What Is Restless Legs Syndrome?
Restless legs syndrome or otherwise, known as Willis Ekbom disease is a medical condition that causes uncomfortable bodily sensations, most often in the legs. It includes all kinds of crawling, creeping and tingling feeling that urges the patient to move the affected limb over and over again. It often happens when a person is sleeping, sitting or resting.
If the disease is moderate to severe, it can have a big impact on your life and might cause problems with your focus, job, daytime activities, sleeping patterns and etc.
Not only does it cause depression but it can also spread to other parts of your body.
Treatments for Restless Legs Syndrome
Here is a list of potential treatments for RLS:
Ruling Out Potential Causes
While it is a disease, it can be triggered by a number of factors such as pregnancy, medications, habits and etc. For example. If you have a habit of drinking excessive alcohol, it can aggravate the disease. Try limiting the intake of alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine.
In a similar way, a lot of health conditions such as kidney failure and diabetes are also related to RLS.
Healthy Sleeping Habits
The best treatment to reduce RLS is to restore your sleeping patterns. While it might not alleviate the syndrome completely but it could help offset some of the effects.
Vitamin and Iron Supplements
RLS can also be triggered due to a deficiency of iron and vitamins. If you think this is the problem, vitamin A, C, E, D and iron supplements could help you to suppress the effects.
Exercise
Exercising on a regular basis is a good practice for patients with RLS as it alleviates mild symptoms of the disease.
Stretching and Power Yoga
Even though the evidence is not backed by science but stretching and power yoga exercises have proved beneficial for RLS patients.
Prescription Medication
Going on dopaminergic drugs is the key treatment for RLS. These drugs are the most effective in treating RLS but comes with side effects.
Restiffic Or Foot Wrap
Restiffic is nothing but putting pressure on the bottom of your feet to relax the muscles. Foot wrapping can effectively relieve RLS symptoms.
Pneumatic Compression
If you have been admitted to the hospital, you must have gone under the pneumatic compression treatment. It basically uses a sleeve that inflates and deflates over your limb.
Using A Vibration Pad
This is the most ineffective treatment because it does not relieve the RLS symptoms in any way. However, it does help you to sleep better.
Near-Infrared Spectroscopy
It is a non-invasive painless treatment that could relieve all the RLS symptoms. In this treatment, long-wavelength light beams are used to penetrate through the skin, increasing blood circulation.
Massage
Massage is the most effective traditional way of getting relief from the tingling feeling on your limbs. There are other treatments as mentioned above but this treatment comes with additional benefits.
Like NIRS, it improves circulation and relieves the symptoms of RLS instantly. The pressure provided by the therapist helps the blood to circulate through congested areas. Secondly, it alleviates stress. Most of the patients have to cope with stress due to lack of sleep and being restless.
