Possible link between RLS and CVI

[Katto]

I've had RLS for about 30 years but very strangely I only get RLS in my right leg. The RLS isn't what I would call severe but it does disturb the sleep of both my wife and I so we are both be very sleepy during the day. I haven't gone down the path of pharmaceutical medications but I have recently been trying a combination of a supplements, one that contains sweet orange extract which seems to help a somewhat, and the other being Magnesium Glycinatye. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post links to commercial products here but I'm happy to provide links to these products if appropriate.

The other path I've been investigating is a possible link between RLS and CVI (Chronic Venous Insufficiency). I came across this article from an Australian clinic (I'm Australian) - https://www.veinclinicperth.com.au/wp-c ... -Story.pdf
Which proposes that there may be a link between the 2 conditions.

From here I underwent an ultrasound on both my legs and was found to have two incompetent valves in my right leg. Given that RLS only affects my right leg I found this curious. My doctor didn't know anything about this but there are treatments for CVI and while there is no cure the treatments can help alleviate the effects the CVI has on RLS.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone else who has had experience with CVI and it's effects on RLS.

[Rustsmith]

CVI is a condition that commonly gets inquiries because many vein doctors make claims about being able to "cure" RLS. That is hard to understand since RLS is a neurological condition that can hit any voluntary muscle group in the body (I personally have it in my arms and abs as well as my thighs). A friend has a saying "To a man with a hammer, all the world looks like a nail" and that is how I view CVI. To a vein doctor who has tools to address CVI, any problem in the legs would seem to involve CVI. To further illustrate my point, several years ago my wife had a bleeding ulcer that was causing horrible abdominal pains. An endocrinologist said that it was pancreatic in origin and tried to treat that. An ER doc said that it was just constipation. Her neurologist said that it was a complication of her MS. It took an ER nurse to see outside of each specialist's "box" to realize that she had an ulcer and needed to get stomach x-rays and to see a gastroenterologist.

As for surgery to address CVI, of those who have had vein surgery done, some claim that they were helped and others report that it did nothing for their RLS.

[Polar Bear]

Many years ago I had vein surgery done and without any prompting my consultant commented.... I hope you don't expect this to help your rls. I had no such expectations, which was just as well.

[badnights]

And yet - - there is always the chance that for some of us, there is a link. It is tempting to pooh-pooh it all, but I can't quite. viewtopic.php?p=105214#p105214

[Rustsmith]

There is a long article by Dr Buchfuhrer in the latest edition of Nightwalkers that reviews past research on vein issues. The first part of the article is a review of a number of publications that are all very positive, but then he throws cold water on them by pointing out that
1) all of the articles were written by vascular surgeons in the business of doing varicose vein surgery
2) none of the studies were done as double blinds, but admittedly it is difficult to justify "sham" vein surgery
3) none of the patients in any of the articles had been diagnosed by a neurologist nor was one involved in any of the studies and finally,
4) RLS patients are highly susceptible to the placebo effect where if they believe something will help, then they will see improvement.

He finally concludes that maybe there is something of benefit, but proper studies need to be done.

[badnights]

nice summary! thanks