United States: The recent study shows that almost 10 percent of the Americans have a condition which is called restless legs syndrome. This is kind of neurological disorder which ultimately makes people’s legs feel uncomfortable and gives them a strong urge to move their legs.
Even though this specific thing which is called restless leg syndrome (RLS) is common, many of the people are not at all aware about it or don’t understand it and it is often misdiagnosed. It’s important to learn about RLS so that those who have it can get the help they need!
As reported by Korin Miller, in the Yahoo life, Restless Legs Syndrome Awareness Day is celebrated every year on Sept 23 to help people understand more about this disorder.
In response to this, doctors who treat RLS have said this kind of awareness is painfully lacking. “Most of the time people are not even aware of the disorder,” says Jennifer Goldschmied, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. “What I do get to hear time and again is folks confusing restless legs syndrome with nervous or habit shaking of the leg.”
But restless legs syndrome is much more than that. This is what four doctors, who treat people with restless legs syndrome want you to know about the disorder.
Physicians state that they constantly have to remind the population that restless legs syndrome is a thing. “There are people who said that they thought restless legs syndrome was a concept coined by pharma to create a demand for drugs,” says Dr Roneil Malkani, a sleep medicine physician at Northwestern Medicine. “No that is definitely not true.”
Most of the time, however, it turns into a debate on myth-busting because, again, patients feel that restless legs syndrome is fabricated or harmless.
It was also found that people who have restless legs syndrome are likely to have low iron levels in their blood. Thus, they can find that they get well when taking iron supplements, general practitioner Dr. Andrew R. Spector explains to Yahoo Life. The author is an associate professor of neurology and a sleep medicine specialist at Duke University School of Medicine and the founder of Liss Cremeux, the Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation.
Ironically, sometimes individuals with normal blood iron concentrations can also have something to gain out of iron supplements.
“People think that because their blood iron levels are OK that their brain iron levels are OK Spector says but sometimes, we still treat them with the iron and they get better.
Still the iron supplements and the iron-rich foods which really won’t clear the symptoms up for everyone and also there are some limits to that particular treatment says the Spector and also some of the people require high levels of iron and it’s really hard to get ther with the diet or the supplements alone and in those cases, we may do the iron infusions.