Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

There was a Foundation webinar presented over a year ago that dealt with circulatory issues in our legs. I think that the two doctors who did the presentation were with Penn State Univ. The one thing that I remember from it was that they found that under "normal" conditions, the veins in our legs allow more blood flow than normal. However, when the body is stressed with hypoxia for any reason, the normal reaction is that the veins dilate to allow more blood flow. But in RLS, the veins only dilate a little bit, so we do not see the increase in blood flow that would occur without RLS. They used this as an example of why RLS can be more severe for those of us who live at higher elevations. This would also track with issues in airplanes since the cabin is pressurized equal to an elevation of about 10,000 ft.

I remembered this because as a runner, it explained why I can do well in 800m races but not 5000. In the 800, the race is over before the body can react to the hypoxia of running hard. Since I start out with some level of dilation in my veins, I have a bit of an advantage. For the 5K, there is lots of time for the body of other runners to adjust and therefore they have more blood flow in their legs to power the muscles and I don't get that benefit.

I had some very long ones left over from surgery so wore them for an overseas flight. While sitting in my seat I had to get them off before the plane even took off. For me they were terrible. During recovering from surgery I had an inflatable contraption around each leg which expanded and contracted. That actually felt good and I didn't have RLS symptoms then.

I have had decreased circulation for over a year now. I can't get the swelling in my legs to be gone. I don't know if this has changed my RLS and spasms.