Hi there! I'm lookin for some suggestions

[ViewsAskew]

Dionne, not sure where they are, so it may take some looking. I recall several posts in the last few months related to iron, with listings of high iron foods, etc.

Also, not sure how much of a "search guru" you are, but lots of great info in the Internet with a search on increasing iron intake or iron RDA, etc.

[cmoore1958]

Hi Dionne,

I take a multi-vitamin with iron for women. I also take a magnesium supplement which helps a little. The iron can definitely make you feel sick. Some people cannot tolerate oral iron at all. I hope you are not one of those people. You could try to take your iron separately instead of with the multi-vitamin and take a low dosage every 4 hours throughout the day. Always take it with a little something in your stomach. A multi-vitamin in itself can cause some people to feel sick too. Unfortunately everyone is different. Talk to your pharmacist and see what brand and combination is best for you, remember to explain how you feel when taking vitamins.

To get iron naturally from your food you should east green vegetables . . . the darker green the better. Most meats have a lot of iron in them -- with beef liver being very high in iron (if you like it).

Luckily my iron levels are not an issue for me so I don't have to find iron in food to eat. I take the multi-vitamin + iron for preventative measures.

I hope this information helped. If I think of anythiing else that you might like to know I will post it here.

I'm sorry you are going through this terrible time with your rls, but know that we are here to help in any way we can. If one of us doesn't know an answer it never fails that someone else does. You're part of a family here. Keep us posted on how you're doing.

Cyndi

[SquirmingSusan]

Good to hear from you again, Dionne.

Apparently the RDA is 18mg for women, 8 for men and postmenopausal women.

Here's a link to the site where I found that information. They also have a list of food that has lots of iron.

[cmoore1958]

Ooops, Susan, looks like the link didn't show up.

[SquirmingSusan]

LOL, that's because I didn't paste it. Trying again -

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-Fact/5000/5559.html

[lorabell]

Hi.
Your Dr. needs to be INFORMED about rls. While losing weight is good all the way around, rls is vey non-descriminating. It doesn't care if your fat , thin, old, young, pink , green , purple, blue eyes, brown eyes, tall, short, pretty or ugly enough to scare the dead!
I am wondering about the Dr. Ask him /her if he/she has ever really read the www.rls.org site, or if he/she has ever treated anyone with rls before you.
An uneducated Dr.can do a lot more harm than good .
If he/she is willing to learn and work with you, wonderful. If all he/she does is hand out meds, FIRE HIM . You pay the bill, and you deserve to be taken seriously.
Please let us know what happens. Size has nothing to do with rls.
Hugs and prayers,
Lorabell
aka
wowobl

[irishlad]

Has anybody had success with Hylands "Restful Legs". It's a homeopathic treatment. Mark

[SquirmingSusan]

I think a couple of people have tried it and posted about it in the "non-pharmaceutical" section of the message board.

[KBear]

Mark- I've tried it and found it somewhat helpful. I use it when the legs wake me up in the middle of night. It takes about 15-20 minutes to work and sometimes it wears off in a couple hours. I have been able to fall back to sleep once it kicks in.

[De De]

I have been thinking about trying the Restful Legs too but can't find it in our small town. All we have is a CVS. I will have to go out of town to get it. Does it work pretty well?

[irishlad]

I did notice that the drug store didn't carry all of their products, only Restless Legs. The container has a website: www.restfullegs.com. They sell online and have a store locator section.

[ViewsAskew]

Having had none of these things work for me, I've always been happy when something does work for someone. I'd ask that anyone who tries ANYTHING, to please tell everyone about it...after trying it for several weeks.

Kathy's used this for a long time, so we can get a lot from that. Using it once and saying it works doesn't help as much....I've thought a hundred things worked....once or twice, only to find that they don't really work and who knows why the RLS went away.

We can all make more informed decisions when we share this type of information.

[KBear]

I have tried so many things over time and often I was trying more than one thing at a time making it hard to tell which "thing" was working. With Restful Legs I know it helps because I have been using it periodically for several months.

There were many times that I thought something worked once or for a week or even for a month. Until I discovered the "cyclical" nature of my RLS. When I'm in a good phase I can eat ice cream, drink wine, and coffee and still no legs. When I'm in a bad phase even if I eat the perfect diet, follow perfect sleep hygiene, get the right amount of exercise, take all the right supplements, the only thing that will help is the Ambien (5 mg and sometimes 10 mg). I have also recently added hydrocodone for pain.

I don't want to take Ambien (or hydrocodone) every night during the bad phase (which lasts about 10-14 days) so I try to sleep without it. This is when I will use the Hylands Restful Legs product. It helps me to reduce the drugs I need to use. Thus preserving my relationship with my doctor and keeping the door open for other options should it become necessary down the road. So I keep "Restful Legs" in my "Bag of Tricks" it helps but it isn't a cure.

One of the most important things I have learned from everyone here is to take the lowest dose of the lowest possible drug (based on the algorithm) for as long as possible. I know that this "syndrome" is progressive and I have watched many of you run out of options as you wait for the science to catch up. I know that this condition can get much worse so I'm pacing myself. I already had a sneak preview of severe RLS (one week of hell) which is what brought me to this place. I'm so glad that I found you all.

[Polar Bear]

I went to the link and found that Hylands doesn't ship outside the UK. I will google and see if I can find it for sale in UK.

Betty