RLS and Colds

[Guest guest]

Hi Listers,

The messages from Jack and coincide with my own experiences.

Perhaps there is really something to be learned from this for a

certain section of us. Ages ago when I first joined this list I gave

a potted history of my RLS history and mentioned my experiences with

colds. Well before I joined this group I linked up with the British

support group. I filled in their questionaire, and commented that I

never had any symptoms when I had a cold. I was pondering this

phenomenon, and thinking about whether there was any link between the

absence of symptoms and my cold medication, when I received their

information handouts and began to read through their list of drugs

that had produced various levels of therapeutic success. A light went

on in the grey matter chamber as I read about codeine (not a

restricted drug here in Australia), which was certainly an ingredient

of some cold medications I would take. I mentioned this to my medical

practitioner who suggested a freely available product with a

concentration of codeine a little higher than found in the average

cold-tablet. Well, I quickly found it gave me some relief, and I

began to take it regularly. Unfortunately, I began to adapt to the

drug and found it necessary to increase the dose to achieve the

desired effect. Needless to say I was aware of the dangers of this

and so after reaching a certain dosage I ceased using the drug.

I have never done the experiment to see if I would be symptom free

during a cold without taking codeine containing cold medications.

Next time I will. So, over to Jack and , and any one else who may

care to carefully examine and share their own experiences and

experiment with the next cold bout.

Do you have the symptoms of RLS when you have a cold? If you do not,

is it possibly due to your choice of cold medication, in which case

you may have accidentally found a drug that will control your

symptoms, or is something your body does when challenged by a cold

virus? In either case there is valuable information there.

Go catch a cold in the name of science!

Bless you!

Phil (Darwin)