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Once the diagnosis of restless leg syndrome has been made, the prognosis is good and it makes sense to follow your doctor's orders. Unfortunately, there's nothing one could really do to prevent it. It's largely genetic and associated with some underlying problems. Hopefully if we can treat the underlying problems, the disease will remit on its own. Sometimes has an unusual course. It can get better. It can get worse through the life cycle, but overall it has an excellent prognosis and can be treated.
Once the diagnosis of restless leg syndrome has been made, the prognosis is good and it makes sense to follow your doctor's orders. Unfortunately, there's nothing one could really do to prevent it. It's largely genetic and associated with some underlying problems. Hopefully if we can treat the underlying problems, the disease will remit on its own. Sometimes has an unusual course. It can get better. It can get worse through the life cycle, but overall it has an excellent prognosis and can be treated.
There are a variety of other medical problems that are associated with restless leg syndrome. One of them is attention deficit, hyperactivity, disorder, ADHD. It's not something we would think of, but there's a big association. There's also diseases like Parkinson's disease, which is on that spectrum of movement disorder, peripheral neuropathy, kidney failure. As I mentioned earlier, diabetes, thyroid disease, certain autoimmune diseases like Sjogren's syndrome, celiac disease, and even rheumatoid arthritis, there tends to be an increased risk of those things. So certainly if anybody comes in with kidney disease, I'm also going to be asking about restless legs, whether the patients bringing it up to me or not, because I know they're common. If we can fix the underlying thing, we can often fix the restless legs. Restless leg syndrome is highly treatable and it's really gratifying to treat. Sometimes people can't sleep at night, they're uncomfortable. And once we give them the right treatment, they're very grateful to get back the quality of their lives and their sleep.
Restless leg syndrome is caused by a neurologic glitch in the brain area of the brain called the substantia nigra. And it's associated with movement when the appropriate neuro-transmitters dopamine are not produced appropriately. The patient develops this disorder.
So in conclusion, restless leg syndrome is a common neurologic disorder that affects our legs, makes them feel uncomfortable. It gives us an irresistible urge to move occurs at rest and is worse with inactivity occurs more commonly in the evening than the daytime. And the good news is there's lots of treatments. It does tend to run in families, but despite that we have good medications, some physical interventions and some labs to perform that help us understand and treat the underlying problems. We also can give medications and take offending agents away, but overall, the prognosis for restless leg syndrome is very good.
Restless leg syndrome is typically genetic, about 60% of the way genetic. So it runs in families. Most people will be diagnosed before they're 20. At least they'll have symptoms before they're 20, but since it does run in families, people normalize it since their mother or sister has the same condition. They think this is what everybody must be like, but some people develop restless leg syndrome later in life due to a secondary condition such as Parkinson's disease or iron deficiency pregnancy. Also it's greatly associated with renal disease, kidney disease.
There's some interesting research going on in the field of restless leg syndrome. What they're finding is definitely a genetic link. Currently we know of four different gene families that have been associated with restless leg syndrome. They tend to be in the French, Canadian, German and Italian families. And so they're studying those to get more information so we can build drugs that are more specific to this disorder.
Restless leg syndrome is a neurologic disorder that occurs in about two to 15% of the population. It's characterized by five things. The first thing is an irresistible urge to move the legs. It's always the legs, but it may also include the torso or the arms. And it's often associated with a creepy crawly, irritable, indescribable, uncomfortable sensation. Some people say it's burning. Some people say it's itching. Some people actually don't have a feeling at all, but just a really strong desire to move. When one moves, the sensation goes away, but shortly it comes right back. So people often walk or rub their legs or stretch or jump up and down or ride a bike, whatever they need to do to move, to make the sensation go away. When they go back to rest, the sensation comes back again. Symptoms typically occur in the evening hours and they always occur at rest while the patient's moving, they don't have any weird sensations, but at rest, whether it's sitting or lying or trying to fall asleep at night, the sensation comes back. It also can't be explained by any other medical condition.
There are several different risk factors associated with RLS. The first is definitely genetic and in fact, Caucasians, much more than any other races in the world, are likely to have restless leg syndrome. Women twice as often will have restless leg syndrome versus men. And the older we get, the more likely we are to develop restless leg syndrome, but it's associated with an iron deficiency. So if somebody has had a terrible motor vehicle accident and has lost a lot of blood or had a surgery where they've lost a lot of blood, whereas developed anemia because they have unfortunately a slow bleed in their gut and they're becoming more and more iron deficient, they're much more likely to have it. So renal disease, which affects the kidneys, but the kidneys also have a job of stimulating the bone marrow to make red blood cells will also be a disease risk factor for restless leg syndrome. Certain medications can bring it on as well. And those can include common drugs like antidepressants, the SSRI drugs and the Prozac family, for example, can cause restless leg syndrome. Anti-histamines like over the counter Benadryl or Zyrtec or any of those types of drugs can also cause this to happen. So a variety of drugs can create it. And the good news is once we take those drugs it can go away. Those are lucky cases to treat.
Certified in Sleep Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine
Certified in Obesity Medicine by the American Board of Obesity Medicine
Certified in Sleep Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine
Certified in Obesity Medicine by the American Board of Obesity Medicine
Certified in Sleep Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine
Certified in Obesity Medicine by the American Board of Obesity Medicine
Certified in Sleep Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine
Certified in Obesity Medicine by the American Board of Obesity Medicine
Certified in Sleep Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine
Certified in Obesity Medicine by the American Board of Obesity Medicine
Certified in Sleep Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine
Certified in Obesity Medicine by the American Board of Obesity Medicine
Certified in Sleep Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine
Certified in Obesity Medicine by the American Board of Obesity Medicine
Certified in Sleep Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine
Certified in Obesity Medicine by the American Board of Obesity Medicine