Go Vitamin D

[Walmer3463]

My restless leg problem changed from being intermittent and mild to regular and serious about 5 years ago. Fortunately I have had it under control with opioids. Over a year ago I found I had a pretty severe Vitamin D deficiency and it’s taken a while to get the level back to normal. Recently I have noticed an enormous improvement in RL symptoms which I think is due to having enough Vitamin D in my system and I have been able to reduce my opiod medication. There is a lot of reputable research about vitamin D deficiency and RLs but in Australia unless you request it Vitamin D is only checked in regular blood tests with people over 70.

[Madlegs1]

Good on you! 👍🍀

[amrob123]

Good to know. Thanks for sharing.

[Jumpey]

Glad you've found improvement.

[userotc]

Yes this has been studied eg pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/370...

Nutritional Therapy (NT) is key to all disease prevention so should be at the forefront of healthcare and will be if/when big pharma 💰💷is ushered aside.

Our approach with my mum has long been to optimise nutrition and lifestyle via NT before considering drugs. It includes treatment of her chronic kidney disease and now RLS. Previous conditions eg high BP, have been resolved via NT to allow her to wean off medication with BP normal.🤞

[Eryl]

Opoids do not control the cause of RLS but metely dampen down thd symptoms so tbat you don't notjce them.I believe that in most cases RLS is due to neuro inflammation and Vit D has powerul anti inflammation properties. Vit D is produced in the skin which is exposed to UV light ie mid day sunlight so it would help if you could go outdoors for half an hour at mid day with bare arms and legs and no sunblock. As long as you don't burn the more tbe better.

Inflammation can be caused by foodds in the diet so you should stay away from processed foods which ard high in refined arbs and seed oils.

Other things you can do to fight inflammation is to drink green tea and take tocotrieniol Vit E.

[Joolsg]

Excellent. The link to low Vit D has been known for some time , but you are correct- it's not routinely tested.

[SueJohnson in reply to Joolsg]

Interestingly in the US it is part of a routine blood test which tests a number of things.

[UsableThought in reply to SueJohnson]

Unfortunately, Medicare, which is the U.S. health insurance provider for elderly citizens, doesn’t cover routine testing for Vitamin D. Testing is covered only if the doctor documents that it is “medically necessary” due to clear symptoms of deficiency. This is absurd since symptoms can be vague and routine regular testing would be of benefit to the entire population, probably saving money in the long run. I did manage to get my level tested about seven years ago, and in fact I was found to be deficient, as I had suspected; but even then my doctor’s back office had to re-submit the claim to Medicare to get it approved. Medicare in many ways is an antiquated system although far better than no insurance at all.

[SueJohnson in reply to UsableThought]

I am on Medicare. A Comprehensive Metabolic Panel gives vitamin D levels and mine was covered by Medicare. Checking Medicare it says it is covered if it's medically necessary to diagnose or treat a health condition. I would imagine all your doctor would have to say is they think your vitamin D levels are low or that since you have RLS (a health condition) and low vitamin D levels can cause increased symptoms that you need to be tested. I have no idea what the doctor that treats me for RLS said but probably the latter.

Now if you are on Medicare Advantage each is different and I have no idea if it would be covered. I am on the original Medicare.

And I love Medicare.

[grassgree in reply to SueJohnson]

Sue, I thought you were 40-something. You said you play ice hockey!

[SueJohnson in reply to grassgree]

I am 84.

[grassgree in reply to SueJohnson]

You give us all hope!

[SueJohnson in reply to grassgree]

And yes I still play ice hockey.

[SueJohnson in reply to UsableThought]

I was wrong again! My Comprehensive Metabolic Panel that I had in 2019 had Vitamin D and when I asked google if it was included I got an AI Overview that said it was included but when I looked at the one I had in September it was not included and checking further I saw it isn't. So much for AI !

[SueJohnson in reply to SueJohnson]

I was wrong. It is not part of a CBC, but it is covered under a Comprehensive Metabolic Panel.