ferritin

[Jenevewill]

so my ferritin is at 29 and my restless legs are bad so from what I read I should work on increasing my levels. My question is my levels have been lower than this before and I didn’t have any symptoms of restless legs , so does this mean raising my ferritin levels won’t work ?

[SueJohnson]

No - but only 60% of people find there RLS improved.

[Jenevewill in reply to SueJohnson]

Okay thanks

[Madlegs1 in reply to Jenevewill]

Notwithstanding, it would be worthwhile raising your ferritin, while keeping a diary to check what may be triggering your condition.

What medications have you been on.?

[Jenevewill in reply to Madlegs1]

I’m on no medications. I had restless legs in my pregnancy and they went away for 16 months and have now flared out of nowhere

[Madlegs1 in reply to Jenevewill]

Pregnancy RLS usually indicates an iron deficiency cause.

Hopefully so, in your case.

[Jenevewill in reply to Madlegs1]

I’m not pregnant

[Madlegs1 in reply to Jenevewill]

You were.

You experienced RLS during that pregnancy.

Therefore it is likely that low ferritin level may be a factor for you. .

Others have found this to be the case.

[Jenevewill in reply to Madlegs1]

Yes, okay thank you

[Joolsg in reply to Jenevewill]

Totally agree with Madlegs. Pregnancy triggers RLS for many of us and the low iron is the cause. If you could get an iron infusion, it would probably cause a dramatic improvement. Where are you? We can refer you to a specialist who is aware of the link to low iron.

[Jenevewill in reply to Joolsg]

I’m in Canada

[Joolsg in reply to Jenevewill]

Ahh. Sadly, I don't know anyone in Canada.This is a UK help site, but we do know lots of good doctors in the USA because many of us are also members of rls.org, the US non profitable organisation for RLS patients.

If you join, you can get access to local help groups in Canada and a quarterly magazine and monthly newsletters. There are also webcasts by top RLS specialists.

Alternatively, you can look up private iron clinics. Here in the UK, we can send our NHS full blood test results to private iron clinics and they will arrange infusions for around £800.

There are probably similar clinics in Canada.

Lyrica is first line medication for RLS, but only if raising serum ferritin above 200 by pills or infusions hasn't helped.

In the meantime, as your serum ferritin is SO low at 29, you could start taking ferrous bisglycinate last thing at night on an empty stomach.

This alone has helped many people on this forum.

[Jumpey]

I would ask for an iron infusion. It may not eradicate your RLS completely but it's likely to help.

[DicCarlson]

I had severe RLS with a Ferritin level of 49. Docs said normal, nothing to see here! Months went by. Docs waved DAs at me and muscle relaxants, thanks to this forum and research I stayed away from the DAs and discovered the iron connection. Ferrous Bisglycinate Chelate raised my Ferritin level to 105 in 3 months, and the severe RLS dissipated within the first week! I still had sleep issues, but the worst was gone. I still have little idea just why I was iron deficient in the first place - but I did have "growing pains" as a child and was treated for anemia then (50 years prior!).