Thank You for Sharing Knowledge and Experiences

[Sam4421]

Augmentation hit my body hard. The pramipexole was making the RLS worse. After 3 years of taking 1mg once a day I stopped, cold turkey.

I do not recommend the sudden stop! For three nights it was hellish. Bizarre behavior, intense symptoms and unrelenting misery were my companions on those three nights.

However, thanks to HealthUnlocked, I had a strategy. I had my ferritin level checked. It was 19. I started taking iron 65mg with vitamin C and taking Vitamin D3 (with a bit of fat) and three weeks later the level reached 49.

I continue to take the supplements hoping to reach the 300 level. The great news is that the RLS is becoming less and less of a problem. I can actually sleep at night!

I have learned so much from this site. Thanks for being such a great source of knowledge and wisdom.

My best to you all, always and in all ways!

tom

[Joolsg]

I'm so pleased you're feeling better and the RLS is reducing. Can't believe you went cold turkey from 1mg Pramipexole. That would have been hell on earth!Taking iron supplements every other night raises levels faster than taking every day so perhaps try that.

Bravo.

[Sam4421 in reply to Joolsg]

Thanks for the tip.

[Todge in reply to Joolsg]

Hmmm I should switch to that too! So would you take double the dose then but every other night?

[Joolsg in reply to Todge]

No you can just take your usual dose once every other night. Otherwise Hepcedin blocks iron absorption.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

acpinternist.org/weekly/arc...

[Munroist]

Yes. Double dose every other night, with some vitamin C and no other food or supplements which might compete. That way you are still taking recommended dose over a few days but it seems more effective. That was the Manerva approach which I have followed and got my ferritin up from 70 to 140 - he did explain the reasoning in a previous post. It does seem to have reduced restlessness and improved sleep for me. I think you’ll struggle to get the 300 level on supplements though. I use Ferrous bisglycinate tablets (Holland and Barrett gentle iron) which were again recommended on this forum and seem to work well without any side-effects.

[Sam4421 in reply to Munroist]

Thanks for sharing this important information. Take care.

[Woody4]

You didn’t reduce the amount of pramipexole you took each night??

[Sam4421 in reply to Woody4]

No, I stopped completely. It was three nights of weirdness, (walking in my sleep, hallucinations, horrible symtoms), then, I was ok.

[Woody4 in reply to Sam4421]

I was taking 1 mg of pram and was slowly reducing it. Went to .5, then .25 when I started the gabapentin. I stopped the pram and went nuts.