working for me

[jeffisme]

I remember suffering from RLS when I was kid. What I called it back then was "itchy feet." It disappeared as a young adult but came back with a vengeance when I was in my late 40s. Basically nightly torture. Requip helped but then didn't. Out here in Portland, the doctor prescribed Mirapex, one mg a day with the usual warnings about gambling and hypersexuality. I saw the doctor a few months later and he asked how it was going. I told him I felt great and not only that but I won $400,000 at Las Vegas and my marriage is terrific. He turned white and it gave me one of the few laughs I've ever had regarding RLS. Truth is, Mirapex did help quite a bit but it leaves me somewhat loopy, and it's hard to concentrate on work in the evening when I start to take it. Then I went to the Johns Hopkins site and read about iron. I had been tested for iron previously and it was found to be on the low side of normal but still normal. the Johns Hopkins site, however, says that even though the iron may be in your blood, it may not be in your brain, and there are different kinds of iron supplements. What is needed is the absorbant iron (and, frankly, iron that comes with a substance that doesn't leave you constipated). So about a couple of months ago, I began taking what Hopkins said was the correct supplement, and ohmigosh, it's been amazing. I've now reduced my Mirapex to .75 a day. I don't get so tired and while in the past if I didn't take it by a certain time, I would be in for a horrible night, I've gone well into the evening where I've forgotten to take it, with no ill effects at all. I'm not a scientist or a doctor (and I don't play one on TV), so I have no idea if it is real or a placebo, although I'm scheduled for a blood test in the next few weeks, but if it is the iron the relief it is providing in relation to what I have been going through for so long and the difficulty that RLS has created for my life and work, well, it's just been miraculous.

[badnights]

Wow, that's great! And it's not pacebo, it's well-documented. Good for you, for doing the research and finding out the iron connection. Now your doctor will know for the next patient! On the JH site, you probably learned that RLS/WED patients should not be given Mirapex or Requip unless their ferritin is over 100 microgram/ml. Ferritin is a protein that transports iron, and it tends to be low in the blood when iron levels in the brain are low. Most people can get away with levels as low as 20, but WED patients need at least 100, and some of us need even more. The JH group has done a lot of pioneering research on this topic.

I too noticed real relief when I added iron supplements. I still need other meds, but I can keep them at lower doses by taking iron too. What kind do you take? I take ferrous sulfate, with vitamin C at the same time to aid absorption.