An unscientific study, but I was surprised that more people in the Southern and Western U.S. reported Restless Leg Syndrome.
I had read about link to iron deficiency before but was unaware of this med.
Hubby has episodes during sleep where his legs will just churn like he is running -- usually wakes him up. Has been happening more frequently lately and will discuss iron shots with LLMD at upcoming appt. His iron deficiency is mild and I believe it is caused by babesia.
Restless leg syndrome tied to mental woes By Martha Kerr Mon Oct 31, 3:02 PM ET
MONTREAL (Reuters Health) - People who suffer from restless leg syndrome (RLS) often have debilitating psychiatric disorders, including depression and anxiety, investigators reported today at big medical convention in Montreal.
At a news conference during the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians, Dr. Barbara Phillips of the University of Kentucky at Lexington presented results of the annual sleep poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation. Phillips is president of the Foundation.
Researchers conducted a telephone survey of some 1,500 randomly selected adults aged 18 and older. Their average age was 49.
Symptoms of RLS were reported by 9.7 percent of the participants - 8 percent of all men and 11 percent of all women.
Residents of the Southern and Western US had a higher risk of RLS than those living in the Northeast US. Other risk factors were heavy smoking, unemployment status, hypertension, gastroesophageal reflux disease, arthritis, diabetes, depression and anxiety.
Sleep apnea and insomnia appear to be other risk factors for RLS, along with difficulty falling asleep (taking more than 30 minutes), driving while drowsy and excessive daytime fatigue.
Subjects with self-reported RLS also had a higher incidence of being late for work, missing work, making errors at work and missing social events because of fatigue more often than those without RLS.
"There is definitely a circadian rhythm," Phillips told Reuters Health. Patients describe their symptoms as more of an urge to move rather than actual pain, Phillips said. Sleep labs are not actually necessary to make a diagnosis of RLS, she added.
"No one really knows what causes RLS," Dr. Phillips said. "RLS is probably not a single thing...A lot of things look the same but aren't the same."
"Primary RLS probably has some genetic basis," she said. "The brain content of iron is different in RLS...Iron and dopamine stores are low...Treating iron deficiency can correct the symptoms," she pointed out.
This past summer, FDA approved the dopamine agonist ropinirole (Requip) as first-line therapy for RLS. Phillips predicts that other similar drugs will soon receive similar approval.
She called for studies to better define the diagnosis of restless leg syndrome.
Copyright � 2005 Reuters Limited.
Copyright � 2005 Yahoo! Inc
Posted by groovy2 (Member # 6304) on :
Hi Bea
For many years I crossed my legs all the time- I was in constant pain so maybe it had something to do with that.
After a couple of years of treatment it has gone away-Jay-
Posted by BilltheLymeguy (Member # 7814) on :
I was diagnosed with LRS the summer before I experienced my tick bite and eventual Lyme. I am going to ask my dr's about the iron.
thanks, Bill
Posted by shadow13 (Member # 1467) on :
I've had RLS for at least twenty years now. Sometimes it can drive you more crazy than my usual Lyme pain. I've also been a bed-rocker since childhood so sometimes when my legs are so bad, I can't wait to get in bed and rock .... sems to calm those legs down a bit.
I don't know about anyone else ..... but that study that said people with RLS usually have depression and anxiety. Well .... I've been on various antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds since 1990. I am so depressed (have been suicidal at times) between the Lyme disease and my worsening back (Lyme disease related disk degeneration) plus sometimes my panic attacks are so bad that I am housebound for days.
Any other RLS people out there?
Posted by docjen (Member # 7510) on :
As a researcher, I have to think that the "clustering" of RLS that they talk about in this article is due to some other confounding variable. I also think the definition or criteria for RLS is very loose and broad: everything from tossing and turning during sleep to the extreme pain and inability NOT to move.
I have had RLS for about 6 years and I describe it as not necessarily being painful (though it can be), but it is INCREDIBLY unpleasant. Since I have been getting aggressive tx for LD it is getting better, but sometimes the dopamine still doesn't control it. I will sometimes wake in the night and just have to hold my entire body rigid until an extra dose of dopamine kicks in. All I can do is cry. It's really awful.
I really really hope these are overestimates of the incidence of RLS in this article because it is so very unpleasant.
Posted by Monica (Member # 224) on :
I'm in the northeast and never had RLS till Lyme. But then again, I never had a lot of things till I had LD.
Posted by timaca (Member # 6911) on :
I had RLS AND I was iron deficient AND I had lyme.
While in the library, helping my son do a research project, I ran across an article on RLS in the Harvard Health Newsletter. It stated the relationship between iron deficiency and RLS that can occur in some people. The article mentioned getting your FERRITIN level to over 50 ng/mL.
I have since learned that any ferritin level less than that indicates that your bone marrow is depleted or deficient of iron NO MATTER WHAT THE LAB'S REFERENCE RANGE IS FOR FERRITIN.
(My ferritin was 5 ng/mL) Once I got my ferritin level over 50, my RLS subsided for the most part.
Now, I'm just dealing with the lyme. Posted by seibertneurolyme (Member # 6416) on :
Thanks Timica for that additional piece of info regarding the ferritin levels.
Hubby's level is above 50 but can't remember the exact number right now. His problem may not really be restless leg syndrome but some other sleep disorder where he acts out his dreams. He does have the sleep apnea since Lyme and uses a CPAP.
If he has an active dream about running or swimming or something like that he wakes up and finds out that he has actually been making those movements in his sleep. I have to massage his muscles and it usually takes at least 10 or 15 minutes before he can get all the movements to stop.
Bea Seibert
Posted by luvs2ride (Member # 8090) on :
My husband used to travel extensively in his car and had RLS. Once he quit the road trips though, it went away. We always felt it was sitting too long in a confined position. He is a couch potato by nature, but after marrying me, we now have a farm and horses so he gets some exercise each day just tending the farm and this too may help.
Posted by Sue vG (Member # 3143) on :
Bea,
What you are describing may not be RLS. It sounds to me like you're describing REM Behavior Disorder (RBD) in your sleeping husband.
My husband has this, and also works in the field of sleep disorders, so he knows quite a bit about it.
Basically, the base of the brain stem that is supposed to shut down to impulses during REM sleep does not do so fully, and the body is able to physically perform movements that correspond to what the person is dreaming.
Unfortunately, my husband took karate for many years and has a lot of dreams where he has to defend himself, so I have been kicked very hard a number of times.
Thanks to lyme I now sleep so poorly that I'm usually able to wake him up in the early stages of a chase dream, before he gives a really big kick.
RBD usually responds to Klonopin. A small but measurable percentage of RBD sufferers develop Parkinson's, so this would be a good time to take him to a sleep lab and get a proper diagnosis and treatment for whatever his disorder happens to be.
Good luck,
Sue
Posted by shizuko (Member # 8213) on :
About RLS:
I have had RLS since I was a child. Now I am over 40 years old and finally got an official diagnosis for RLS about two years ago. Since then, I have been on Requip, which normally has been prescribed to treat Parkinson's disease. RLS could be caused by iron deficiency, dopamine deficiency, or could be secondary to other conditions, according to many medical articles I have read on RLS. Requip has helped me a lot for the most part. Occasionally I do feel the sensation, and for the last 2-3 days it's been definitely worse than usual. RLS itself is not painful to me, but quite often some intense, nagging pain triggers it. Mine could go up to just above the lower back sometimes. It always starts when I am trying to rest or have to stay still. It doesn't always come at night when I am in bed. Driving a long distance would do, whether I am driving or someone else is. I have been taking Requip just at night, but I might need to start taking it during the day.
I am not sure if I have Lyme, but I do have many of the symptoms. As Lyme mimics other diseases very well, it could be anything. I had a blood test done twice in the past with negative results.
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