There’s a programme on 5 on demand about restless legs syndrome.
Hi Lenney,
I watched it. Sadly, it was widely criticised on my RLS-UK help forum. We all thought it was over sensationalist and didn’t mention any help available in the form of drugs/diet/alternative therapies. It just showed 4 people suffering dreadfully and getting no rest/sleep. Apparently the neurologists who gave up their time to talk about the condition had most of their footage cut out. There were just 2 quotes, " RLS is the most common neurological disease you’ve never heard of" and “1 in 10 people will suffer from RLS at some point in their lives”.
The only good thing about it was that RLS UK had over 4000 new visitors so at least those people would be able to read about the condition properly on the site and see that there are different meds available that might help them.
take care,
Jools
I watched it and didnt realise how dreadful it can be for some. I also wondered why no treatments were mentioned.
pollsx
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I watched it and thought the music was awful at the beginning to mid point, it seemed to improve later on. It looked a cheap style programme which is a shame.
Although I have had restless legs before it was a little educational for me in some respects. Yes I agree it didn’t mention treatments.
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Yep, that music was dreadful.
I have to say, it’s by far the worst ever MS symptom I’ve ever had and I’ve had them all over the past 24 years. At its worst, my legs, arms, back and face would all be twitching- but that was mainly due to augmentation on ropinirole ( dopamaine agonist).
It’s a shame they didn’t make it more scientific with detailed mention of what they think causes it, known triggers like caffeine, alcohol, chocolate, anti histamines and some anti depressants. I think they wanted to sensationalise it to get people talking, which they did, so at least awareness has gone up.
Jools
Typical Channel 5, but without pornography or benefit cheats.
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I take magnesium as soon as I feel the symptoms starting - watching telly in the evening for example.
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Magnesium Malate in the morning and Magnesium glycinate at bedtime - along with vitd3.
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I have quite bad restless legs almost every night for which I take clonazepam (1 or 2 tablets) - this usually works well within 10/15 minutes.
I just wanted to say my husband has very bad restless legs and his neurologist prescribed Rotigitine patch for his however this is used for altziemers patients to. I hope they can help you too good luck x
I thought I had severe RLS but it turns out whatever I had the symptoms are very similar. BACLOFEN got rid of it (x2 10mg a day). Now I sleep right through without having to get up and go on the indoor bike at 3am and again at 5am. I knew I wasn’t a Vampire. Pity it has taken over a year to resolve.
I’m lucky in that I only have this on odd occasions. For those times when it stops me sleeping I take Oramorph which relaxes the muscles and then I get some sleep. It’s obviously a highly restricted drug but nothing else worked for me. Maybe it’s prescribed for me because it’s an occasional issue for me so there’s little chance of any problems taking this drug. Hope you find something which helps you xx
I actually gave myself RLS through long term opioid use as it burns out your dopamine receptors so if you don’t keep upping the dose to achieve normal dopamine release which you can’t do naturally after a long period on opioids unless you keep taking more which burns the receptors out even more. It really is a no win situation, the body isn’t able to take opioids for years on end without consequences. Even worse still, when you try to cut back you get even more RLS!