Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

Well, one of the ways I've coped with the RLS thing in the past is to get up in the middle of the night and deliver papers. I did that for 6 years. I've just never thought about there being genetic selection for people to become paper carriers, LOL. But for some people to be up at night protecting their families from bear attacks or whatever...

One thing I do know from those years of throwing papers - There are a lot more insomniacs out there than you would ever imagine. There were people who would be up pacing their floors at 4am waiting for their newspaper. (None of you people do that, do you? LOL!)

Susan

Hi restless.....

I thought your reply was interesting, since my heritage on my mother's side is Swedish.

Would you explain what you meant here, please?

That said, if there is something in the "get off your butts theory" Wink, that is something you clearly had to do in the northern Europe not too many years ago. Just in order to survive the very cold climate Wink .

Thank you.

Jan

If you didn't do things for yourself in a very cold Europe you pretty much died - i.e constant tiring activity. It used to be very VERY cold there, thousands of years ago. Glaciers and all that.

hence the correlation between RLS and "get up a do something". An evolutionary motivation tactic. I think someone mentioned it earlier in the thread. It's an interesting theory anyway

Hi Jan,

Neph mentioned it in his post about what Dr Rye said. He thought that since we needed red meat to survive, this might have been the body's way of making us restless to keep us on the move, hunting and gathering.

Thanks, Zach and Ann, for clearing that up. I must have missed it.

Jan

I'm Irish. Believe my father's family to be of Norman descent (i.e northern European. and my mother's family to be of Irish descent. I have fair hair and a red beard. It would be interesting to find out if northern europeans are more prone to rls. But i think we have to keep in mind that most people using this forum would be English-speaking Americans or Europeans(Irish/British). So the results of a survey on this board woul be skewed.

Studies do indeed show that Northern Europeans are more likely to have it. The REST study - easy to Google - was quite extensive and gives a great "big picture" of RLS.

The northern European connection goes back to Dr Rye's supposition about the genetic link to going and getting meat - if you live in a warmer clime, you don't have to worry about it as much - you could even be a vegetarian because plants are abundant year round. But in the north? Not happening!

I’m reviving this on the basis that, in one of the most recent webinars, they said IV iron efficacy was directly related to hemoglobin levels. It was so strong it was predictive of how the patient would react to the therapy.

This ties in nicely the thalassemia theory discussed here. I don’t think thalassemia trait alone causes RLS, but I do believe the lower hemoglobin count and size makes you more susceptible to RLS.

I actually read a study that 400 IU Vitman E prompted erythropoiesis and improved blood hemoglobin levels in mild anemics. Outside of that, I haven’t found much else one can do to improve hemoglobin.

Here is the link:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26780276/

Oozz - what did they say about hemoglobin levels? My hemoglobin has always been fine to abundant (until recently). My ferritin was single digits at one point, though.

ViewsAskew wrote:Oozz - what did they say about hemoglobin levels? My hemoglobin has always been fine to abundant (until recently). My ferritin was single digits at one point, though.

They showed a graph in the most recent iron webinar showing that IV iron worked better with patients who had higher hemoglobin levels. They added that even patients that are only slightly below 13 (the usual floor) dont respond as strongly. The correlation was so strong they could predict the success of the treatment.

Thanks, Oozz.

Fascinating - mine are usually around 14 to 15. This last time, it took a dip, but usually it was very weird to have such high (for a menstruating woman as ranges are higher for men) hemoglobin all those years, with ferritin in the teens or lower. And, iron works for me. It doesn't make it go away. But, definitely makes it better.

Oozz wrote: ↑

Sat May 16, 2020 2:12 pm

ViewsAskew wrote:Oozz - what did they say about hemoglobin levels? My hemoglobin has always been fine to abundant (until recently). My ferritin was single digits at one point, though.

They showed a graph in the most recent iron webinar showing that IV iron worked better with patients who had higher hemoglobin levels. They added that even patients that are only slightly below 13 (the usual floor) dont respond as strongly. The correlation was so strong they could predict the success of the treatment.

Interesting. My hemoglobin is 15, and I don't respond at all to iron IV. I guess there can be several factors determining the efficiency of iron IVs.