What causes restless leg syndrome?

[scott1]

I have been diagonised with RLS for about a year and I just realized that I don't know exactally what it is. Can someone please explain it to me?

 

[berkeman]

From webmd.com:

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/105/107675.htm

I get it occasionally, and my son gets it occasionally as well. Usually for me it's the night after a long run, and it's a bit obnoxious but I can usually relax through it. But if it were a lot worse, that would be rough.

 

[Danger]

Scott, thank you so much for posting this. I've had the symptoms of that for over 30 years, and my mother even longer, and neither one of us had any idea that it was a recognized medical condition. We just put it down to bad circulation. My treatment had always been a couple of ibuprofens and/or a quick shot of scotch. More recently, I found that a (generic) Robaxacet works well.
It was very interesting to see the medical data in the link. I never put it together before, since the occurrences were fairly rare to begin with, but it's almost never happened since I started taking Wellbutrin for my ADD. That's a broad-spectrum (including dopamine) re-uptake inhibitor, so seeing RLS associated with a low dopamine level makes perfect sense.

 

[Tojen]

I didn't know there was a name for it. I've had that occasionally for most of my adult life, very uncomfortable feeling in my feet when I'm lying in bed, like someone's playing games with the nerves. I've mentioned it only to two othere people, separately, and both said they had it also. Both said their doctors told them to eat more salads, and it worked. So I tried eating more salad, and it worked.

Must have been an old wives tale though, becasue it came back the other night after a long hiaitus, even though I've been eating all my greens. I see in the link that there really is no known remedy.

Thanks for posting it, Scott, I'm wiser about it now.