New to forums, looking for help with RLS.

[jjmack]

Hello, New to the forums.

Struggling with restless leg syndrome and leg spasms. I'm not looking to go the pharmaceuticals medication route.

Currently I have been trying these supplements: (Potassium, Iron, Magnesium, Sodium {extra table salt}) individually but have not found any relief.

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm open to home remedies & outside the box ideas, good resourceful websites, etc.

Any help would be much appreciated Thanks in advance.

[Rustsmith]

There are only a few non-pharmaceutical options that generally work. The first is oral iron supplements, but they have to be done correctly and take a while (months) to be effective. They also don't help everyone. To go that route, you need to take at least 65mg equivalents of iron per day (that is 325mg of iron sulfate, but other products also work). You should probably also take it with vitamin C to help keep it bio-available. It needs to be taken on an empty stomach and not at the same time as other minerals (calcium, magnesium or zinc) or thyroid meds.

The other approach that works is soaking your legs in very hot water (some prefer very cold). This seems to turn off the need to move for about 20 minutes, which is often long enough to fall asleep.

Beyond that, the other home remedies (soap in the bed, etc) only seem to work if you believe they will help. RLS is known to have a strong placebo effect. You will also find loads of websites touting "cures" or unusual pieces of tech that claim to manage your RLS. Some get help from tens units, but others find they are a waste of time and money.