Posted on 07/20/2007 1:51:27 AM PDT by neverdem
Imagine you keep waking up with a fierce urge to move your legs, each time further eroding your sleep quota and your partner’s patience. You have restless legs syndrome, a quaintly named disorder whose sufferers may get more respect now that its genetic basis has been identified.
Two independent teams, one in Germany and one in Iceland, have identified three variant sites on the human genome which predispose people to the condition. The advance should help scientists understand the biological basis of the disorder, which could lead to new ideas for treatment.
The new findings may also make restless legs syndrome easier to define, resolving disputes about how prevalent it really is. The disorder is a “case study of how the media helps make people sick,” two researchers at Dartmouth Medical School, Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz, wrote recently in the journal PLoS Medicine. They argued that its prevalence had been exaggerated by pharmaceutical companies and uncritical newspaper articles, and that giving people diagnoses and powerful drugs were serious downsides of defining the elusive syndrome too broadly.
Discovery of the genetic basis of the disorder “puts restless legs syndrome on a firmer footing,” said Dr. Christopher Earley, a physician at Johns Hopkins University who treats the malady.
Dr. Woloshin said that he “wouldn’t change a thing” in his article. He fears the new reports “will be used to validate restless legs syndrome as a highly prevalent disease,” he...
--snip--
Many human genes were first described by geneticists who identified counterpart genes in the laboratory fruitfly. Fruitfly researchers consider it a matter of pride to give genes colorful names, but these are often moderated or disguised by medical researchers who feel absurd names will not help attract research funds. BTBD9, the gene in today’s two studies, stands for broad complex-tramtrack-bric-a-brac-domain 9.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A Genetic Risk Factor for Periodic Limb Movements in Sleep FReebie
She describes it as a feeling, in both legs, of discomfort that is not quite pain. It happens mostly at night, but not exclusively, if my understanding is correct. It helps to move the legs or get up and walk around, but in the middle of the night this, of course, interferes with sleep. She doesn't feel this all the time. It seems to come and go. An attack is brought on or made worse by exercize, which is bad because she loves to exercize, particularly hiking and mountain climbing. When she feels the discomfort, having something on her legs, such as a blanket, makes it worse.
The symptoms are not so severe as to be debilitating, and she does not describe them as pain, but the Syndrome has made her very uncomfortable many nights for a long time.
So is there a test for this problem (i.e. does it show up on an EMG)...or is the diagnosis purely subjective? And what are the "powerful" drugs the article speaks of?
There’s no test available now. Diagnosis is based on clinical evaluation, mostly symptoms. I haven’t looked into the drugs because my wife’s symptoms are not sufficient for her to seek therapy, and I don’t work in that area. The genetic study described in the article could be diagnostic, but it’s not routine or generally available.
Thanks for the info.
I experienced this during my pregnancy 31 years ago. I told someone that if I could just take my legs off at night I could sleep well. After our son was born, no more problems. I feel for anyone who has it.
I had this when I was pregnant, too. I found that putting my legs on a pillow helped, (elevating them). I think it has something to do with circulation.
I don’t know if the diagnosis is subjective or not, but I worked with a woman who had it. Some days she came in looking terrible, and you could tell she hadn’t gotten any sleep. She said it was just annoying, but it really affected her performance at work. She had tried taking sleeping pills, but said they didn’t work at all.
I have never heard of it as a transient thing during pregnancy. That’s very interesting. ~S
By refined carbohydrates do you mean mainly sugar, flour, bread? Maybe I’ll get my wife to alter her diet and see what happens.
I never experienced it after my son was born and I was so glad. I know friends who have suffered for years and are on different meds. What ever works.
That could be the case. At the time I was developing toxcima and swelling like a pig. The RLS could have been
related. I never mentioned the RLS to my doctor because there was so much going on and I never related the two. Remember, it was 31 years ago and all this was so new.
I hope you got relief.
How the LHC came to be Large Hadron Collider
Beyond the standard model with the LHC
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Sleeping bags are torture for those with RLS.
(And yeah. It's miserable. Here's the best way I can describe it: You know that sensation that forces you to stretch? Imagine that that feeling lasts for a few days and no amount of stretching or walking brings relief. How long could you go before you considered cutting off a leg?)
A human being can take five minutes of "9" on the pain scale better than they can take five days of "3". It wears you down.
I get it sometimes. It's horrible. It takes about an hour of constant mild pain to finally go to sleep.
I take ibuprofen or I get up and walk around. I notice that it's less frequent if I have exercised during that day. Like running or doing leg exercises with weights.
The refined sugar is an interesting idea. I tend to eat ice cream before I go to bed.
Try stopping the ice cream and see what happens.
WalMart has in the vitamin section a homeopathic remedy. It is called Restful Legs and it works for me 50% of the time. Put two tabs under tongue.
I am on Prednisone and now Imuran too for IBD and still get restless legs; so I doubt that it is an inflamatory process. But I am not a doctor or medical person.
Lots of Iron has been shown in studies to help folks with RLS... even if their blood iron levels are considered normal.
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