My solution for RL

[silvia10]

My solution for Restless Legs.

My restless legs started in May/June and gradually worsened. In august I had a real bad time with restless legs, I only slept for 2 hours a night. Had lot of electric charges in the legs, muscle cramps for hours, strange feelings, etc. Reading about it on internet didn’t make me very happy, the medicines sounded horrible and reading many doctors still prescribe dopamine medicines although that is not the first treatment option anymore is very sad. I hate it when doctors don’t keep up with the latest information. Also what I read on forums made my stress a lot worse, that it is a lifelong disease which will get worse in time.

I also got a lot of hypnotic jerks.

I did everything I needed to do, take iron supplements to up the ferritine, magenesium (best source is buying magnesiumflakes, 100 gram is only 2 euro in healthstores, mix it with some water and apply it to your skin), even eating meat again which still does not feel right with all the animal abuse that goes on in the meatindustry, walking 90 minutes a day, taking lots of other supplements, potassium, going to an osteopath and acupuncturist, etc. But still no result.

I kept a fooddiary and found that caffeine, sugar and especially salt make it much worse. So I stopped that but still lots of complaints.

Ofcourse stress makes it worse too but that is difficult to avoid when you only have 2 hours of sleep at night and a lot of worries about it.

Although looking at the internet gave me a lot of stress due to all the sad stories without a real solution, I knew I had to keep looking because maybe there was an answer to all of this which could help me. Somehow the dopaminetheory never sounded true to me.

Im happy I kept looking because I found a german doctor and her husband who is a physical therapist and they have a new approach to many healthissues. They are now mostly known because their exercises prevent kneeoperations. Ofcourse the regular doctors don’t want to hear this yet, like it mostly goes.

On youtube they have a video with exercises for restless legs. youtube.com/watch?v=2FWaFDg...(Not working as expected?)

Their names are Liebscher und Bracht.

I looked up information about their theory and it sounded very plausible. And my intuition told me this was my solution.

Especially the part about fascia which is too tight. Along with connective tissue and muscles.

They have trained therapist in Germany and luckily for me also 2 people in The Netherlands give this therapy.

At the moment I read it I started doing the exercises. But found soon that 10 minutes a day is not enough so I started a yinyogaroutine of 45 minutes a day which involves a lot of stretching to get the deeper connective tissue to get flexible again. These yoga exercise have a lot in common with the exercises Liebster und Bracht show.

In yinyoga you keep a position for at least 2 minutes to get into the deeper tissues. So I looked for the legsstretching positions in yoga like downward dog, boat, dangling, etc and made my own routine.

Then 10 minutes of fasciarolling, very necessary. In the beginning it is very painfull because everything is so tight in the legs but it gets better after a while.

And walking 90 minutes a day.

And in the evening massaging the legs, with guasha and cupping and regular massage.

I also went to the liebscher und bracht therapist and it only needed 5 treatments.

So together, the therapist, doing yinyoga for 45 minutes, walking, fasciarolling and massaging I went from every night all night long legproblems to in September only 8 nights and now in October only 1 night mildly and only half an hour. It takes a lot of hard work but better then living a live with restless legs. And I probably need to keep up this routine, except the therapist, the rest of my life but that is okay.

My personal idea about restless legs is; the muscles, connective tissue and fascia get too tight, due to not enough movement or too much (and wrong) movements and stress (which tightens also). Then little nerve endings become stuck and are the cause for the unpleasant feelings. In daytime it is less because you move more so the nerves get less stuck.

It might not be the solution for everyone but worth a try.

And there are more ways, I also spoke to someone who had good results with the Trager Approach. And 2 people who had it for a while and then it spontaneously went away.

Wish you all the luck in the world and hope there will be a solution for everybody because RL is very bad too have.

[Madlegs1]

Thanks for posting your information and experience.

It is so important that every person who has a nugget of news, lets everyone know.

It may not be for all, but even if only one person benefits, then that's a plus.

Thank you again.

[dlr222 in reply to Madlegs1]

I read to have a meal or snack about an hour before going to sleep. and of course the exercise and massage is good.

[Hidden in reply to dlr222]

A snack of something with carbs before bedtime will make you sleepy. would get you ready for that night time sleep but only if your RLS is under control too.

[Hidden]

Thank you for sharing this.

Your choice of therapy sounds ver interesting and I'm very pleased it worked.

I'm sure if other people try it, some will gain some benefit.

The problem with RLS is that there is yet, no cure and in fact, the syndrome may several causative factors.

It is known that it is a neurological condition primarily of the central nervous system, brain and spinal chord. That's why, however undesirable, medications can be effective because they act on the central nervous system.

The other feature of RLS is that are causative factors and exacerbating factors.

Since your RLS apparently appeared quite suddenly, it's possible that there is something that triggered it.

It is possible that you are suffering an iron deficiency. It might be worth while asking your doctor for blood tests for serum.iron, transferrin, ferritin and harmoglobin.

It is recommended that if your ferritin is below 75ug/L then you could start iron therapy and this van benefit 50 - 60% of RLS sufferers.

[silvia10 in reply to Hidden]

yes, my ferritine was about 40 and is now about 60, but i dont feel the need now to have a irontransfusion, but will keep taking the irontablets.

[Hidden in reply to silvia10]

As it's still under 75 oral iron should help.

Ideally it should be 200 or more.

Once it gets to 100, then if you still have no benefit you will need a transfusion.

[involuntarydancer]

Thank you for your exceptionally interesting post. It seems to tie in with the experience of another poster who found that a prolonged deep massage using a theracane of a particular area in the lower back/upper thigh every evening afforded him substantial relief.

We are so used to pill-popping as an ‘easy’ (immediate) remedy that eliminates much personal input that we are resistant to the notion that some prolonged physical activity could afford similar relief.

It would be interesting if a substantial cohort of sufferers would be prepared to try this to see how much relief was afforded but I would anticipate that it’d be difficult to get the numbers. This seems to be a perennial problem for physiotherapists and physical therapists generally. I certainly fall into the category of those whose vaulting ambitions fails to o’oerleap itself and I perpetually allow I dare not to wait upon I would. However I am going to save your post and start next week ...

[Madlegs1 in reply to involuntarydancer]

Coincidentally, I was thinking last night to post this morning, about how useful I find my theracane to stretch my glutes.

I lie on my back and hook the cane around my foot and pull the leg back up to feel the stretch all along the back of the legs and into the buttocks. Repeat about 3 to 5 times.

This gives great relief to sore lower back, and relieves the fizzy legs until I get to sleep.

I wonder how this relates to Sylvias' account.

[involuntarydancer in reply to Madlegs1]

I definitely find a link between leg tightness and rls symptoms. I just wish I had the discipline to act on it more comprehensively and regularly. I understand that some experts hold to the theory that there is a circulation dimension to the condition and I wonder if this is the manifestation. It occurred to me that one of the reasons rls often presents in pregnancy may be as much to do with the restrictions posed by the growing human on access to the mother legs as with iron deficiency - or maybe the two work somehow hand in hand in an unholy alliance. Was there ever a more complex disorder of the brain?

[involuntarydancer in reply to involuntarydancer]

How long do you hold your theracane hamstring stretch for? I might try that.

[Madlegs1 in reply to involuntarydancer]

I don't time it, but probably about 1 or 2 minutes. I'm desperate lazy, and give up as soon as I feel the stretch, though try to hold it for a while.

I also release the pull about 10% for a few seconds, and then put more pull on it. Really gets the hamstring.

I sometimes use the little knob in the curve to massage the sole of my foot. That can really help. There is a strong ligament there that really gets tight.

A golf ball or rolling pin underfoot can do the job.

Cheers.

[involuntarydancer in reply to Madlegs1]

Thanks (go raibh mile maith agat). Laziness is my undoing also.

[silvia10]

Laziness was my problem also. That is why I probably got RL because my legs got all tight due to less exercise and stretching. But then my body said; no way, no more laziness, here you have a problem and go fix that

Yoga is really nice and quite easy for people who hate sport like me.

A 2 minute stretch is the minimum for muscles so you get deep enough in the tissue. But actually every muscle needs to be stretched so that is why it takes me now 45 minutes because you got a lot of different legmuscles.

[silvia10]

Did my post appear in rl tips? Or just in the general discussions? i prefer it to be in the rl tips topic for more people to see and hopefully give an alternative perspective on rl.

[Madlegs1]

Gold star circle needs activated membership, after payment of the relevant fee.

Just joking!🤪

It will be up to the admin to pin it or whatever.

HU posts are all on the Google internet search system, so if someone searches for RLS relief or suchlike, your post will come up at some point. Depending on how much you pay Google. ( That's not a joke)

Good luck.

[silvia10 in reply to Madlegs1]

great.

[silvia10]

One year later, i can say it still cures my rls, but i need to keep the yogaroutine up, although a bit less strict. So there is a cure for rls and i still believe it has nothing to do with dopamine but with too tight fascia and surrounding tissue.