Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

I was gathering info from Amazon regarding last year's purchases for tax purposes when I saw that I'd purchased the bisglycinate form of iron. I knew I had, but thought it was more than a year ago. I found it tucked away in a cabinet, about 2/3 used. I'd bought it to test a hypothesis from a member that this form of iron would relieve symptoms quickly. At the time, it didn't help, nor did it increase my ferritin by much. I stopped using it.

Tonight I decided to test it again and this time write about it. The more all of us do this (and give it a good long try), the better information we can provide to others.

These days I take my meds at 9:30-10 PM and 1 AM. At 9:30 tonight I took the iron with some OJ. It wasn't on an empty stomach because I'd eaten at 8 PM. I sat quietly at my computer and watched part of a video. About 9:50, I was getting squirmy. At 10:10, I was pacing and took the first round of meds. About 30 minutes later the methadone kicked in and I've been fine since. I am sleepy. I slept poorly last night and have been sleepy most of the day.

Tomorrow I will try it an hour earlier than my meds.

It takes a full hour for iron to begin to work. You waited only 40 minutes. Congratulations on the methadone working completely to relieve your RLS within 30 minutes. Per several articles I just read it is only first detectable in the blood after 30 minutes and can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours to provide max relief. It was the iron, not the methadone.

http://prescription-drug.addictionblog. ... done-work/

Viewaskew, with all due respect it seems impossible to me to start to take your RLS meds (plural) at 10:10 and be "fine" 30 minutes later based on your recent below post that I copied and pasted:

Last night I screwed myself. I was so over the moon about not having any symptoms in the evening, that I forgot to take anything until bedtime. Oops. Since pramipexole takes 90 minutes, that wasn't wise. And then I only took 2.5 mg methadone at first instead of the 5 mg. It was a looooong night. I didn't get to sleep until about 6 AM, then still needed 2.5 more methadone around 9 AM. Still, that is only 7.5 total methadone. And, I had an inkling that because of the long half life that I really had more methadone in my system, so that I'd likely have to bump that dose a bit as the residual amount decreased. Goal tonight - take 2.5 mg methadone at 8 PM, pramipexole at 11 PM, then 2.5 methadone at 1 AM....then to sleep by 2 AM. A person can dream, can't they?

Noreserve, it's completely possible for me. After about eleven years experience with these drugs, I can say with confidence that methadone always starts to provide relief for me in about 30-40 minutes when I take it early enough and if symptoms are very mild. I've heard others say it takes an hour for them. As I understand it, and I did not read your links because I am quite tired, methadone is detectable in the blood in around 30 minutes and at it peaks in about 3-4 hours, but it varies from person to person.

The post of mine that you copied doesn't apply to tonight. I waited until bedtime - which if I remember correctly was around 2 AM - to take anything. At that time I needed at least 75% of the medication to be working. Tonight, I only needed a bit of my meds to be working - I was still awake and I my symptoms are very mild then compared to when sleeping. My guess is that at 10 PM, I need about 10% coverage. By midnight, I need about 50%, and by bedtime, 75-80. The final bit of methadone peaks about an hour or so after I fall to sleep, so that as the prior dose starts to decrease, the amount stays high for the first 4-5 hours I am asleep. Additionally, medications for most of us are not nearly as effective when we get that behind our symptoms - it often takes us hours to catch up and get them to abate. At ten PM tonight, I had very mild symptoms that were relieved by simply walking around a bit.

I have no reason to lie, nor do I have any reason to want this method to fail. I've tried it before when we had another member that was sure this would work for everyone - it didn't work for me then, but, I didn't document it. I want to document it and see if anything has changed.

As a follow up, it's 2:30 and I needed my full dose of meds; I waited to take the rest of them, just in case the iron had helped in any way. I started to get more mild symptoms around 1 AM. I took another percentage of meds, bringing me to about 75% of what I have been taking. I tried to sleep but symptoms prevented me from falling to sleep. I got up, took the final 25% and am waiting for that to work. Symptoms are mild enough while awake - and in line with what I'd expect given the amount of medication in my system.

Will continue tomorrow.

Hi ViewsAskew,
It is so strange, I had exactly the same thought. I had some iron bisglycinate left over from last year and thought I'd give it a go in the interests of open-mindedness and balance (and also, if I'm completely honest, still hoping that there is a magic bullet out there - and it has certainly, actually, literally, been presented as such). So to give it a complete chance, I did not take ANY other medication immediately before bed. I am still taking 5mg Oxycontin daily. I don't think this helps my rls at all (too low a dose) but I haven't managed to face going through the withdrawal period required to give it up. Not taking it would give me awful whole body restlessness similar to rls which could undermine the iron so to give the iron every chance and so that it could not be said that the Oxycontin interfered with it, I took the Oxycontin earlier than usual at about 7pm. I had a very light meal around 6.00pm and went to bed at 10.00. I had symptoms from the outset, albeit very mildly, so I took the iron with orange juice at about 10.00.

I wanted to give it every chance so I took 60mg (my tablets are 20mg each). I did also use my Relaxis pad. I did not notice a particularly obvious abatement in my symptoms but they were fairly mild so I held out. I held out until about 3.00 am when I couldn't really hack it any more and I took my Kratom which happily quietened everything down. Unfortunately I was afflicted with insomnia also but I eventually went to sleep as it was getting light. I had to get up at 8.30 because I had a horrible headache which I usually get when I take too much iron.

As I understand it, the premise advanced in favour of Iron bisglycinate is that it can only work immediately; it is not cumulative in effect, but I want to be absolutely sure so I am going to try it again tonight though I think I will take 40g rather than 60 to avoid the headache. I will post again.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if it worked?

Interesting. In the end, I had a nasty night. What normally works fine, didn't. I am guessing that it was related to taking meds late. Even though my symptoms weren't bad - like yours they were there and I could manage them while awake, but they were too much for sleep - waiting to take medications for me almost always puts me behind and it takes hours to catch up. I slept on and off for about five hours and finally got up for good.

I would LOVE having a magic bullet - heck, I put soap in my bed, lol. Having spent likely thousands of hours here and on other forums (in the beginning, I participated in at least four others), I don't believe there is a magic bullet that always works for all of us. There may be magic bullets that work for subsets of us based on comorbidities and our physiology.

I remember when I was young and discovered that lotion relieved my mild symptoms. For me, anything (sort of like Autism) against my skin that is noticeable will set off symptoms. So, dry and itchy skin along with being tired was a problem that lotion (and likely the massage that went with it, as well as the alerting) solved. I thought lotion was the magic bullet. And it sort of was. I had a routine for years - I never went to bed without a good coating on my lower body. A lot of what works is very specific to the person, I'd guess based on all the things hundreds of us here have tried and reported about.

Think I can say categorically that for me it doesn't work to provide immediate relief. I have tried it for I think 4 nights now. I have been taking it on its own after I get into bed, at the onset of symptoms on an empty stomach with vitamin C (although I now know from Steve's thread that that is not necessary) and without any other medication apart from 5mg Oxycontin much earlier in the day. It simply made no impact on my jumpy legs. Nor did it help me get to sleep.

I've only tried it twice - I simply forgot last night. No relief for me, either. The second time I waited about 1.5 hours without taking anything else. Again, my stomach was not empty - symptoms start too close to dinner at my house.

MANY years ago while my RLS was mild and more of an irritant than anything else, my GP suggested taking iron. I started taking iron sulfate occasionally and as I remember, it helped. I wasn't taking it on an empty stomach or with vitamin C and I have absolutely no idea what my ferritin levels were. But I do remember that it seemed to help when I was having movement issues and I was probably taking it the same way you would take aspirin for a headache, namely after the start of symptoms.

So, maybe it is of benefit if you are low on iron AND your RLS is fairly mild. If so, then it probably like trying to fight a house fire with a garden hose for those of us with severe RLS. Too little and MUCH too late to do any good.

My SIL has mild RLS. Bothers her now and then. Iron always helps her, no matter what form. As I said in another post, a member we dubbed CoW advocated that all any of us needed was to eat Cream of Wheat cereal and we'd be fine. 100% RDA of iron in the cereal, I believe. So, absolutely - try it. I have said for years that the first thing any of us should try is iron. And, maybe the timing of it does change things, I don't know. But, a great first defense.

Agreed; definitely the first place to start and possibly my symptoms are just a bit outside the range it could help.