What is you supplement stack for RLS? How well has it been working?

[MrCrow]

Please tell me about your supplement stack and how well it’s been doing it’s job to keep symptoms at bay (say on a scale of 1-10).

[Madlegs1]

What do you mean by " supplement stack"?Is it a list of supplements that help keep RLS at bay?

Magnesium is the first one that springs to mind.

[MrCrow in reply to Madlegs1]

Yup. A list of supplements.

[Birdland]

I have tried many supplements but none have helped to lessen my RLS. Some do find that magnesium helps. For me it’s more to do with what not to put in my body. Triggers as they say. Some being, alcohol, caffeine, food additives or artificial sweeteners, and too many sugar producing foods such as grains and fruits. Certain medications can also trigger RLS.

[Eryl]

Supplements wil only have a minor effect, the most beneficial thing is to remove causes like Refined carbs and seed oils.

[NeuroSeeker in reply to Eryl]

I've removed refined carbs, though I still eat nuts. The RLS hasn't responded, sadly.

[Eryl in reply to NeuroSeeker]

Your next step should be to remove refined seed oils (but they linger in the body so it might take a while to show results) and lower gneral carb intake. There is no essential nutrition in carbohydrates so you could cut them out completely but don't do it all at once as the body needs time to ajust.

[Wordsworth99]

hi! Take a look at KPPA’s recent post. She wrote that after weaning off sifrol/pramipexol:

“I commenced taking 100mg of high absorption Magnesium (2 of a morning and 2 of an evening), 500mg of high absorption Vitamin C morning and night and one high absorption Iron tablet a day. Sleeping so much better, no more gambling and more or less no RLS symptoms!”

So she takes 400 mg of magnesium per day.

[amrob123]

It's comforting to think that a supplement (or stack) resolves RLS but unfortunately it's not the reality for most of us. If there was a supplement that brought universal relief, this forum and the dozens like it, probably wouldn't exist. Supplements can help some people (particularly iron and magnesium) but they're rarely the holy grail that some people hope for. There are countless studies showing that a wide variety of supplements help RLS but these good results don't always seem to carry through into people's 'real life' experience. I have literally tried dozens of supplements and the best i can say is that they help my sleep but have never had any impact on my RLS or PLMD. Personally i find other lifestyle interventions to be more beneficial (i believe i listed them in an earlier reply to you).

[MrCrow in reply to amrob123]

Which ones have helped your sleep?

[amrob123 in reply to MrCrow]

GABA and L-theanine

[MrCrow in reply to amrob123]

Can you build tolerance to them?

[amrob123 in reply to MrCrow]

They're not like medications but occasionally people report that they lose effectiveness. I suggest searching online for a more complete answer.

[MrCrow in reply to amrob123]

Thanks!

I did take this for a little while: amazon.com/dp/B000GFHPCU?re...

Not sure if it's what made my sleep better but I remember it being worse when I came off of it.

How much l theanine and gaba are you using btw?

[DesertOasis]

Crow, are you on Trazodone? Did docs substitute that for the Clonazepam?

How long were you on the escitalopram?

[MrCrow in reply to DesertOasis]

I only took traz for 2 months. Not on it any more. Yes the docs asked me to taper off the traz and start taking clonazepam and escitalopram. I was on 10mg escitalopram for ~6 months and then slowly tapered off if it for ~4 months. So 10 months total.

[DesertOasis in reply to MrCrow]

The reason I ask is because you will have certain symptoms for a certain amount of time after withdrawal from each. There’s a lot of overlap going on here. So I think you might have that buzzy, skin crawling, increased anxiety feeling for a few weeks after stopping escitalopram, but NOT rls. You would have increased rls symptoms while on it. .25 Clonazepam should have little to no effect on rls when stopping or starting it. You might have slightly increased symptoms of anxiety when stopping it.

Stopping a DA, even a low dose for a month, will cause increased RLS for a short while (a few weeks?) and I think that’s where you might be at now? Then on the nights when you’ve taken melatonin I would expect you to have whole body RLS, even at only 1mg. Even at .5 mg. But the melatonin leaves no lingering symptoms.

I would try taking 25 to 50mg of the ferrous bisglycinate on an empty stomach about 1.5 hours before bed. Your RLS should go in about one hour for one night if you’re like me and many others on here. Sleeping on your stomach may also help a little bit once your RLS is at a very low level. The iron should work that very first night if it doesn’t then you can take it however it suits your schedule

Bottom line, all the symptoms you describe under (A) and (B) should be gone within a few weeks (maybe months following the SSRI) of stopping the medications you describe and you should only be left with a low level RLS that hopefully the iron will take care of.

[MrCrow in reply to DesertOasis]

Yes, I have been on several meds for the past year. Allow me to mention here briefly what's been going on:

>>> May '23: Started experiencing Insomnia due to stress and poor sleep schedule.

>>> Jun '23: Prescribed Traz for Insomnia. Took for 2 months.

>>>Jul '23: Asked to taper off traz due to poor efficacy and start hydroxyzine.

>>> Jul '23 (end): Started experiencing numbness and tickling in legs at night before sleep. RLS?

Increased traz dose back to original (75mg) and stopped taking hydroxyzine to reverse the situation.

>>> Aug '23: Asked to do a slower tapering of the traz and start Clonazepam (0.25) and Escitalopram (10mg).

>>> Aug '23 (mid): Last dose of traz. RLS improving but came back a little every time I reduced the traz dose. No RLS after mid August but insomnia persisted.

>>> Nov '23: Sleep improved and was asked to stop taking Clonazepam (0.25mg). No increase in anxiety or any loss of sleep but legs literally on fire all day and even at night.

>>> Dec '23 (mid): Symptoms improve but reach a baseline after which there's not much improvement. Still on 10mg escitalopram at this point. Went to neuro and was prescribed pramipexole (0.25). Efficacious the first week though it only toned the symptoms down (which were mild to begin with) but quickly lost all effectiveness after the first week.

>>> Feb '24: Decided to stop pram on my own due to poor efficacy. I didn't really feel any withdrawal effects.

>>> Jun '24: Slowly tapered off the escitalopram since feb. Last dose in early June. Symptoms improved a little over time compared to what it was in December '23. I only have symptom (B) at this point. I did experience this zapping sensation in my head when looking side to side after my last dose of escitalopram for a couple of weeks.

>>> Jul '24 (end): Very stressful period. Sleep disturbed. Poor diet. Started feeling (A) in hands and then in Legs. Took clonazepam for 3 days (0.5, 0.25, 0.25) to fix the sleep and then immediately stopped it.

>>> Currently I feel (A) more and (B) less than before. Stress, poor sleep and poor diet (oily and spicy food) exacerbates both but (A) more. As you can infer, I have been off all meds for 3 months now but the symptoms persist. They are not strong enough to void sleep (touch wood!). Hope your suggestion about Iron works.

To answer your questions:

" .25 Clonazepam should have little to no effect on rls when stopping or starting it."

- When I stopped it back in Nov '23 my legs were literally on fire. The symptoms would be most severe right in the morning and then again in the evening. Things improved over the next 4- 5 weeks and reached a baseline.

"Stopping a DA, even a low dose for a month, will cause increased RLS for a short while (a few weeks?) and I think that’s where you might be at now?"

- I stopped it a long while ago back in feb '23. And as far as i remember I don't remember feeling much of a difference in symptoms. It did try taking it much later for a day or 2 just to see if it makes any difference and nope.

"Then on the nights when you’ve taken melatonin I would expect you to have whole body RLS, even at only 1mg. Even at .5 mg. But the melatonin leaves no lingering symptoms."

- Strangely the melatonin doesn't really affect my symptoms.

[DesertOasis in reply to DesertOasis]

The clonazepam may have hidden side effect of escitalopram. From Reddit:

Hello! I'm on day 5 of my adventure with this drug and was wondering if anyone else has experienced this side effect. I'd ofc go see my doctor but he's closed til Monday. In essence, an hour or two after i take the pill (10mg) i get this very intense burning sensation in my skin on the back of my neck, arms, shoulders etc and it's honestly very awful. i get extremely tense, muscles get twitchy, and i get very anxious and paranoid - then after about 30mins to an hour it goes away and I'm back to normal. I've only experienced this the two most recent doses, otherwise no side effects at all!

A second person on Reddit said they have exact same symptoms. So you make three.

Sounds like all this is behind you. The iron should help with the insomnia as well. Could never figure out why, then someone said it’s probably the glycine in it. For me, insomnia is a mind f-ck (husband’s words). It has nothing to do with anything but me chasing sleep. I have clonazepam on hand as well.

Please let me know how the iron works. You’re young. Too young for this crap. The sooner you can move away from meds or thinking about meds for RLS the better.

[MrCrow in reply to DesertOasis]

Yea I am trying iron. Thinking of supplementing with Lactobacillus Plantarum 299v as well.

I hope to delay taking meds for this as long as I can. Thank you for all your advice!

[DesertOasis in reply to MrCrow]

One night exactly the way I describe. If not 100% relief then take iron any way you like. See below:

healthunlocked.com/rlsuk/po...

healthunlocked.com/rlsuk/po...

Btw, if you had little to no RLS before the meds for anxiety and sleep then you should eventually return to that point. You’re clearly pre-disposed to RLS. As you go through life you will notice that when you take things like Benedryl or Tagamet, especially at night, your RLS may act up. We with RLS go through life always being forced to find the better, but harder ways to treat conditions. No statins for high cholesterol for us. No Metformin for type 2 diabetes for us. No hormone replacement therapy either. Or SSRIs as you have learned.

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.” — Robert Frost.

[UnitedKingdom]

I’m please too see someone looking outside the box too. I find certain vitamins and avoiding putting anything that know has been reported with at least a decent amount of people trying it their way but I think there is a hidden reason for my semi remission from RLS. I take 2400 mg magnesium, folic acid, all the rest of the b vits. Zinc copper vit d. Omega 3.

I then take

Bispole 2.5 heart issue

3 x Prozac 25mg ( if I take this later than 0600 it can trigger RLS that evening

I have taken pregablim prior to its use in restless legs for a trapped slipped disc in my next.

I also have ASD so please be kind anything said that may have come across wrong is not meant that way.

I avoid any thing with artificial sweeteners but strangely for me coffee works as a calmer and benifit.

But over the years the advice of so many of you have helped and I’ve learnt a lot I knew nothing about iron or dopamine but I found a balance.

Currently thought I think my fentanyl patch doing most of the work. I have chronic pain and the only way I could work was with a patch as all the drugs affected me negatively cognitively. But these patches I know are strong but there are no side effects but on hot days your body absorbs more so it runs low on these days then I have the most intense rls.

This is a horrible condition and I thank you for sharing your stories

Thank you Clare

[MrCrow]

2400 mg magnesium! did I read that right? Or did you mean 240mg? Not a doctor here but I think mag is toxic beyond a certain level.