. My RLS triggers are sugar, refined carbs like biscuits, and bread after lunchtime. So I avoid those!
You know the expression “misery liked company”? Well, I’m the “company”.! I’ve had RLS for a few years now (Got it about the time I was diagnosed with MS. Maybe a little before but it wasn’t as bad as now. My diet is erratic but I drink regular tea and my guilty pleasure is Diet Coke. Unfortunately there isn’t a magical cure for it; I am taking a prescription now but sometimes it doesn’t work right away. I’m lucky if I manage 4-4 1/2 a night
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