My first message

[vreijs]

Hello all of you,

In the past I had bearable problems with restless legs and burning feet. This reduced somewhat by: having an orgasm; have feet outside the blankets (so keep them cold); and/or using peppermint cooling foot spray. These all helped more or less, but they did not stop fully the restless legs and burning feet. But normally it was finished say in 30 minutes after getting in bed.

I just underwent a spinal cord operation and thus I had to mainly lay in bed for some 4 weeks. After stopping the painkillers, my restless feet came back much more fiercely (luckily yet no real problems with burning feet). I am now some 3 weeks further and I still have these restless feet. I have to add that I am still not walking much (I can do now max. 1 km), but that will slowly increase in the coming weeks.
I tried (based on browsing the web) beside the above laready mentioned 'remedies': daily 1 tablet Cal/Mg (500/250 mg); daily 1 tablet Iron (15mg); twice daily herbal 'Leg-Aid' capsule (~75 mg, made of Butcher's Broom and Rosemary Oil); drinking over the day some 450ml maceration (2 teaspoons over 8 hours) of Melilotus Officinalis; several cups of camomile infusion tea over the day; and before sleeping 300 mg Kalms tablets (valerian/hop/gentian).
I slowly build all these 'remedies' up over three weeks, to see if one was successful. BUT this all had not been really/fully helpful! The Kalms' tablets seem to have the most effect, but certainly not fully.
I just started trying a home foot spa 1 or 2 times daily (for the last three days). The initial result: not significant yet, but perhaps I need to try longer.

I have the idea that drinking alcohol (one glass of port or wine) before going to bed makes it worse for me, in the two instances I did this I was awake until 04:00 !

The 'best' is looking at TV or do reading (even if tired...); when really tired (say between 12:00 and 04:00) I am able to sleep.
It looks though that the restless leg come back around 07:00 in the morning, so sometimes short nights... I hope that more walking and activity will work; my consultant also tells me this...

Do you have other ideas/remedies I should do/try to reduce my restless legs (and increase my daily sleeping time)?
Some people talk about melatonin (daily 3 mg), but I hear mixed results.

Thanks for any hint.

All the best,

Victor

P.S. I am a male in my end 50s, and I am 'overweight' and need to reduce with some 10 kg to get into the ideal weight region, working on that since the last 3 months.

[ViewsAskew]

Hello - and welcome.

Alcohol makes it worse for almost all of us. A few people find it helps....but not many of us!

There are a few paths you can take: exercise, supplements/vitamins, diet, non-prescription, and prescription.

Exercise - research shows that regular exercise does often help. You need moderate exercise - it appears that heavy or light doesn't work as well - heavy may make it worse. But, as you heal, moderate regular exercise does help many.

Supplements/vitamins - these appear to help those who are missing something, such as those who do not have enough iron in their bodies. Supplements that we hear of working regularly include vitamin D, magnesium, iron, B vitamins. If you are low in anything, increasing it may help. I was low in D and increasing it did help reduce my symptoms - not a lot, but some! Recently, some people have had success with amino acids, too. There are many other supplements that people have come here and have said work. Often, however, it is not replicated with others. Read through the posts in the non-prescription medicines, supplements, vitamins section and see. You never know what may work for you. Often things work for a few times, but then do not any longer. We're always interested in hearing what worked for someone for at least a month or more.

Iron is worthy of special note. It may help if your serum ferritin or your hemoglobin is low. Please get a blood test for both serum ferritin and hemoglobin before taking it regularly. If your iron is low - ferritin or hemoglobin - doctors suggest taking 65 grams of elemental iron 2 or 3 times a day and it may take a few months.

There are also non prescription medications such as kratom or poppyseed tea. These effectively provide opioid or opioid-like substances. They are not regulated, unfortunately, so it can be problematic to make sure you're getting the same dose all the time. Not to scare anyone -there have been deaths from poppyseed tea - likely due to people taking it who were opioid-naive - meaning they never had taken opioids before. Do your research before trying anything such as this and make sure you know the risks.

Prescription drugs are what is the last option for many of us. Once we've tried all these other things and they haven't worked, we often finally are so tired that we agree to take these drugs. If you get to that point, let us know and we can help guide you.

There are wonderful reading materials at the rls.org site. Please take a look there, too.

[vreijs]

WIll do the iron test, when I am up for my next blood test in two months (due to cholesterol). I might try the kratom/poppyseed tea! If people have recommendations of trusted shop (say on eBay), let me know.
Thanks for you help. I just rdered one of yur recommendated books on RLS.
All the best,Victor

[Polar Bear]

I think you will find the book on rls/wed to be of great value, it is superb to take to a doctor's appointment and for discussion purposes. And also for your own guidance and to be well informed prior to medical appointments so that you can consider and discuss methods with evidence 'under your arm' so to speak.

With regard to kratom I think sources have been previously mentioned - doing a search for kratom should bring up relevant posts but it does mean wading through each one.

[vreijs]

As non of the above seemed to have worked, I stopped all the above mentioned 'remedies' except for the Cal/Mg tablet and Iron/vitiamin coctail tablet (as I think they are always good;-).
I added though applying twice per evening sparingly Massage balm with Arnica (an acquintance pointed this out to me). This directly worked for the last 3 nights. A major relieve. I don't know if this will hold up of course. I will keep you informed.

All the best,

Victor

P.S. I postponed using Red vine leave or Californian Poppies. I don't know if I want to start using Kratom.

[badnights]

You probably picked the best ones to stay on. That was a lot of supplements, which makes it hard to tell what's working if you feel better, or what's causing the problem if you feel worse. Iron is definitely involved in WED pathology, and it seems as if magnesium might be as well.

You could take the Mg without Ca, as a salt of citrate and malate (eg. Magnesium Citramate, brand name) which is easily absorbed, start at 100 mg and increase every night til 500 mg or til your stool the next day softens too much.

The iron as sulfate or fumarate is better absorbed than as gluconate. Take it with vitamin C to allow absorption.

From WebMD, a caution:

Arnica is POSSIBLY SAFE when used in the amounts commonly found in food or when applied to unbroken skin short-term. The Canadian government, however, is concerned enough about the safety of arnica to prohibit its use as a food ingredient.

Amounts that are larger than the amount found in food are LIKELY UNSAFE when taken by mouth. In fact, arnica is considered poisonous and has caused death. When taken by mouth it can also cause irritation of the mouth and throat, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea, skin rashes, shortness of breath, a fast heartbeat, an increase in blood pressure, heart damage, organ failure, increased bleeding, coma, and death.

Do not apply arnica to damaged or broken skin. Too much could be absorbed.

Arnica is often listed as an ingredient in homeopathic products; however, these products are usually so dilute that they contain little or no detectable amount of arnica.