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Understanding Those Who Suffer From Restless Leg Syndrome

Those individuals who suffer from restless leg syndrome have a neurologic sensorimotor disorder that can affect the legs, arms or even the trunk of their body. There is an undeniable urge to move that is accompanied by unpleasant sensations that feel like creepy crawlers inside their legs, arms or other body parts. Experiencing RLS in other body parts is rare but can happen in the arms, face, torso even in the genital region of the body. These unpleasant feelings happen when the body parts are at rest, which is particularly disconcerting because it happens when the person is trying to get to sleep. RLS symptoms can range from mild to very severe even to the point of disrupting sleep and daily life. It makes sitting for long periods of time, pure torture!

U.S. Researchers believe that there may be as much as 10% of all U.S. adults suffering from the affects of RLS. Patients can even be misdiagnosed with insomnia, muscular or orthopedic conditions when they really have RLS. RLS is also often confused with depression or other neurological disorders.

The Restless Legs Syndrome reports that approximately 40% of sufferers complain of some occurrence of depression while dealing with the condition.

Recent RLS studies have discovered a RLS gene present in perhaps as many as 50% of those RLS cases that have been identified. Researchers have also discovered that there is a genetic variant that may account for as many as 50% of RLS cases and that there is an association between RLS and a gene present in a limb development, which means that there may be a connection between RLS and a development disorder. There are still studies and more research being done to validate and gather more information. The research is promising that soon more may be known about the cause and treatment possibilities of RLS.

RLS affects individuals of all ages including children. Studies have found that 70% of children who have the condition also have at least one parent with RLS. Restless leg syndrome also does not discriminate against sex as it happens in both males and females. It does however seem to worsen with age. Individuals who are more mature tend to have more frequent symptoms than younger patients do and their symptoms last for longer periods of time.

The condition can also be primary (not connected with other conditions) or it can be secondary being that it is related to another underlying condition such as a deficiency (anemia, iron), or it can be secondary to a kidney failure or to the condition of pregnancy.

Recent studies conducted at Johns Hopkins and Pennsylvania State Colleges found evidence that RLS patients do not suffer from brain damage and that there may be a connection between iron insufficiency in the brain and RLS. This study points the way to a possible treatment that will target the problem of iron uptake.

There also seems to be a connection between RLS and a condition known as periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), which is involuntary leg movements during sleep.

It is important that individuals, who suspect they may have RLS, seek medical diagnosis and treatment because studies show that untreated RLS leads to sleep deprivation and reduced quality of life when it is allowed to go untreated.