Swing your legs

[Parrish]

I have been doing this for relief for 40 years. As I have low blood pressure, I assumed that was the cause. I increase blood flow to my legs through centrifugal force. I hold onto a counter or door jamb, put all my weight on one leg, and swing the other from the hip joint for 20-30 arcs. Then, I do the other. A fluid dynamics explanation is that this pushes blood to the foot, the outermost point of the arc.

This takes care of the RLS feeling, usually it does not bother me again that night.

[trevb]

hmmm, ill try this and let you know!!

[Guest]

A fluid dynamics explanation is that this pushes blood to the foot, the outermost point of the arc.

Parrish,

You could be right, but I suspect something else is going on. A number of people have posted various forms of physical gyrations which they perform to obtain relief from RLS symptoms. The one common factor, in my estimation, is that they all are temporarily elevating their respiration.

I have been fortunate to be near symptom free for nearly a year merely by abstinence from red wine. But up until that time I peformed push-ups prior to bedtime which eliminated RLS symptoms for the night. I discovered through experimentation that I could perform other exercises with the same result regardless of which body part I exercised. The common denominator is elevated respiration.

In the past I had requested others to experiment with this, but I did not get any takers. Care to test this out yourself?

[nephriticus]

That last 'Guest' post was mine. I forgot that I have to "Log In" twice to really be logged in. Never have figured that out. Sigh.

[trevb]

hmmm, didnt work for me .... boo hoo

[pico_rls]

I have also low blood pressure and I also found out that swings my legs reduce or eliminate the rls. I think that to keep the blood moving helps to eliminate diffuse pains. I tried a lot of experimentation with this and have found something that almost always works for me. If you go to http://www.massager.ch/restless-legs-syndrome.htm you will see an apparatus to massage the whole body in a relaxant position. All muscles get relaxed and oxygenated! This is only a prototype and is not to sale. Now it is in a clinical test by a swiss university. I hope that the results are positive.

[livesfortheOne]

I have also low blood pressure and I also found out that swings my legs reduce or eliminate the rls. I think that to keep the blood moving helps to eliminate diffuse pains. I tried a lot of experimentation with this and have found something that almost always works for me. If you go to http://www.massager.ch/restless-legs-syndrome.htm you will see an apparatus to massage the whole body in a relaxant position. All muscles get relaxed and oxygenated! This is only a prototype and is not to sale. Now it is in a clinical test by a swiss university. I hope that the results are positive.

Massaging my legs when they act up only makes the feeling worse. I tend to try to work the muscles or go to bed. Mine acts up the most when I'm really over-tired and trying to sit still. Right now, I'm having a rare daytime bout and am standing to try to relieve the symptoms. I'm at work so I can't go to bed and sleep it off Ignoring the sensations and trying to sit still only makes things worse and leads to jerking.

I should try the leg swinging, though, it sounds possible.

[LadyLarke]

currently my only relief is in jerking my knees really fast while sitting. Like tapping your foot really fast on purpose, but on the ball of your foot instead.

When my knees are just driving me nuts, doing this repeatedly helps for a while.