You are not alone if you have been diagnosed with restless legs syndrome. Nearly 15% of the US population needs treatment for this disorder . This ailment has been known since ancient times. Back in 1685, one doctor described the condition of some people who, before going to bed, experience a painful “restlessness in their legs and arms, so that they are unable to sleep, as if they were in the place of the most cruel torture”.
How to identify restless legs syndrome?
Treatment is prescribed if diagnosed. But how to determine if you have an RLS?
Answer the following questions that a knowledgeable doctor might ask you:
• Do you feel like goosebumps in your limbs?
• Does such a feeling arise not only in the legs, but also in the hands?
• Does it make you feel better if you get up, take a couple of steps or take a bath? Is it getting easier with massage?
• Does this unpleasant condition appear if you sit for a long time, for example, in a car?
• When is this condition more worried? At night?
• Has someone in your family complained about such feelings?
• Does your marriage partner say that your legs twitch during sleep ?
If you answered yes to some of these questions, most likely the doctor will say that you have RLS - restless legs syndrome.
RLS treatment
Unfortunately, there is still no effective cure for this disorder. However, there is comforting information that RLS may well be alleviated without the use of drugs.
This ailment is characterized by the fact that there is no one method of treatment. Relief occurs in each patient individually, depending on what activities, manipulations or medications personally facilitate his condition. This will require observation and perseverance. What helps one person with restless legs is not effective for another.
Therefore, if you are troubled by restless legs syndrome, treatment should be started to determine if your condition is caused by some kind of hidden disease that can be treated.
• It may turn out that adding vitamin B12 or iron compounds to your daily diet is enough and the symptoms of RLS will be eliminated. However, it is worth consulting a doctor so that too many minerals and vitamins do not harm your health.
• Those who have restless legs syndrome can start treatment with folk remedies by consuming foods that contain large amounts of magnesium . They say that this helps a lot.
• Be careful with caffeine. In some, it enhances the symptoms. Therefore, check whether there is a connection with the use of caffeine and increased sensation in the legs. You may need to completely stop caffeine.
• By reducing the amount of alcohol or completely abandoning it, some patients were able to get rid of this disorder.
• Light exercise at bedtime helped some people get to sleep. Try and you do various exercises, just do not try to do physical exercises intensively less than six hours before bedtime - this can aggravate the condition.
• If with the appearance of unpleasant sensations there is a desire to make any movement, do not suppress it. You will suppress - the symptoms may intensify. Want to walk, stretch, take a bath or do a foot massage - do it.
• In cases when during long sitting, for example, in transport, legs are disturbed, reading will help you to be distracted.
If medication is required
Doctors from the RLS Fund (USA) advise you to consult a doctor who individually selects the medicine for you, depending on your individual condition. Sometimes it takes more than one drug, but a combination of several.
It happens that a medicine that has helped for a long time, suddenly becomes ineffective. Therefore, work with your doctor and do not despair if you have restless legs syndrome. Treatment is possible and this disease can be dealt with.