Restless Legs Syndrome - Topic Overview

 

What is restless legs syndrome?

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) is a disorder related to sensation and movement. People with restless legs syndrome have an unpleasant feeling or sensation in their legs when they lie down to sleep. Most people also have a very strong urge to move their legs, and moving the legs sometimes makes them feel better. But all this movement makes it hard or impossible to get enough sleep.

When you don't get enough sleep, you may start to have problems getting things done during the day because you're so tired. You may also be sleepy or have trouble concentrating. So it’s important to see your doctor and get help to manage your symptoms.

What causes restless legs syndrome?

Usually there isn't a clear reason for restless legs. The problem often runs in families. Sometimes there is a clear cause, like not getting enough iron. If that’s the case, treating the cause may solve the problem.Thus the importance of cellular nutrition

Women sometimes get restless legs while they are pregnant. The problem usually goes away after the baby is born.

Other problems that are sometimes linked to restless legs syndrome include kidney failure,rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes,  nerve damage, anemia, and Parkinson's disease. But most people who seek treatment do not have any of these other problems.

What are the symptoms?

Restless legs syndrome makes you feel like you must move your legs. These feelings are often described as tingling, "pins and needles," prickling, pulling, or crawling.common results from poor circulation 

Moving your legs will usually make your legs feel better, at least for a short time. This problem usually happens at night when you are trying to relax or go to sleep.

After you fall asleep, your legs may begin to jerk or move. These movements are called periodic limb movements. They can wake you from sleep, which adds to your being overtired. Although periodic limb movement is considered a separate condition, it often happens to people who have restless legs syndrome.

How is restless legs syndrome diagnosed?

One of the hardest parts of having restless legs syndrome is getting to the diagnosis. Often doctors don't ask about sleep or don't ask about the symptoms of restless legs. If you're not sleeping well, or if you think you may have restless legs syndrome, tell your doctor.

Your doctor will talk with you about your symptoms to make sure that the feelings in your legs you describe are typical of restless legs syndrome and not caused by some other problem.

You may have blood tests to rule out other problems that could be causing your symptoms. In some cases, the doctor may order tests of your nerves to be sure there is no nerve damage. Your doctor may also order a sleep study called a polysomnography. This test records how often your legs jerk or move while you sleep.

How is it treated?

If your symptoms are mild, a few lifestyle changes may be enough to control your symptoms. Some changes that may help:

• Avoid tobacco, alcohol, and caffeine.
• Keep your bedroom cool, quiet, and comfortable, and use it only for sleeping, not for watching TV.
• Get regular exercise,along with proper nutrition.
• Massage the leg or the arm, or use heat or ice packs.

Hope this answers any questions you may have about RLS

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Best in Health

Jim

Why Am I Eating This?

The plight of emotional eating.
By Chris Downie

You may be an emotional eater and not even realize it.

Suppose you’re eating plenty of veggies, your sleep is consistent, and you exercise so often than you’re wearing out your gym shoes. It’s hard to believe that something could still get in the way of your health and fitness goals.

Something can, and often does: emotional eating.

Sometimes we eat for the strangest reasons. A bad day at work may culminate with a bag of barbecue chips on the couch. An argument may drive you to the fridge to calm down with ice cream. Emotional eating is possibly the number-one enemy of continued healthy living.

You can—and should—eliminate emotional eating triggers so they no longer have a chance to sabotage your lifestyle and weight-loss success. While it’s not always possible to pinpoint the exact root of these problems, you can take concrete steps to drive them out from the shadows.

1. Recognize the problem. You may be an emotional eater and not even realize it. Ask yourself a few questions: Do I often graze for no real reason, even though I’m not hungry? Have I found myself in front of an open fridge and not known why? Do I react to stress by opening my mouth and sticking a donut in it? Do I seem to gain weight when I’m going through hectic periods in my life?
2. Investigate and identify trigger times. Be aware of danger times and situations. Are weekends and holidays an emotional time for you? A visit with the in-laws? Talking with an ex? Do these times overlap with unhealthy eating episodes? The best way to figure this out is to carefully track your reasons for eating and anticipate problem triggers.
3. Ask why these triggers have power. The root of emotional eating often lies in large-scale issues. Are you going through a stressful period at work, at home, or in your marriage? Have you had a recent failure that is crushing your self-esteem? Are you unhappy with your day-to-day life? Have you gone through a traumatic experience, such as a death, divorce, bankruptcy, or layoff? List everything in life that causes you stress. Learn not to worry about issues that are out of your control.
4. Take it one trigger at a time. Write in your journal about how any of these larger life issues may be affecting your food choices and motivation. First, figure out how to recognize when the issue is about to trigger emotional eating and how to neutralize it. Then think about what steps you can take to keep the issue from taking hold of you. Focus on one issue at a time, and be patient and generous with yourself.

These steps can even help you start to solve some of the underlying major issues. Try hard to view the issues as challenges instead of stressors. Now that you are more confident about meeting challenges, you will be able to tackle these issues, too!

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Best In Health

Jim

Detoxification

Almost all of us are overloaded with toxins. We are constantly exposed to potentially dangerous toxins through the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we drink. An optimally functioning detoxification system is necessary for preventing disease and providing good health.

Every cell in your body produces waste that is poisonous and incompatible with cellular metabolism. This waste enters your lymphatic system and gets carried into your blood. The blood moves waste to the excretory organs for elimination.

It takes time to clean a body that has been accumulating toxins over a lifetime, but the rewards will be well worth the time and effort.

When you begin to cleanse for healing, every system in your body will start eliminating built up, stored waste. Bringing toxins out of storage and into motion for elimination often causes uncomfortable symptoms - a healing crisis. Symptoms follow the reverse order in which they appeared on your way into un-health.

  Rest and adequate hydration is critical in this stage.

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Best in Health

JIM

Common drugs increase risk of stroke and death

Reasons to avoid antidepressants: They increase your risk of stroke and death.

If your immediate reaction is to toss them in the trash or dump them down the toilet, wait just a second. The researchers would like you to know that it's a "relatively small" risk -- so there's no cause for alarm, and, of course, there's no reason to stop taking your meds.
Of course that's what they said. No matter how great the risk, or how small the benefit, the best line these scientists can come up with is that you need to weigh a drug's risks against its benefits. I could be wrong here, but isn't that what this study just did?
Out of the 136,293 women in the Women's Health Initiative, the ones taking SSRIs like Prozac and Zoloft were 45 percent more likely to have a stroke and 32 percent more likely to die, compared to those not taking the drugs.
Those are odds I'd rather not take my chances with, especially when the drugs aren't that effective to begin with – and when there are plenty of other safer ways to beat the blues.
In study after study, placebos routinely outperform antidepressants. In fact, these meds are consistently beaten by just about anything researchers put them up against. I wouldn't be surprised if a study proved that you could beat depression by going fishing. After all, staying active is one of the best ways to pull yourself out of the dumps.
So if you're battling the blues, skip the meds and take a vacation... go out to dinner with friends... take up a hobby.
Or, as one new study suggested, have some green tea. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that seniors who had four or more cups of green tea per day were 44 percent less likely to suffer from depression.
And if you STILL feel like you need to pop a pill to feel better, try some St. John's wort. It's cheaper, safer, and more effective than most commonly prescribed antidepressants.

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Best in Health

JIM