Treating RLS with objects in bed

For everything and anything else not covered in the other RLS sections.
Post Reply
Karlcwater
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jun 17, 2016 4:07 pm

Treating RLS with objects in bed

Post by Karlcwater »

I have heard the idea of putting soap between the sheets, but my neighbour swears by putting a corned beef sandwich in side the bed. She tells me it is connected to her iron deficiency. Has anybody else tried this method? I want to give it a go but am worried about the bedding.

ViewsAskew
Moderator
Posts: 16571
Joined: Thu Oct 28, 2004 6:37 am
Location: Los Angeles

Treating RLS with objects in bed

Post by ViewsAskew »

Welcome to the board, Karlcwater.

Your neighbor is right in that iron is often a part of RLS/WED. It depends on whether you have primary or secondary. Primary -often inherited - has no other cause. It's important to have your serum ferritin checked. Ask for the actual value - it should be at least 50, and 100 is even better. Secondary RLS happens when you have another condition and the RLS is concurrent with that condition - kidney disease, pregnancy, celiac disease, anemia and several others for example.

With any RLS/WED, ask your doctor to please check both hemoglobin and serum ferritin levels. Your neighbor may have anemia - and taking iron or eating iron rich foods would likely help. Some people do find that taking iron tablets or eating iron-rich foods actually helps stop symptoms immediately. Most of us - at least anecdotally - find that we need to take iron for much longer before it helps. And, for some of us, improving our iron doesn't help at all.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

Managing Your RLS

Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

Rustsmith
Moderator
Posts: 6476
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 9:31 pm
Location: Colorado Springs, Colorado

Re: Treating RLS with objects in bed

Post by Rustsmith »

Welcome Karlcwater. I hope you do not mind that we split your message from the previous note on kratom and changed the title for you.

There are lots of things reported to help relieve the symptoms of RLS. The soap under the bed is probably the best know. Most of them probably do not really treat the RLS, but provide a placebo effect if the user believes that the treatment will work. Unfortunately, RLS is one of those diseases where a placebo treatment can sometimes be as effective as a treatment that is intended to address the RLS. The trick is that the user has to believe that it is going to work, and then sometimes it will!

Although your neighbor is correct that there is a relationship between iron levels and RLS, you would need to consume the corned beef sandwich in order to get any benefit with respect to the iron levels in either the blood or the brain.
Steve

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/a ... 0/fulltext
Opinions presented by Discussion Board Moderators are personal in nature and do not, in any way, represent the opinion of the RLS Foundation, and are not medical advice.

Post Reply