RLS, magnesium, calcium and hard water

[sydaway]

Hello everyone, wanted to share my experience/thoughts.

I'm a 58-yo female from the UK. I've suffered from RLS for around 20 years. I've never tried any prescription meds for this (the medications all sound quite dodgy to me as they seem to lead to dependence, and don't treat the root cause, which seems unknown).

However I've found magnesium (citrate) gives total relief - if I take enough. (Makes sense as magnesium helps muscles relax, in opposition to calcium, which helps them contract). But my condition *is* getting worse. I've gone from needing 200mg magnesium each evening to 400mg in recent months, sometimes even 500mg.

(I've also suffered from low-grade insomnia for many years, unrelated to RLS. Deep sleep is impossible, and I never sleep for long).

Over the years I've noticed patterns - RLS gets worse if I have a lot of dairy. Vitamin D worsens insomnia. But changing my magnesium dose timings so I take the last 200mg just before bed has (blissfully) allowed me to sleep well. And I've recently noticed they whenever I take holidays in soft water areas my RLS improves, whereas when I return home where the water is rock-hard, things get worse again.

So this leads me to wonder if my condition is fundamentally a calcium-magnesium balance issue - for whatever reason (genetic? kidney issues?). That for me, living an a hard-water area means I'm taking in more calcium than my body can cope with. Maybe for many others too... If you're one of those who finds magnesium helps, could this be the key? Just wondering how many of you live in hard water areas or eat a lot of dairy?

I've started an experiment, as of yesterday. I've bought a water filter jug and a filter that targets limescale, for all my drinks and cooking. I'll keep my dairy intake low as well (I don't take milk in hot drinks anyway which helps). I'll see what happens and report back.

[Joolsg]

Sounds very plausible. Keep us updated.We do need more research on RLS. There are research articles hinting that calcium may cause or may help RLS.

sciencedirect.com/science/a...

amarillo.com/story/lifestyl...

[sydaway in reply to Joolsg]

Thank you - I will do.

Interesting on phosphates in that first article. Maybe that's a factor too? I had a mineral test a few years ago (for another issue) - calcium normal, magnesium low. Not sure about phosphates.

I'm not sure what a "Tum" is - does that mean something to Americans?

My comments on sleep were about the relationship of magnesium to cortisol. I was wondering if elevated cortisol was keeping me awake each night. This article is interesting:

mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/12/3672

It describes a vicious circle of magnesium loss leading to cortisol increase leading to more magnesium loss, rise and repeat. Until the cycle can be broken with magnesium supplements. Except for me, seems the magnesium loss never stops, and I don't know why. I'm not especially stressed at the moment. Hence this experiment.

[Joolsg in reply to sydaway]

I suspect Tums are heartburn meds to help an upset "tummy".I take magnesium every night routinely. They have never made any difference to my RLS, but they help my opioid induced constipation.