Augmentation or weak Kratom??

Use this forum to discuss any issues associated with Augmentation
Eternityroad
Posts: 173
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:58 am
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Re: Augmentation or weak Kratom??

Post by Eternityroad »

When did the insomnia start? A lot of us get insomnia from opioid meds, I'm wondering if kratom has the same effect.
The insomnia started before RLS became an issue and before I started in on opioids. When I moved to town 25 years ago I had a job on the graveyard shift for two years. I finally got off that shift but ever since then I have had a problem sleeping at night. I take kratom in the middle of the night and have no problem falling back to sleep. As it is I split the Ambien in half anyway.
have you had your iron checked recently?
I am not certain if an iron workup was on my last blood test. I take a synthetic thyroid medication and have to get tested for that twice a year. Usually they do the typical culprits, prostate and cholesterol, etc., during one of those. Don't know about iron. I will talk to the doctor about it.

Thanks for your interest.

badnights
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Location: Northwest Territories, Canada

Re: Augmentation or weak Kratom??

Post by badnights »

Hi again, sorry I haven't been caught up here.

It's interesting how something like a couple of years of graveyard shift can impair our bodies' abilities to sync to the solar day. I was just reading an article about how light therapy was used to entrain a group of people to a longer circadian day (as if they were on Mars). The experiment lasted a few weeks (I forget exactly), but the effects were still evident 2 weeks after the experiment ended. What would 2 years do to you? Well, you know what it did to you. Some people don't seem to suffer long-term damage but others do.

It's also interesting that if you have Delayed Sleep-Phase Disorder (you cannot sleep at a normal time, you only sleep well later in the night, and consequently wake up later) then you should never try to cycle through, staying up later and later every day until eventually your night is at a normal time again. The reason you mustn't to do this ( - not scientifically validated, completely anecdotal) ... the reason not to do this, even though doctors will sometimes recommend it, is that ignoring your body's already-somewhat-dysfunctional circadian cues to sleep and wake can throw you completely out of whack and change DSPD into something worse : Non-24-hour Circadian Disorder.

I think WED/RLS promotes non-24 even without any other factors being involved - - but that's a topic for another post somewhere else. The point is that sleeping problems are a separate thing that has to be dealt with, but are intimately tied to the WED/RLS and things you do to help the WED can affect the insomnia or vice versa. I wish I was being more helpful.

Ask your doc for the usual iron workup plus ferritin.
Beth - Wishing you a restful sleep tonight
Click for info on WED/RLS AUGMENTATION & IRON
I am a volunteer moderator. My posts are not medical advice. My posts do not reflect RLS Foundation opinion.

Eternityroad
Posts: 173
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:58 am
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Re: Augmentation or weak Kratom??

Post by Eternityroad »

update:

the pramipexole did not work out. Even dividing the 50mg tabs into four didn't bring relief. I eventually upped the dose, felt a bit nauseous and then read that it could bring about syncope with which I was diagnosed 15 years ago. Currently take fludrocortisone and attacks are rare. Maybe once a year if even that. But I did have a mild attack while I was taking the Pramipexole. After a week and an half I quit the pramipexole.

Last week the doctor agreed to give me a script for hydrocodone and I went off the Ambien. He gave me 7.5-325 (30 days, three tabs/day). I also found a new strain of kratom which works quicker and more effectively than the strain I was using. I am using both the hydro and the kratom. 3 tabs/ day is not enough hydro to fix the issue in and of itself. I use the hydro for early evening and take a dose again before bed. No problems with sleep but that I usually have to get up about 3:00am and 5:00am and dose with some kratom. I use the kratom also mid-morning until time for hydrocodone--small doses every two hours. It has just been a few days and results are mixed. I dose with 1-1/2 tabs at 5pm and 11pm. I am finding that now the effects of the hydro don't last as long as compared to when I was last using it. Then I could get by with 1/2 tab all night! It has only been a few days and I am still experimenting with doses and times. But at least I am not taking 5 tsp. of kratom in a space of an hour to relieve my symptoms. Finding the new strain was a boon.

Btw I do not have a thyroid and been taking levothyroxine for 30 years. I get regular blood tests for to determine if adjustment in med. is needed. I am wondering if this medical condition has any bearing on RLS. Doc also raised my dosage on the levothyroxine this time around.

Thanks for listening,

Ken

badnights
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Joined: Tue Mar 10, 2009 4:20 pm
Location: Northwest Territories, Canada

Re: Augmentation or weak Kratom??

Post by badnights »

eternityroad" wrote:btw I do not have a thyroid and been taking levothyroxine for 30 years. I get regular blood tests for to determine if adjustment in med. is needed. I am wondering if this medical condition has any bearing on RLS. Doc also raised my dosage on the levothyroxine this time around.
I have heard that hypothyroidism and WED/RLS are linked - if you have one, you're more likely to have both. I can find a reference and a quote :
RLS prevalence is increased in individuals with hypothyroidism; hypothyroidism prevalence is increased in individuals with RLS. Persons with hypothyroidism and RLS are significantly more likely than those with hypothyroidism alone to have had hyperthyroidism prior to hypothyroidism. Associations between RLS and thyroid disease may shed light on complex biological mechanisms underlying RLS. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs ... /jsr.13091

I've also come across posts by people on other discussion boards who are convinced that levothyroxine makes their WED/RLS worse, or causes it in the first place. This link doesn't seem to be commonly known by physicians, and I haven't come across any research relating to it.

There is also a theory (published in 2010) that WED/RLS might be caused by excessive thyroid hormones caused in turn by insufficient dopamine.. or more generally, some imbalance affecting the dopaminergic and thryoid systems. All I've read so far is the abstract, which is poorly written. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2882550/

You really need to see about your iron status. Taking iron (oral or infusion) might solve your WED/RLS problems, or change them from severe to mild. You would have to be careful not to take oral iron at the same time as the levo.
Beth - Wishing you a restful sleep tonight
Click for info on WED/RLS AUGMENTATION & IRON
I am a volunteer moderator. My posts are not medical advice. My posts do not reflect RLS Foundation opinion.

Eternityroad
Posts: 173
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:58 am
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Re: Augmentation or weak Kratom??

Post by Eternityroad »

Badnights
You really need to see about your iron status. Taking iron (oral or infusion) might solve your WED/RLS problems, or change them from severe to mild. You would have to be careful not to take oral iron at the same time as the levo.
I got my own blood draw for iron a month ago because I couldn't wait the 2 months until my next Dr. appt. Iron numbers were low. I posted about it here: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=10958&p=104971&hil ... ad#p104971. Suffice it to say that Iron infusions are too great an expense for me. I am retired and on a fixed income. I have been taking an iron pill everyday with vitamin C for the past month. I am also controlling the issues through kratom and Hydrocodone. The symptoms are so unpredictable. Some nights a teaspoon of kratom will quiet my legs for 3 or 4 hours. Other nights I have to take another teaspoon within a half hour of the first and maybe another.


thanks for your input

Ken

badnights
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Joined: Tue Mar 10, 2009 4:20 pm
Location: Northwest Territories, Canada

Re: Augmentation or weak Kratom??

Post by badnights »

Sorry Ken I had forgotten about that.

I hear you about the unpredictability of it. I can almost never figure out for sure why it's worse some nights.
Beth - Wishing you a restful sleep tonight
Click for info on WED/RLS AUGMENTATION & IRON
I am a volunteer moderator. My posts are not medical advice. My posts do not reflect RLS Foundation opinion.

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