Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Discussion Board

As regulars will know I have introduced dipyridamole to my regime (currently 100mg daily) and while it doesn't knock symptoms out completely it is helpful in that it eliminates the creepy crawley sensation. It also helps a lot with daytime sleepiness and general malaise and I have felt immeasurably better since introducing it.

However, I also use cannabis in the evenings, taken as an edible, to help with sleep. I have recently read that cannabis is counter-indicated with anti-coagulants (in my non-sciencey way my understanding is that cannabis causes blood to flow more freely so that the risk of bleeding is augmented if it is used with an anti-coagulant). This is also alluded to in the recent foundation webinar on medical marijuana.

Do any of you with a more medical/science background have any observations on this? I really do not want to discontinue either but set against the risk of an internal bleed ...

Well, my initial thoughts are that cannabis has been used by many many people for many years and so far there doesn't seem to be any known increase in bleeding problems. That said, there is an unfortunate lack of scientific studies regarding this and many other questions that arise with using THC.

THC is a mild antiplatelet agent, just as dipyridamole is. This study was done regarding the use of dipyridamole to help decrease abnormal clotting problems. It compared the use of dipyridamole in combination with other anticoagulants and found no increase in bleeding problems.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/7637364/

While it did not compare dipyridamole with THC, the implications of the study suggest that the combination of dipyridamole + THC similarly does not cause abnormal bleeding problems.

The test to determine if there is abnormal bleeding is called a template bleeding time. You can ask your doctor to have that done if you are really worried about it.

I also use dipyridamole and THC. I also take aspirin. All three of these are antiplatelet agents and I'm not worried about it.

Thanks so much for that, Holland. I knew you were taking both and was particularly interested to hear your view, especially in light of your background.

I am not a worrier by nature but I try to avoid an overly cavalier attitude. My GP is so accommodating that I am pretty much self-medicating, a situation exacerbated by the fact that I am reluctant to share with him that I take Kratom or cannabis as both are on the windy side of the law here.

legsbestill --- the windy side of the law---- I love it !! Beautifully put.

Thank you, PB. It is partly courtesy of one W. Shakespeare so can't take too much credit.

Hmmm... It is of course to your credit that you knew it.