alcohol

[xzqx]

This is really weird, but I've found if I have a few drinks at night, my RLS leaves me alone for the whole night. It's wonderful, except I don't want to end up a raging alcoholic. So tonight I am up with the restless legs.

Has anyone else seen this? I don't want to encourage anyone to drink their symptoms away. In fact I thought alcohol was supposed to make it worse. Not for me.

-Anne

[ViewsAskew]

It does seem to make it worse for some, but not all. I think you are wise to not want to fall into the habit of using alcohol that way, though.

[BeanieLee]

God bless ya if alcohol doesn't aggravate your rls. I won't encourage you to "medicate" yourself in that fashion too often either but at least you can HAVE a few drinks without waking up in tears clutching at your legs for dear life! Or at least if you're rls is real bad sometime you can nip it with a drink. Alcohol is the worst aggravator for me. It makes my legs absolutely crazy and the pain is relentless the whole next day. I had one glass of cabernet one night and spent the whole next writhing in pain. Vodka is also especially brutal. I prefer bourbon and I have noticed that I can consume more of that before the pain gets me and white wines aren't as harsh as red ones. but alcohol overall is horrible for my rls. Not the night i'm drinking but the next morning and day. I YI YI!!!

[xzqx]

Isn't it just so weird how different people are affected completely differently by things? This is the weirdest disease. I've never heard of a condition like this where the same thing causes one person's symptoms to disappear, and another's to get worse.

Well, my doctor has me on iron supplementation, and that seems to be helping a touch. No drinks last night and i only had 2 episodes that went away pretty quickly with a few squats and stretches. whew! i hope this lasts.

[BeanieLee]

Awesome Anne! that's great to hear. I hope it continues to work.

[kimberlynielsen]

Hi everyone, I've noticed that it depends on how much I drink. If i have just one or two my legs tend to bother me a lot more than usual. If I have a few to a lot of drinks they don't bother me at all. I don't know why this is but I love when the weekend comes around because I have an excuse to drink:)

[jep458]

When I was young (12 - 16) and couldn't sleep from rls, my mother gave me a small tumbler of red wine to calm me down and put me to sleep. Of course we didn't know what rls was at that time, but the wine sometimes helped. As an adult, I have found that if I drink more than two drinks I will sleep better that night but will feel intense symptoms about 12 hours later (the next afternoon). I agree that white wine is better than red wine. Red wine usually induces symptoms for me stronger than any other type of alcohol.

[Wayne]

Bumping an old topic here but I got to thinking about alcohol.

I don't drink myself, but I remember that most of my relatives (aunt, uncles etc.) almost always had one or two after dinner drinks, and my dad used to be a big beer drinker.

They complained of many ailments, but I don't remember anything that comes close to RLS. Wondering if the alcohol was having a "medicinal" effect.

My dad especially seemed immune to everything. I only remember one time when he was sick enough to miss a day of work, not from alcohol though, a nasty stomach flu.

I would certainly consider having a glass of wine in the evening if I thought it would relax me. Anyone else find any benefit?

[Polar Bear]

I rarely have a drink, just don't particularly like the taste of aloohol, but can say that when I would have a drink, I haven't noticed any real difference in symptoms.

[ViewsAskew]

When I was in my twenties, alcohol had no effect that I noticed, one way or the other. By my late thirties, it definitely made the RLS worse. Now with the heavy meds, it doesn't matter. I don't know if it helps or hurts anyone else in the family.