Are there any alternative treatments for RLS that have worked for you?
Doctors should have cabinets in their office with every conceivable pill known to man. Not to prescribe but to take themselves. A guy comes in with a migraine, the doctor goes into H for headache, then M for migraine. He pops the pill. Within 5 minutes he's got a migraine, just long enough to let him know what they feel like. The same with restless legs. A guy comes in with the legs and the doctor must comply by taking the pill - R for restless legs, S for severe. Within a minute he knows for the first time what it's like. Before this it was just a joke, jumping legs and so forth. Now he knows. Maybe now with the memory of antsy legs fresh in his mind he might be more inclined to actually put some effort into his job. To me, you are not a good doctor if you're not a good detective. Most doctors are not good detectives. Even if a doctor has never had a broken bone he can identify with it because it's a visual thing. But most people, they hear restless legs and they think it's a comedy. Valium works for me but I can't get anyone to prescribe it. I took one 10 mg a day at bedtime for 30 years and then the prescriber died (never considered it), and I'm with the restless legs ( and arms, etc) ever since. Ok enough crying for now. Thanks for reading.
Sometimes just for laughs I'll get into a conversation with AI. It's just a high speed cross indexing system, but that machine knows everything a doctor knows. Maybe more. The only thing a machine can't do that a doctor can is write prescriptions. I'm telling you these doctors would be out of business if they couldn't write scripts. Thanks again It's scary how quickly AI is changing everything around us! I don't know how to feel about its use in medicine. They don't have a perfect track record, and you can't create empathy and compassion with a computer. I'm glad that my doctor is human, at least for now! 😀 -Melissa, team member
I’ve had such a battle with my RLS. It’s gotten worse over say the last 10 years. I don’t always get just RLS however. There are nights where my arms, stomach basically my whole body is excruciatingly restless. Of course getting up and moving around helps while I’m doing it. There is only one thing that has worked for me without fail and without side effects, and that’s the pain meds I have for my back pain. I’ve tried loads of things over the years all the way down to a bar of soap at my feet, herbal remedies, vitamins and supplements etc. I do agree with one thing however, it seems there are a big variety of remedies that work for a big variety of people. If one doesn’t work, don’t give up, there are a hundred ways to attack RLS.
I feel for all of us suffering as this is such a frustrating thing to go through especially when you have it in the middle of the night. I hope at some point they can find a medicine that can be used that works, and more importantly doesn’t cause more side effects than it solves for. Good luck to all of us! Keep on fighting, and I wish you the best of luck finding your remedy!ps I do also suffer with rls. Hi
. Several people have asked the same question and shelco05 hasn't answered, so I'm guessing the member is no longer active in the community. So much has changed in the past 16 years and even in the 8 years since your last MRI. I hope the MRI reveals ways that your doctors can better treat your pain or maybe even eliminate it. Keep us posted. I'll be thinking of you. - Lori (Team Member)
I have a very severe case of restless leg syndrome. I take medication every four hours. But I see a little relief when I eat foods rich in iron: buckwheat, sesame seeds, beef liver.
Unfortunately, iron is not absorbed from drugs, only from food.I am not a fan of doctors and strongly doubt they know much of anything other than what they needed to learn to pass enough tests to graduate from college. They call themselves doctors but they are technicians. Anyway, I have little faith in them and never spent a lot of time with them until my valium prescriber died and I was forced to go hunting. The blood tests are ok but I don't trust all the tests. I did not expect vitamin D/B12 to work for everyone not did I expect it to work for me. But it did and I felt it only fair to pass the info along just in case. I am aware that I got lucky. What 700 were you talking about specifically? Good luck. Hi
. Vitamins D and B12 are critical nutrients, so I'm glad you found out you were low and started taking supplements. They help regulate dopamine, which plays a major role in RLS. Defeciencies in either nutrient can cause debilitating excessive daytime sleepiness and can increase RLS symptoms. Here is an study from the National Insitutes of Health focusing on the role of vitamins in treating RLS that might interest you: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11892881/. That study does not include B12. Here is an article specifically about vitamin B12: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0303846722003584.
So it seems you really hit on something by increasing those nutrients. I'm thrilled it's effective for you and I hope you continue to experience relief. RLS can have a multitide of causes, so what helps one person won't always help another, but it's definitely worth a try. Thanks for sharing! Warmly, Lori (Team Member)
I have had some relief of symptoms from Chinese herbs formulated by my acupuncturist. I found the original formula he is working from by googling.
I tried the Restiffic foot wraps and got no relief whatsoever.Hi
. How clever of you to find the original formula on your own. Does it still help? - Lori (Team Member) I am.currently having acupuncture and he's trying to get me on the herbs did they work??
