Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

I found this on researchgate.net:


Original article:

Use of Potassium Citrate in Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS).
Choudhury Wahidur Rouf , Choudhury Mizanur Rouf, Md Burhan Uddin,
Abu Yousuf Md. Nazim Uddin

1. Associate Professor & Head, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics,
Jalalabad Ragib-Rabeya Medical College, Sylhet.

2. Assistant Professor (Adhoc), Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics,
Jalalabad Ragib-Rabeya Medical College, Sylhet.

3. Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Jalalabad
Ragib-Rabeya Medical College, Sylhet.

4. HMO, Fellowship trainee (FCPS-Hematology),Dhaka Medical College &
Hospital, Dhaka

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ab ... me-RLS.pdf

I wonder if anyone has any experience that they could share? Looks like it is worth taking a closer look.

"After 15 days 37 patients (54.4%) shown no RLS (“0” mark), 20 patients (29.4%)
shown mild and the rest 11 patients (16.1%) presented with moderate RLS."

Not seen by those reporting use of potassium on forums, but worth a try.

I found potassium chloride helped my sleep at 1gm twice daily better than citrate. My RLS was better while loading, but then it made no difference, which could explain the results in the paper.

Some people are sensitive to potassium so build slowly to higher doses, which will require powder and small scales to measure.

QyX wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 25, 2023 6:26 pm

I wonder if anyone has any experience that they could share? Looks like it is worth taking a closer look.

I take about 3-4 grams (3 large 000 capsules) of potassium citrate every day in the evening, to prevent cramping. Have done so for the last 3-4 years. (And if I discontinue it for more than a couple of days then the cramps come back.) However, I never observed any change in my RLS symptoms. Having said that, I have reduced the amount of oxycodone from 30mg to 20mg a day in the last few years. But I started taking a lot of supplements and completely changed my diet (low carb, lox ox, low lectin) in that timeframe, so it's hard to say if the potassium contributed to that - I just never observed a direct connection between RLS and potassium.

Just a thought: I read that alcohol depletes electrolytes and alcohol exacarbates RLS symptoms, despite releasing gaba which should in theory have the opposite effect. So if low potassium levels would lead to RLS, there might be a connection there.

Would this go along with the people who are on the low oxalate diet? Since this is used to treat kidney stones?
Thanks ~ Mel

QyX wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 25, 2023 6:26 pm

I found this on researchgate.net:


Original article:

Use of Potassium Citrate in Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS).
Choudhury Wahidur Rouf , Choudhury Mizanur Rouf, Md Burhan Uddin,
Abu Yousuf Md. Nazim Uddin

1. Associate Professor & Head, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics,
Jalalabad Ragib-Rabeya Medical College, Sylhet.

2. Assistant Professor (Adhoc), Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics,
Jalalabad Ragib-Rabeya Medical College, Sylhet.

3. Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Jalalabad
Ragib-Rabeya Medical College, Sylhet.

4. HMO, Fellowship trainee (FCPS-Hematology),Dhaka Medical College &
Hospital, Dhaka

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ab ... me-RLS.pdf

I wonder if anyone has any experience that they could share? Looks like it is worth taking a closer look.

I hadn't seen this study. Thanks for this. I may repost it so that it's near the top of the page again. Take care!

So I read it. And don't like it at all. Red flags:

• First, it was not randomized and placebo controlled, but the study says "randomized" but never elaborates what exactly was randomized. (There was no control group, so how did they randomize patients?)
• Second, no word on any drugs the patients were taking, either RLS or other. Perhaps they didn't take any RLS medication. Also there was no information on the patients apart from age group and sex, but not even an average age.
• And finally the big one. After 45 days at the end of the study all 68 patients were completely relieved of RLS and apparently not a single patient dropped out. I'm sorry, that simply does not happen in medical research. You always have some patients discontinue the treatment (or simply disappear), and a 100% response rate is ludicrous. I personally know several RLS patients taking potassium who had zero effect, and zero RLS patients where it gave 100% relief.

Also the study apparently was never published and/or peer reviewed. My opinion is that this is a fake study and would never pass peer review.

And yes, I still recommend taking potassium if you have RLS (and healthy kidneys), because a typical western diet is usually low in potassium. But this study doesn't do anything to help. I'd argue it does potential harm, because the gods in white point to studies like this to support their disdain of nonpharma interventions. Studies like this are a prime example what a mess medical research is.

One more red flag is that the posting author, and probably the other authors, is a fellow trainee at a third world school. That alone doesn't make the study bad, but it does raise questions since many of the poorest quality studies come from schools in third world countries that no one has ever heard of before. And literally anyone with a university email address can post on ResearchGate (including me and PhD isn't one of the lots of initials behind the professional version of my name).

I used to review applications for certification by my professional society. When we started getting loads of third world applications, I had to start asking questions about the schools since one of our requirements was a degree in engineering or a related science. What I learned was that many third world "Universities" degrees are really 2 yr degrees and that the PhDs that they grant are often more like Bachelor degrees. As a result, many of the papers that they publish tend to be "not worth the paper that they were written on".