Restless Leg Syndrome
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Sleep is one of the curious needs that has been assigned to many of the living creatures on earth. All mammals, including humans, need to sleep or they begin to suffer bizzare mental and physical problems. Simple rest will not do; it must be actual "sleep" characterized by cycles of brain activity and inactivity and often accompanied by dreaming.
Given the unalterable need for sleep, it is amazing to catalog the nearly endless variety of afflictions that prevent people from sleeping. One such affliction is called "restless leg syndrome". RLS afflicts many millions of people, seems to increase in occurance and severity with age and will prevent a good night's sleep better than a a punk rock band living in the downstairs apartment. RLS hides during the day and usually only surfaces when the victim lays down to attempt sleep. Then the unfortunate person is visited with crawling, uncomfortable sensations in the legs (sometimes other body parts) that will effectively prevent the person from laying still or sleeping. The person ends up wandering the abode, deathly tired, but unable to sleep.
People afflicted with RLS are easy prey for charlatans that promise relief, including physicians that prescribe everything from narcotics to herbal cures. A foundation, creatively named "The Restless Leg Syndrome Foundation" tries to help people with this affliction by teaching them how to talk to their doctors and offers them hope through testimonials from people who have found relief.
RLS may have many causes, it is possible genetic or simply idiopathic (without a known cause). However some things are known to make it worse caffeine being the one most cited. Alcohol to will increase the length and severity of an attack for most sufferers.
Whilst there are many "cures" peddled by the charltans mentioned earlier there are some recognized treatments. Occasionally iron and vitamin B supllements can be successfully used, however as with any food suplement care should be taken as increasing one mineral over the recommended levels can effect the bodies ability to deal with others.
There are several medicines that can offer help, including calcium-channel blockers (metoclopramide), most antinausea medications, some cold and allergy medications, major tranquilizers (including haloperidol and phenothiazines), narcotics (codeine) and the antiseizure medication, phenytoin. Also sometimes effective are dopamine agonists (like pergolide) which are commonly used to treat Parkinson's Disease. The problems associated with many drug therapies are "augmentation" and the gradual loss of effectiveness of a previously effective drug. Augmentation refers to the development of restless leg symptoms during the day with sometimes increased intensity. The Restless Leg Syndrome Foundation gives details of these, as well as offering much practical advice.
It is interesting to ponder that of the basic needs of humans (sleep and food) that there are so many things that can interfere with satisfying these needs.
A great deal of information is available from the Restless Leg Syndrome Foundation web site at: http://www.rls.org
(Thanks to other researchers for contribution and advice) <ok>