suffering

[otter5]

restless leg for about 10 years its getting a little annoying now. now its stopping me sleeping for more than 1/2 hours at a time.hoping some people out there can give some good advice and make it less of a lonely sufferance.

[Hidden]

Hi and welcome to this RLS forum, you've come to the right place!

If you're only sleeping 1/2 hour at a time then it sounds as if your condition is quite severe and if you've not sought any help with it before, you need to now.

The first thing to consider is whether you've ever seen a doctor about this and if you have actually been diagnosed with the condition. Furethermore, if you have, have you ever been offered any treatment and did you take it?

This is significant in two ways.

The first is that some (few) people self-diagnose when they actually don't have it. More rarely, some people are diagnosed as having it incorrectly by a doctor!

Secondly, what you can do about your RLS depends on what treatment you may have had before.

I'm afraid if you've not had any treatment before then there is a lot of information you really need to take in. This is largely because you can't rely on a GP to know anything about RLS at all. It would appears that the majority of doctors are quite ignorant especially about how to treat it.

I'll give you a summary fo the main points you need to know below and then if you have any questions feel free to ask.

1) If you do have RLS then your symptoms will match the RLS diagnostic criteria. Here's a link to them

irlssg.org/diagnostic-criteria

2) You will need to consult a GP. The fierst thiong the GP should do is blood tests for "Ferritin" and Haemoglobin. Iron deficiency is a major causative factor in RLS.

You will need to know the exact ferritin result. If the GP days it is "OK" or "normal", this is meaningless for somebody with RLS.

If your ferritin is below 75ug/L, you should consider starting on an oral iron supplement. An over the copunbter one is OK, you don't need a prescription.

see this link

sciencedirect.com/science/a...

3) You should discuss with your GP if there is any other medication you're taking that might be making your RLS worse. It's possible then that you can stop or change these medications. Your GP may not know which medications DO make RLS worse. So it might be worthwhile posting them here. Antidperessants and sedating antihistamines are the worst, but there are many oithers.

4) Of your own accord, there may be dietary factors in your RLS. Certainly alcohol, sugar and for some people caffeine make RLS worse.

It's worth keeping a daily food diary, i.e. what you eat each day and how your symptoms are. You may see that eating some foods makes RLS worse.

5) You may find taking food supplements in vitamin B12, vitamin D and magnesium helpful.

6) There are various "remedies" you can read about on this site which help relieve symptoms, but they don't prevent them and they're temporary.

7) as a last resort really, if none of the above help and/or your symptoms are so severe you want some medication, then there are medications that are effective for RLS.

I'm afraid this is a minefield and you certainly need to inform yourself about the options before accepting any prescription from a doctor.

Some bullet ;pijnts about this

- - most doctors it seems still prescribe one of a group of drugs known as "dopamine agonists" (DAs). These are pramipexole, ropinirole or rotiglotine (neupro patch).

Not in the UK, but internationally these are no longer recommended for RLS.

see this link

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/274...

This is because of their high risk of causing a major complication i.e. dopaminergic augmentation.

I strongly suggest you do NOT consent to taking a DA

- - the well accepted alternative is an alpha 2 delta ligand either pregabalin or gabapentin

As you live in the UK is uggest you follow the link below and familiarise your self with the information in this website. You will then proabably more informed about RLS than your GP!!!!

Note that this site is published by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and if necessary you can refer your GP to it.

cks.nice.org.uk/topics/rest...

Please do find out as much as you can about RLS before consulting a GP. You can read many other posts on this site which witness the poor treatment and lack of understanding sufferers get from doctors, both in the UK and abroad.

[involuntarydancer]

I can’t add to Manerva’s comprehensive answer in terms of information except to emphasize his point that it’s worth starting by checking your serum ferritin as the simple act of raising this helps about 50% of sufferers and may mean you do not need the difficult treatment drugs.

But I would like to say that this forum is a great antidote to the ‘lonely sufference’ (a great description). People are very friendly, knowledgeable, sympathetic and above all, the understand how awful it can be to live with this condition. I hope you find it as sustaining as I have.