I have had RLS for more years than I can count. I'm now in my 70's. I have had some very welcome success in the last few months in minimizing my symptoms. I feel compelled to share some of what has worked for me, with the hope that this info might to some degree lessen someone's else's suffering. It has taken a great deal of research and focus to determine what works best for me, often by the "shotgun" approach, but I am encouraged by the small successes I have achieved.
Drugs, for me, have never been an option as they seem to add another layer of complexity to an already complex issue. For me, diet has been a major player. Like many, my symptoms are worsened by sugar, alcohol, sulfites, msg, and other obvious substances. I eat only whole grain pasta, and bread. Our bread is made at home without sugar. We use monkfruit powder in recipes we want to sweeten. In canned or processed foods, I carefully check ingredients for sugar and other questionable substances as they are prevalent in most foods. Since I am an American living in Portugal, it is challenging to check ingredients in a language I have limited knowledge of so I need to be very vigilant. I am a vegetarian and mostly buy organic when available.
Exercise is also an important component of my regime. It not only helps physically, but emotionally as well.
Low ferritin was not on my radar for quite a while, as I eat lots of greens and simply didn't think it applied to me, but after having an iron panel done, I found that my numbers were low. I now take iron and C together in the evenings - and avoid any supplements that would lower iron absorption. This seems to have helped. Although results have been gradual and hard to detect, I feel I have much more energy and feel it is helping.
I read an article on "curing" RLS. Their suggestion included taking astaxanthin (12mg - although I often take more), and R-Lipoic Acid. I have also added ashwaganha (km66) in the evenings to help with sleep. It seems to be working well. Most nights I am able to get through with minimal or no RLS by eating a banana? (strange, I know) For some reason a banana is often able to divert my symptoms enough to allow me to sleep. Because I live in Portugal, I sometimes use a small amount of HHC cannabis to stop tremors and help my body relax. I try to avoid using cannabis because it becomes toxic after awhile and does not give consistent results. When I lived in the states we made an ointment from cooking THC (called decarboxylation). When massaged on my legs, it stopped RLS immediately. Results can be dependent on the strain of cannabis used. In smoking HHC - some strains could make RLS worse.
Though I am experiencing much milder(or no) symptoms, most nights, there are still nights when I have a "reaction" to something I ate or for some other unknown reason. What I do know, is that like many of you, the suffering has felt intolerable at times and left me with a feeling of desperation to find "something" that works to stop or minimize the symptoms. Now experiencing many more "good" nights, I feel I am at a point where I feel the RLS is much more manageable and am getting some much needed sleep that for years has been a huge challenge.
If you've read through to this point, my hope is there is something here that resonates for you and can provide some relief. Again, this is what has worked for me - I don't believe there is any one path to relief. If I can answer any questions I would be happy to do so. 🙏