I never see any referance to any ailment of the nature of RLS in literature in the 18th,19th and early 20th century. For instance, cancer was regularly referred to as a "wasting disease"and heart attacks as "apoplexy", but no mention that I can see off anything like "walking sickness"
or "jumping sickness". Is RLS a product of later 20th century living?
Nooooooo, RLS is NOT a product of 20th century living..!!
It was first spoken of by Thomas Willis back in the 1600's. So, has been around a long time, and how many hundreds of years before 1600 we will never know.
Its only in the last 10 years or so, that it has started to be taken seriously. Doctors in the past have always dismissed it. never understood it, never found a way to treat it. There was no medication for it.
Even in this day and age, some doctors still dont know about RLS, understand it, know how to treat it, even tho these days we do have medications to use.
So we still have along way to go with getting this condition properly reconised by ALL medical professions.
RLS was probably looked upon as a psychosis with no name. They had no idea what it was, but i bet if you look for desciptions of psychosis, and descriptions of that on psychlogical web sites, you will find references to a psychosis that put many people in sanitariums, locked up. I am sure when people could not sleep and were pacin all night pounding on theirblegs , they were considered mentally ill back then. Can you imagine having RLS and no one knows what it is, so they just lock you up and even put you in restraints?
Your mention of being put into restraints with rls just made my blood go cold!
I found a reference to RSL by a lady at a Carolean court who is complaining about being unable to sleep at night owing to a gnawing pain and being unable to control her legs which were moving about all the time. She was profuse in her praise of the court physician who prescribed a wonderful linctus called Syrup of Poppies!!!!!!!! I don't think this would be allowed now!!!
i think syrup of Poppies is Opium so no wouldn't be used today well not legally anyway
Syrup of Poppies it is then; in truth there are folk on here who probably would have some control over their lives if it was available. Thanks for those replies though, quite illuminating.
weeds good.... for sleep lol tried that couple times even dr said to use if can hmmm dont know anyone that sells it lol
cocodamol is an opiate!!! and you can buy it over the counter in asda and tesco etc
syrup of poppies, i would say aswell is opium. I am sure it was used alot in the dark ages for RLS, or as people would describe it back then, as ffrwdwin has said above...as no name was offically put to it.
I have poppies that grow in my garden....seeded by birds dropping seeds. now i wonder.......only kidding.. lol..
All those poppies in the Wizard of Oz made Dorethy fall asleep...!!
lmao go for it............ heheee it's called the tears of poppy it's the white liquid you collect lol not sure what you do with it lol think it has to be a certain poppy though from blue poppy seeds i think............... don't quot me on it lol
whats good for Dorethy ... hmm... and look what she dreamed think i'll give it a miss lol
sal 
Ok, the poppies give you nightmare dreams....but then so does some of the modern meds...lol...
Irene...
thats why i said i'd give it a miss lol after what she dremt in wizard of oz ... lol
hope your well Irene
I am fine thanks for asking Sal....
Irene....
yes, that is what all the poppies in Afghanistan are grown for is opium, which make heroin, which also make some opiate pain killers, so yes, some people on here would be a lot better off if there were better access to leagl drugs, never mind the illegals. :o) don't take my morphine........We are having a "poppy" shortage over here soon, and we have to write letters to the FDA, so time for more awareness.
It's a sad fact of life here in the UK that drug abusers have access to Methadone for decades of their lives. Any suggestion you might make to your GP to give you something that might give you a decent nights sleep though,would immediately suggest to them that your RLS was just a front to allow you to access more potent drugs, so up tight are they about prescribing anything with street value.
Glad to see you haven't lost your sense of humour folks or is it drug induced euphoria! Just lately felt like trying the poppy juice just to get some sleep.
Oh, yes, we try to keep our sense of humour, regardless of what the blog is about. Its what gets us through sometimes....
This blog seems to have moved on a good bit from the original question hasn't it? I think Nightdancer's comment is particularly pertinent though. In times gone by, only the very rich would have had access to Doctors and Apothecaries and had their suffering recorded. The vast majority, IF they suffered from RLS, would probably have ended up like gibbering idiots, or taken their own lives with little mention of the cause of their distress.
Its true about getting any of the strong pain meds. here in the UK, they are very against using any for almost anything...A dentist distraction of a tooth usually get told to take paracetamol and ibuprofen...
But if your doctor knows your history and is treating you for RLS, then some stronger pain killers can be prescribed. I just guess its down to what doctor you have...
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