seasonal rls and antihistimines

[ivesgaml]

i was reading a posting by someone and one of the medications listed by the person was claritin. this was just one of the many meds that was being taken for some other reason than rls. but it made me think. my wife we just discovered has rls 5/6/04 and has for several years on and off...... i have just put this puzzle together . i am a electrician and am used to trouble shooting problems i always break things down to there basics. anyway we are. me and my wife. now going to stop the claritin and see what happens. im convinced there is a conection because i know this is not a year round problem for her but it gets severe enough for her to not be able to sleep legs kicking tinggling rubbing them walking around the works. i hope somebody else reads this and more is discovered. [/url]

[Guest]

I take Claritin almost every day, but only have leg pains a few nights a month. I am beginning to think it may have something to do with iron levels. For example, I have not had red meat in over a week and tonight am experiencing my RLS symptoms.

[Rubyslipper]

RLS hits different people in different ways. For many, any type of antihistimine is a killer as well as some types of sleep aids. Some of us can't have caffeine. There is a school of thought that says RLS is due many times to an iron deficiency. If you haven't had your iron levels checked, it's probably a good thing to do. In any case, most RLS relief is just trial and error. That's why this support site is so valuable, it gives us all a way to see what works and what doesn't. Just keep us posted on your journey; we're all in this together.

[Minou]

I have had my iron checked many times, but have never been found to be low in iron - but believe me, I have suffered a lot from RLS! I am guessing that there are several causes for it, or that there are different triggers for it. I experienced RLS the first time during my 2nd pregnancy. It didn't last more than an hour for a few days. Fourteen years later - BOOM! I suddenly had it every night. I have been getting treated for it for the last 8 years.

I read an article about an autopsy performed on the brain of a person who had suffered from Parkinson's Disease . My neurologist told me that they suffer from a total lack of dopamine, whereas an RLS patient suffers from not enough dopamine. The point of the article was that the brain in this patient was lacking a certain passageway needed to transmit iron to the area of the brain responsible for motor coordination. If that is true also for us, then we could have more than enough iron but it isn't getting to where it needs to go. That would explain why some people who don't have enough iron are relieved by iron tablets: they have the passageway, but not enough iron. Other people like me, unfortunately, have enough iron but it can't get there.

Has anyone else read this article, or heard about a dopamine connection to RLS? How about a connection between hormone levels and dopamine? I don't understand how someone can be RLS free for 45 years and then: bang! suffer from it every night, increasingly more and more intense. I've been able to control it with the help of medications and a terrific doctor, but I don't like taking so much medecine and I really don't like the idea of taking something for the rest of my life! Any thoughts out there?

[IrishVamp7587]

I also had my iron level tested and they said it was fine, so that's an interesting thought about maybe those like us, just can't get it to the right places.
I'm on requip now which is for parkinson's and RLS, it deals with the whole dopamine idea. It seems to help but I feel like there's still something wrong, I don't have uncomfrotable and want to move, but instead just uncomfortable, kindy heavy, weird feeling, but I don't need to move now. I've given up on the Dr's, they aren't doing anything or really listening to me. Two Dr's told me that me taking painkillers didn't make anything worse, but wow magically as soon as I stopped, a lot of things got better.