After a long day, your body is exhausted. Your spirit is weary.
Your brain is beaten into submission by a day full of problem solving.
And then… there’s your legs. Doing the can can to beat the band.
Restless Leg Syndrome is a term you’ve probably heard by now.
But it goes beyond the legs themselves just feeling restless. In fact, symptoms can vary from simply feeling like you’ve had too much pre-workout all the way up to straight up pain. Creeping and crawling feelings. Pulling and pressure. Throbbing and aching. Lightning bolts that make you wanna scratch. There are many ways RLS can present. And, while there are also many remedies for this intolerable condition, it’s always best to know the cause. Finding herbals that lull us into unconsciousness is awesome as a quick fix. However, it doesn’t address the why. So, what’s at the root of your foot kickery? What causes that nocturnal hurdle jumping to happen?
While it would be nice if there was just one cause, there are unfortunately more than one possibility to consider. The first? Dopamine irregularity. This brain chemical helps control muscle movement. So, when it’s off kilter, you can see how your legs would think it’s time to be doing the flutter during slumber time. The second? Nerve damage. Often caused by conditions such as diabetes (or alcoholism), this can make for aching as well as incessant motion. The third big factor? Deficiencies in iron or magnesium. Circling back to dopamine, iron plays a role in the normal functioning of dopamine. And, if that’s your issue, that’s great news because it means you could potentially “iron” out the neurochemical kinks with a quick trip to the shelves at your local pharmacy. In that same vein, another RLS cause can be solved in that same trip: magnesium deficiency. Because this stuff helps block calcium from turning your nerves on at night, you wanna make sure you’re all stocked up on it. Otherwise, you’ll find muscle contractions firing off when the rest of you is ready to rest. And, for less common causes – kidney failure and spinal cord conditions can definitely be reasons. However, if you’re suffering either of those things, RLS is probably the least severe symptom you’ve noticed thus far. (Which is why it’s listed last.)
And for my preggo friends suffering RLS?
The good news is that it usually disappears after delivery. The bad news is that now you’ll have something else keeping you awake every night. (*insert teeth sucking emoji*) All this said, yes it’s nice to have an idea of what might be going on (which is why I write this stuff). However, if this issue is plaguing you on a chronic level, get into a doc. Ask a medical professional for a workup first. That way, if it’s an easy fix (like taking an iron or magnesium supplement), you can quickly address that via over the counter supplements. (But adding a supplement when you’re not sure you need it may make things worse – not better – so you need to check for a deficiency first.) If that’s not the cause, then you can start addressing the other possibilities one by one, and undergo more in depth testing. Then, finally, if you and your medical professional reach an impasse, maybe spitball some of the above ideas as plausible causes and indications for further testing. Any health care practitioner worth their weight will hear you out before dismissing an opportunity to bring you relief. And if they don’t?
Then walk those twitchy limbs over to a new doc!