Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Please share your experiences, successes, and failures in using non-drug therapies for RLS/WED (methods of relief that don't involve swallowing or injecting anything), including compression, heat, light, stretches, acupuncture, etc. Also under this heading, medical interventions that don't involve the administration of a medicine to the body (eg. varicose-vein operations, deep-brain stimulation). [This forum contains Topics started prior to 2009 that deal with Non-prescription Medicines, Supplements, & Diet.]
jej345
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Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Post by jej345 »

It's a free source of dopamine built into everyone's anatomy. It has none of the problems inherent in drug therapies. The dosage is naturally limited, and overdosing is impossible AFAIK.

Why is orgasm never discussed as a treatment for RLS?

Is it just the prudishness of doctors?

Is it the lack of supporting research, given that drug companies have nothing to gain by funding it?

Is it just the bias against simple/free solutions, for what has become a huge "RLS treatment industry"?

I don't know what it is, but I'm trying to spread the good word. Tonight, if RLS is keeping you from sleep, try masturbating. After orgasm, the symptoms will be relieved, for a time. Hopefully long enough for you to get to sleep, if your case is mild to moderate. (This won't work if you're already taking dopamine drugs, obviously. In that case, you're just increasing your dosage without your doctor's consent.)

Also: Why is orgasm never discussed as a possible cause of RLS? If you're "getting off" multiple times per day, it's like you're getting regular opioid injections, and you may actually be causing your RLS in a way similar to the "augmentation" effect in drug therapies. The remedy would then be to cut back on the frequency of orgasms, and try to strategically limit your indulgence to times when you need to use it to get to sleep.

Disclaimer: I am not an expert or even a doctor, just a fellow RLS sufferer who wants to help others.

Polar Bear
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Re: Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Post by Polar Bear »

Finding that orgasm gives relief from RLS symptoms is something that has been mentioned previously on this Discussion Board.
I would find that the symptoms only get kicked into touch for about 10 minutes. Others have found that relief lasts long enough for them to get over to sleep.

If you put orgasm into the search box at the top right of the page it will bring up many hits. Unfortnately it means wading through them as it will also bring up posts where members have found orgasm difficult because of the medication etc.

Also: Why is orgasm never discussed as a possible cause of RLS? If you're "getting off" multiple times per day, it's like you're getting regular opioid injections, and you may actually be causing your RLS in a way similar to the "augmentation" effect in drug therapies
An interesting theory .. The cause of RLS is considered to be a lack of brain iron. Are you suggesting 'getting off multiple times per day' could be a trigger.... well we are all different so anything is possible.

Certainly the subject is not something I have discussed with my GP.
Betty
https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/a ... 0/fulltext
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stjohnh
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Re: Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Post by stjohnh »

jej345: Welcome to the RLS community, you will find lots of helful, compassionate infromation from folks who really understand how dreadful this disease can be.

I think this is the most unusual first post I have seen from a new member. Congratulations. :D

jej345 wrote:...
Why is orgasm never discussed as a treatment for RLS?

Is it just the prudishness of doctors?

Is it the lack of supporting research, given that drug companies have nothing to gain by funding it?

Is it just the bias against simple/free solutions, for what has become a huge "RLS treatment industry"?
This part of your question is easy: Discussion of sex is a cultural taboo, in nearly all cultures across the world. Research is expensive (mostly) and someone has to pay for it. If a company can't make money off the results, they don't sponsor research. If a government tries to do research on a taboo subject, the population objects. Doctors suffer from the same cultural taboos as anyone else. Most will answer direct questions about sex, but most will not bring up the subject if the patient doesn't ask.

Interesting questions, perhaps a poll of RLS sufferers from this forum would lead to some interesting results on the relationship between orgasm and RLS.
jej345 wrote:... Why is orgasm never discussed as a possible cause of RLS? If you're "getting off" multiple times per day, it's like you're getting regular opioid injections, and you may actually be causing your RLS in a way similar to the "augmentation" effect in drug therapies. The remedy would then be to cut back on the frequency of orgasms, and try to strategically limit your indulgence to times when you need to use it to get to sleep.
It is unlikely that orgasm causes RLS. RLS is thought to be due to low brain iron (BID, Brain Iron Deficiency) and AFAIK, orgasm has no effect on brain iron. Also, I suspect that trying to limit orgasm in hopes of avoiding RLS would not be very successful :lol: . Augmentation likely is caused by severe dopamine receptor dysfunction, the dopamine boost from orgasm is short-lived, making augmentation as a result of orgasm unlikely.

Tell us a little bit more about you, your RLS, and on-going problems. We may be able to help.
Blessings,
Holland

ViewsAskew
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Re: Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Post by ViewsAskew »

In some ways, I am surprised how OFTEN we talk about it here! There are taboos on it - that we do means a lot of folks have figured it out and want to share, lol. And some would say they were private and they just didn't want to talk about it. But, as noted earlier, for many of us it isn't a perfect solution. Depending on your physiology, it can take time, you have to be private - I couldn't be out at dinner and use it, say - and depending on drive, you just don't always wanna, especially as hormones change with age or because of other medications or conditions.

Some of us have found that orgasm actually can trigger RLS. Has for me and others. My doc said he doesn't bring it up because it can cause issues with spouses/partners expecting/demanding - he figures many of us will find out by accident (sex often is at night at the same time RLS is active) and that we can do what we want with it. It also doesn't always do a damn thing. For me, it can help, it can do nothing, and it can hurt. I also find that once the RLS starts, it is really hard to get to orgasm because the RLS is bothering me, so I cannot easily concentrate and relaxing makes it worse! For many of us, it is very short lived. It helps long enough to fall to sleep and then I awaken ten or fifteen minutes later with RLS again.

I don't think there are many simple answers for those who benefit from meds - sure, you can use all the things to help you cope, but once it is bothering you for more than a few minutes at a time and doing it 4-5 days a week, orgasm likely isn't enough. And, there are so many things - walking, exercising, hot baths, changing diet, eliminating alcohol, and so on, and many of us from iron as this is, as best we can tell, really about low iron in the substantia nigra. It's nice to have in the arsenal for times it's available, you are into it, and it works.
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.

jej345
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Re: Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Post by jej345 »

Thanks for the replies!
Polar Bear wrote:Finding that orgasm gives relief from RLS symptoms is something that has been mentioned previously on this Discussion Board.
I'm glad to hear that, but I'm talking about authoritative sources. Yes, it's often mentioned on internet message boards. But it's not mentioned on the main http://www.rls.org page, which is probably a primary source of information for people looking for solutions. It's not mentioned in any research that is searchable in PubMed, except for a single case study from 2011. (A search returns several sources listing non-drug treatments for RLS, but none of them mentions orgasm for symptom relief, although they all mention things that in my experience don't work at all.) It's not mentioned on the UK's NHS web site. Basically, name any authoritative source listing non-drug treatments for RLS, and they don't mention it. It's not mentioned on Wikipedia, because they can only quote things that are said elsewhere by authoritative sources.

For a disease that affects 7-10% of the population, information about the most accessible treatment of symptoms is essentially unavailable to people, unless they are suffering badly enough to talk about it on an internet forum, and to do so for long enough to hear by word of mouth that orgasm can help. Even asking their doctor probably won't help, because their doctor (for whatever reason, as I speculated above) is not likely to include it in a list of suggested remedies.

In my view, this is an urgent humanitarian concern, to somehow get this information out through "official" channels. At least we ought to be able to get it mentioned on the rls.org web site, right?
Polar Bear wrote:An interesting theory .. The cause of RLS is considered to be a lack of brain iron.
I think that's overstating matters a bit. From a source I saw (linked from Wikipedia), iron may be causal for 20% of cases. 60% or more of RLS cases may be genetic. My understanding is that iron is an important factor in the dopamine system in the brain, but iron deficiency isn't the only thing that can mess with that system.
Polar Bear wrote:Are you suggesting 'getting off multiple times per day' could be a trigger.... well we are all different so anything is possible.
I'm suggesting that, by the same mechanism that heroine addicts get RLS, a person who has too many orgasms could get RLS. Or by the same mechanism ("augmentation") that dopamine drug users worsen their RLS. All three are cases of heightened dopamine in the brain. That makes sense to a layperson like me. It's worth investigating. Where is the research?
stjohnh wrote:I think this is the most unusual first post I have seen from a new member. Congratulations. :D
Woo-hoo! :D
stjohnh wrote:This part of your question is easy: Discussion of sex is a cultural taboo, in nearly all cultures across the world. Research is expensive (mostly) and someone has to pay for it. If a company can't make money off the results, they don't sponsor research. If a government tries to do research on a taboo subject, the population objects. Doctors suffer from the same cultural taboos as anyone else. Most will answer direct questions about sex, but most will not bring up the subject if the patient doesn't ask.
People are suffering, though. Awkwardness is just not a good enough reason for a doctor to withhold such information. It's a form of malpractice. Doctors need to suck it up. I suspect, however, that ignorance is a big factor for doctors, because authoritative sources don't mention it. Even this web site doesn't mention it in its official publications. Is there anyone reading this who might be able to change that?
stjohnh wrote:It is unlikely that orgasm causes RLS. RLS is thought to be due to low brain iron (BID, Brain Iron Deficiency) and AFAIK, orgasm has no effect on brain iron.
I don't think iron decifiency fully explains all cases, or wouldn't red meat / iron supplements be a reliable cure?
stjohnh wrote:Also, I suspect that trying to limit orgasm in hopes of avoiding RLS would not be very successful :lol: .
Why do you say that? Maybe I was unclear: I mean limiting the frequency, of course -- not the magnitude. :lol: Just like you would limit the frequency of taking opioid pills.
stjohnh wrote:Augmentation likely is caused by severe dopamine receptor dysfunction, the dopamine boost from orgasm is short-lived, making augmentation as a result of orgasm unlikely.
You clearly know more about it than me. Would you mind explaining a bit why external dopamine sources (such as heroine or prescription drugs) can give rise to RLS, but an internal source can't? I'm going to read more about augmentation, at this point I don't really understand it.
stjohnh wrote:Tell us a little bit more about you, your RLS, and on-going problems. We may be able to help.
Thanks. Well, I don't remember the first time I experienced RLS, but it was probably 20 years ago, I'm 43 now. I guess my case falls in the mild-to-moderate category. It has been intermittent over the years, and when it's in the "flare up" stage, it still doesn't wake me up every night; and when it does, it usually suffices to get up and do some light exercise, getting my heart rate up for a few minutes. My doctor wrote a prescription for me once, but it didn't really work, and I didn't pursue it further, because I was too busy, and my case isn't that bad. Once I discovered that orgasm is effective for symptom relief for me, that's the remedy I usually choose. At this point, I would call my RLS manageable. I really feel for people who are in worse shape. Not being able to get a good night's sleep is terrible and can hurt your health and basically every aspect of your life.
ViewsAskew wrote:But, as noted earlier, for many of us it isn't a perfect solution.
I hear you. But none of the non-drug treatments that are commonly listed in official sources are perfect solutions. In my case, massage certainly doesn't work for me. After all, this is a phenomenon of the brain, not the legs. I think orgasm would work for at least as many people as those other remedies. Why not mention it in your "Managing Your RLS" article?
ViewsAskew wrote:Some of us have found that orgasm actually can trigger RLS. Has for me and others.
That's interesting. Like I said above, from what we know about the mechanism, it makes sense (to me at least) that orgasm could be both a treatment and a cause. Just like coffee is both a treatment and a cause for caffeine withdrawal headaches.
ViewsAskew wrote:My doc said he doesn't bring it up because it can cause issues with spouses/partners expecting/demanding - he figures many of us will find out by accident (sex often is at night at the same time RLS is active) and that we can do what we want with it.
Sex isn't the only way to an orgasm, though. :D I guess it might be a problem for older people, for whom masturbation might still carry a cultural stigma. For younger people, that's almost entirely gone these days.
ViewsAskew wrote:It also doesn't always do a damn thing. For me, it can help, it can do nothing, and it can hurt. I also find that once the RLS starts, it is really hard to get to orgasm because the RLS is bothering me, so I cannot easily concentrate and relaxing makes it worse! For many of us, it is very short lived. It helps long enough to fall to sleep and then I awaken ten or fifteen minutes later with RLS again.
Indeed, like you said, it's not a perfect solution. But it's a tool in the arsenal that if used correctly, could help a lot of people! Maybe try reducing the frequency of your "non-therapeutic" orgasms, so that it will have more effect when you need to use it for RLS.

Thanks again everyone for the replies!

Rustsmith
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Re: Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Post by Rustsmith »

I don't think iron deficiency fully explains all cases, or wouldn't red meat / iron supplements be a reliable cure?
The root cause of RLS is an iron deficiency in a specific part of the brain, the substantia nigra. There are a number of reasons that can lead to this deficiency. Some people, such as pregnant women or kidney dialysis patients, are simply anemic. Treating their anemia often resolves their RLS. Iron supplements can help these people but often if they need help more quickly, they can get an iron IV treatment.

Others have low levels of iron throughout their bodies as is evaluated with my determining the level of ferritin in the blood. This can occur for a variety of reasons. These people often need an iron IV because supplements are not sufficient to get the ferritin level to the point where it needs to be.

Finally others (including myself) have plenty of iron in the bloodstream, but cannot get it across the blood-brain barrier to the substantia nigra where it is needed. Iron supplements and IVs will not help us at all and can be dangerous if we get too much iron. The reason for this is not known, but current research is looking at a role of genes for this one. There have been a number of genes correlated with RLS but their role is not yet know, so time will tell.

Finally, I recently heard a presentation by one of the RLS experts about why eating red meat isn't part of the normal recommendations. His statement was that all of the iron in red meat comes from the blood and that cooking makes most of this inaccessible to the body. There are also issues with the adsorption of iron by the small intestines, which is why iron supplements are supposed to be taken on an empty stomach and with Vitamin C. Expecting to benefit from a big steak dinner is contrary to the need to take iron pills on an empty stomach.
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.

stjohnh
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Re: Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Post by stjohnh »

jej345 wrote: I don't think iron decifiency fully explains all cases, or wouldn't red meat / iron supplements be a reliable cure?
...
Would you mind explaining a bit why external dopamine sources (such as heroine or prescription drugs) can give rise to RLS, but an internal source can't?
Iron supplements and red meat rarely help RLS patients because the intestine severely limits the amount of iron that can be absorbed. As the ferritin gets above 75, it causes the liver to secrete increasing amounts of hepcidin. Hepcidin blocks intestinal absorption of iron almost completely. While people without RLS do fine with a ferritin in the 20-100 range, those with genes that cause inadequate blood brain iron transport require ferritins in the 200 and up range to achieve enough brain iron to alleviate symptoms. Many of those people can be helped with IV Iron infusions. My ferritin while taking oral iron and vitamin C was in the 70-75 range. After IV Iron Infusions it was over 700. My RLS symptoms were fairly well controlled with multiple medicines, but at the cost of nearly disabling side effects. IV Iron Infusions helped me get off all RLS meds and I have almost no RLS symptoms now.

As far as I know, medications, including heroin, do not cause RLS. Withdrawal from heroin can cause RLS symptoms, but that is different. Drugs are not a source of dopamine (with the exception of Sinemet=levodopa/carbidopa). Some drugs can precipitate a preexisting tendency towards RLS, like some antipsychotics and antihistamines. They do not cause RLS.
Last edited by stjohnh on Mon Mar 18, 2019 4:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
Blessings,
Holland

jej345
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Re: Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Post by jej345 »

Thanks to both of you, that's very helpful. I might ask my doctor to do a serum iron panel test. Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones who can benefit from some kind of iron supplementation.

I read the article about augmentation here. It seems plausible to me that orgasms would act much like a short-acting dopamine agonist, with the same benefits and potential problems with augmentation.

stjohnh
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Re: Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Post by stjohnh »

jej345 wrote:Thanks to both of you, that's very helpful. I might ask my doctor to do a serum iron panel test. Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones who can benefit from some kind of iron supplementation.
If you have RLS, you almost certainly have low brain iron (BID, Brain Iron Deficiency). The blood test for iron is of very little help, as it tells you what your BLOOD iron level is, it tells almost nothing about the BRAIN iron level. The blood level is not the same as the brain level because of the blood brain barrier. Specific genes cause the blood-brain barrier (by currently unknown mechanisms) to allow more or less iron to move from the blood to the brain. There is no test that a doctor can order that will tell you the level of iron in the brain. We know RLS patients have low brain iron by analyzing the brains of dead people that had RLS, and by FMRI studies.

The International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group recently published a consensus paper elevating IV Iron infusions to first line therapy. Most doctors don't even know that RLS is caused by low brain iron, much less that IV Iron treatment can be immensely beneficial. A link to the report is here:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a ... via%3Dihub
Blessings,
Holland

ViewsAskew
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Re: Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Post by ViewsAskew »

jej345 wrote:Thanks for the replies!

I'm suggesting that, by the same mechanism that heroine addicts get RLS, a person who has too many orgasms could get RLS. Or by the same mechanism ("augmentation") that dopamine drug users worsen their RLS. All three are cases of heightened dopamine in the brain. That makes sense to a layperson like me. It's worth investigating. Where is the research?
ViewsAskew wrote:My doc said he doesn't bring it up because it can cause issues with spouses/partners expecting/demanding - he figures many of us will find out by accident (sex often is at night at the same time RLS is active) and that we can do what we want with it.
Sex isn't the only way to an orgasm, though. :D I guess it might be a problem for older people, for whom masturbation might still carry a cultural stigma. For younger people, that's almost entirely gone these days.
ViewsAskew wrote:It also doesn't always do a damn thing. For me, it can help, it can do nothing, and it can hurt. I also find that once the RLS starts, it is really hard to get to orgasm because the RLS is bothering me, so I cannot easily concentrate and relaxing makes it worse! For many of us, it is very short lived. It helps long enough to fall to sleep and then I awaken ten or fifteen minutes later with RLS again.
Indeed, like you said, it's not a perfect solution. But it's a tool in the arsenal that if used correctly, could help a lot of people! Maybe try reducing the frequency of your "non-therapeutic" orgasms, so that it will have more effect when you need to use it for RLS.

Thanks again everyone for the replies!
I think Steve already said this - per the research, who is going to pay? Almost the only reason research is done is if costs of the research can be recouped by selling something. There is nothing to sell. There might be a university student who'd run such a study, if anyone would, as part of graduate research. That would be the only way I could think of to get such a thing done. It would likely have to rely on self-reporting; not a horrible thing as far as studies go, but isn't gold standard. To get people to masturbate hooked up to equipment to measure movements would be very costly. If you did get approval, the n would likely be tiny.

Sex, to me, includes mutual masturbation. In that regard, I think my doc's point is that he doesn't want a partner to badger the other one and put the partner in a situation where they are "required" to help so the other person doesn't have RLS. If people were told that masturbation worked, it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to make the leap to expecting a partner to help, whether they wanted to or not. And, depending on a person's relationship, it wouldn't be an OK thing to cut back on sex together for the other person to use orgasm to reduce RLS.
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.

jej345
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Re: Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Post by jej345 »

ViewsAskew wrote:I think Steve already said this - per the research, who is going to pay? Almost the only reason research is done is if costs of the research can be recouped by selling something. There is nothing to sell. There might be a university student who'd run such a study, if anyone would, as part of graduate research. That would be the only way I could think of to get such a thing done. It would likely have to rely on self-reporting; not a horrible thing as far as studies go, but isn't gold standard. To get people to masturbate hooked up to equipment to measure movements would be very costly. If you did get approval, the n would likely be tiny.
Depressing. Isn't there government or non-profit funding for such topics that stand to benefit patients, but not drug companies? A survey, if well done, would be much better than nothing -- it would allow the information to become "official".
Sex, to me, includes mutual masturbation. In that regard, I think my doc's point is that he doesn't want a partner to badger the other one and put the partner in a situation where they are "required" to help so the other person doesn't have RLS. If people were told that masturbation worked, it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to make the leap to expecting a partner to help, whether they wanted to or not. And, depending on a person's relationship, it wouldn't be an OK thing to cut back on sex together for the other person to use orgasm to reduce RLS.
However, that attitude (of doctors) seems a bit paternalistic to me. After all, who is the doctor to say that strain in one's relationship is worse than RLS? That would seem to vary case-by-case, and only the patient can ultimately make the decision. Of course "solo" masturbation wouldn't require any kind of cooperation from a partner.

P.S.: Sorry you were up at 3:47 am. :(

ViewsAskew
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Re: Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Post by ViewsAskew »

This is one of the complexities with the US system regarding pharma development. Lots of difficulties involved. It is one of the reasons that docs often use off-label options for things where the patent is expired; highly unlikely anyone will run a study for something that is off-patent, even when millions use it successfully.

Likely is paternalistic - my guess is that many docs are even if they do not realize it. Sex is a complex issue and it often isn't easy-breezy between partners. I am part of the #metoo folks - huge percentages of us have difficulties related to sex because of abuse, rape, incest, and so on. I can see why docs would want to walk a fine line here. A warm bath is almost never (that I can think of) going to be problematic in any way. Sex or masturbation is different. In a religious family, masturbation might be seen as wrong.

I think I was up until just before 3 AM - must not have changed my time zone when I moved. Cuz going to bed at 2:50 is so much better than 3:50, lol.
Ann - Take what you need, leave the rest

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badnights
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Re: Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Post by badnights »

Some of this has been said already but anyway:
jej345 wrote:I think that's overstating matters a bit. From a source I saw (linked from Wikipedia), iron may be causal for 20% of cases. 60% or more of RLS cases may be genetic. My understanding is that iron is an important factor in the dopamine system in the brain, but iron deficiency isn't the only thing that can mess with that system.
Even a genetically transmitted disease will have a physiologic cause. Primary WED/RLS is a genetically transmitted brain iron deficiency. Treatment is difficult because there is no reliable way of administering iron to the brain. Infusions and ingestion have mixed results, with some people not benefitting at all; not, presumably, because those key areas of their brains aren't iron deficient, but because the iron can't move in sufficient amounts from their blood to their brains (or from their digestive tracts to their blood).
holland wrote:If you have RLS, you almost certainly have low brain iron (BID, Brain Iron Deficiency). The blood test for iron is of very little help, as it tells you what your BLOOD iron level is, it tells almost nothing about the BRAIN iron level. The blood level is not the same as the brain level because of the blood brain barrier. Specific genes cause the blood-brain barrier (by currently unknown mechanisms) to allow more or less iron to move from the blood to the brain. There is no test that a doctor can order that will tell you the level of iron in the brain. We know RLS patients have low brain iron by analyzing the brains of dead people that had RLS, and by FMRI studies.
That's very true. But ferritin is still useful as an imperfect proxy. It's all we've got, and with caution it can be useful. If your ferritin is very low, you probably could benefit from iron therapy. More to the point, if your ferritin increases and symptoms decrease from iron therapy, you're on the right track.

Be sure if you ask for an iron panel that ferritin is included - it is not always part of a standard iron panel. Also. don't bother doing it if you're sick, or have inflammation anywhere that you know of, since inflammation will elevate ferritin so that it no longer reflects iron storage in bodily tissues.
jej345 wrote:I'm suggesting that, by the same mechanism that heroine addicts get RLS, a person who has too many orgasms could get RLS. Or by the same mechanism ("augmentation") that dopamine drug users worsen their RLS. All three are cases of heightened dopamine in the brain. That makes sense to a layperson like me. It's worth investigating.
You might be over-simplifying, I'm a layperson too, so maybe Im over complicating :)/ But as I understand it, augmentation is thought to involve adenosine, glutamate, and dopamine receptors in the spinal cord. Not simply heightened dopamine in the brain.

Orgasm probably helps because it "fills up" all neural pathways by which sensation travels from peripheral areas to the brain. There are no neurons left over to transmit WED/RLS sensations. My undestanding is of this so-called pain-gate theory is rudimentary, so this explanation is lacking. And perhaps incorrect.
jej345 wrote:I think orgasm would work for at least as many people as those other remedies. Why not mention it in your "Managing Your RLS" article?
We moderators on this board are patients like you who have volunteered to moderate. We aren't staff of the Foundation. But we can help you make this suggestion to the staff, if you want! Orgasm is indeed one of the tricks or tools that can be useful for some people at least some of the time. Jill Gunzel mentions sex as a tool to keep in your "bag of tricks" for dealing with WED/RLS ("Restless Legs Syndrome - The RLS Rebel's Survival Guide").
Beth - Wishing you a restful sleep tonight
Click for info on WED/RLS AUGMENTATION & IRON
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Techtrooper
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Re: Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Post by Techtrooper »

I know that orgasms work for RLS, from personal experience.
It helps for a WHILE...

XenMan
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Re: Orgasm as treatment and/or cause

Post by XenMan »

Techtrooper wrote:I know that orgasms work for RLS, from personal experience.
It helps for a WHILE...
Does for some, not for me. Also age is a consideration as to how frequently you can rise to the occasion, but the main issue is if you use it to relieve symptoms it is going to be disruptive. I consider anything that requires you to get out of bed or move around vigorously is too disruptive as a good treatment.

If you look at the madness in the posts above, everyone has a theory on RLS with even some hybrids; never read of the iron dopamine system before. Anyway the orgasm works, as with most treatments, as a disruptor. Your brain is temporarily a bit different after an orgasm, for some, so the symptoms aren't there; unknown reasons.

For those that say dopamine is the reason, where is there any evidence that RLS is related to dopamine other than the use of dopamine agonists to relieve symptoms?..Nowhere. It is the same as saying it is due to low levels of benzos or opiates.

Also sleep isn't improved significantly, so on pramipexole you are not curing RLS or the symptoms, you are just sleeping through them with poor quality sleep. If RLS was due to low dopamine you would be 'normal', but that is not the case with RLS sleep abnormalities:

"Acute pramipexole administration seems to exert no action on these abnormalities; the moderate effects seen on sleep architecture might be interpreted as the beneficial consequence of the removal of presleep RLS symptoms and PLMS."

https://academic.oup.com/sleep/article/33/6/793/2454637

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