Has anyone else noticed...?

[VinnyButch]

I'm new to these discussion boards, but unfortunately not new to RLS. My mother suffered from it for years, and now my sister and I both have to deal with it.
As other posts have mentioned, I've also tried marijuana as a remedy, and it does seem to have it's benefits, but I don't know if it truly relieves the symptoms, or makes me too dopey to care.
What I have noticed is that when I stick to a healthy diet, my RLS symptoms seem to flare up much less frequently than when I eat junk foods, especially sugary snacks shortly before bedtime. If I have a sweet donut or two at night, I'm done. It will be hours before I can get to sleep. I assume that's the amount of time it takes for my body to process the sugar. Any sort of sweet food will do it to me. Last night I finally fell asleep as the sun started to rise. I didn't know whether to give sleep one more chance or just hop in the shower and start the day.
Has anyone else notcied a correlation between sugar and RLS?

Vinny

[ctravel12]

Hi Vinny and welcome to this group. Please go to the forum New to RlS as there is a sticky post called "managing RLS" please read it. It does have some very good info there. Some food and beverages can cause the rls to worsen; however I am not sure about the sugar but do know that other members will post and give you advise too. In this sticky post is also an excellent article from the Mayo Clinic Algorithm. Also another good site to read is www.rls.org

I have never tried marijuana so cannot give you any input in that area.

I hope that this has been of some help to you.

Please keep us posted on how you are doing and that you find the relief for your rls and also sleep.

[mackjergens]

Vinny,
I have noticed that sweet things will set off my rls at times, the only way you are going to know for sure, is test yourself. Stop all sweets for afew days and see if you sleep better, then to make sure its the sweets, eat sweets for a day or so and if your rls kicks back in, you will know to stay away from the sweets. And that is a very hard thing to do.*L* but I now have to as I have become diabetic, I think that is when I noticed the possible connection to sweets and my rls. Since I no longer can eat sweets on a daily bases, when I do treat myself I have noticed an increase in my nightly rls. I still have rls every night, but there are certain things that will make it alot worse, such as ice cream, and of course all the antihistimes/coldmeds/OTC sleep meds/etc.

There is a list of foods/meds that can and most often do increase rls, be sure and find them and print them off, so you can always keep them with you at all times to refer to. It sure can help you avoid having a stronger attack of rls.

[KBear]

Here is a partial list of foods you should consider reducing or eliminating from your diet to improve your health and reduce RLS symptoms:

sugar
artificial sweetners
caffiene
alcohol

There are more but this list is a good start not just if you have RLS but for overall better health.

[ctravel12]

Kathy and mackjergens thanks for coming up to the plate for vinny. This is what I love so much about this group. There is always someone there to give wonderful and caring advise.

We do have a wonderful support group and love you all for it. Things like this is what makes this board such a success.

[blryan]

Vinny,
I definitely notice worse RLS when I consume sugar, alcohol, or caffeine especially in the evening. I can get away with eating sugar, chocolate, etc at lunchtime but no later than that.

It's discouraging that even one glass of wine at a nice dinner out throws me into fits about 2 hours later.

Barb

[VinnyButch]

As I read your posts, I appreciate all the helpful replies, but I find it amazing that many of you suffer from severe RLS EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!! It drives me crazy having to deal with it one or two times a week. I don't know what I'd do if every night brought the same kind of torture.
My guess is that I'd try to learn to love Tequila to the point where I passed out each night.
Wow.

Vinny