Natural Cures for Restless Leg Syndrome
May 5th 2011 Posted at Natural Remedies
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Finding natural cures for restless leg syndrome condition can be frustrating to say the least if you are one of the 12 million Americans who suffer from RLS. Individuals with RLS are going to experience an overwhelming urge to move their legs due to the feelings of itching, burning, crawling, and tingling they experience. Although many people find the symptoms annoying during the daytime, at night the sensations can be agonizing. This is because as soon as you relax enough to go to sleep the symptom of restless leg syndrome intensify. This leads to an aggravating cycle of fatigue, attempts to get rest, having to get out of bed again due to RLS, and an eventual return to bed due to exhaustion, with further disrupted sleep through the night.
While the causes of RLS are still up for debate, some natural remedies have been known to give to relief from symptoms. One positive fact about the natural remedies is that they are unlikely to produce the side effects that prescription drugs for RLS often create.
One remedy that can help you is using warm or cool therapy through hot baths and a heating pad or through cold compresses or showers.
Changing your diet can also make a difference in symptoms of RLS. In particular, you want to be sure to avoid alcohol and caffeine, since many who suffer from this syndrome report these tend to make matters worse. Caffeine is contained in many foods and drinks including soft drinks, energy drinks, tea, coffee, and chocolate. Some researchers likewise recommend that you avoid eating a large meal later in the day. There has been a connection made between digesting a large amount of food and increased symptoms of restless legs.
There has been a great deal of research suggesting that is a connection between an iron deficiency and RLS. You should either take a supplement or else increase your intake of dark green leafy vegetables that are rich in folate. You can either take them as whole foods or else have them in a juice form. You should be sure to consult with your physician, as you should not take a supplement that gives you excessive iron since there can be potential side effects from over supplementation.
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One large scale study at Harvard Medical School noted a strong correlation between obesity and symptoms of restless leg syndrome. In particular, increased abdominal fat was connected to a greater risk of RLS, suggesting that dieting and exercise to lose weight can improve or might even provide a cure for restless leg syndrome.
Exercise is in potent itself a form of therapy for many people with RLS. One study at the Pennsylvania State University showed that people who walked at a moderately fast pace for 30 minutes four times a week showed a great deal of improvement in lowering the symptoms of RLS. In general it is recommended that moderate exercise be performed earlier in the day. Yoga is another form of physical exercise that has been found to be helpful. Massaging the legs or the lower back before bedtime can be helpful for many people.
To manage RLS it is often helpful to change your seating habits when traveling or working. For example, sitting on a high stool that allows your legs to dangle, or sitting in n aisle seat on an airplane to stretch your legs, can both be useful for relieving pressure on the legs.
Changing your sleep patterns is also highly recommended. Some people find that walking for a brief amount of time before bedtime can help, while others recommend getting out of bed if you’re unable to sleep and performing something that increases your heart rate, such as jogging in place or performing push-ups, reduces the RLS sensations. Some sufferers have found that taking two aspirins before bedtime lowers the risk of symptoms of RLS.
Some have also found that valerian root, which is often used as a sleep aid, is helpful for getting through the night with RLS. In addition, a magnesium supplement before bedtime had often been cited as one of the natural cures for restless leg syndrome.
But what if you just can’t get to sleep? I know about lying awake through long nights of tossing and turning, looking at the clock and thinking about how exhausted you’ll be tomorrow. If you what to get back to sleeping soundly and waking up refreshed you’ll have to learn a few tips that make it simple again.
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