Restless leg syndrome

[Guest guest]

Neurologist have found that the drug ropinirole is a safe and effective

treatment for restless legs syndrome go to

http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/1cf0a6.htm to read about it. >Becky M.

[Guest guest]

Hi ...

I'm interested ... I don't understand exactly what you mean, though ... My

left toes curl like that too ... in fact, its the left foot that gives me the

most trouble with pain and everything.

[Guest guest]

Steve, Your analysis re RLS and myoclonus fits what I have seen in print and

heard from my docs. Which is that true RLS has a different etiology than

myoclonus, though both may present similarly to the layman's eye anyway. My

neurologist says mito-induced myoclonus is caused by metabolic changes in

the brain and does not originate in the muscle itself---unlike like the

twitches and fasciculations that can also occur in mito and other muscle

disorders. I haven't read a lot about RLS, but did do some reading a few

years back because my husband has it. My impression was that RLS is

considered benign (aside from interfering with sleep) and does not by itself

indicate any serious pathology, though it could certainly exist side by side

with other serious disorders. In contrast, myoclonus is usually associated

with a more serious underlying disorder of the brain. That's my take

gathered from various sources.

B

_____

From: Steve

Sent: Monday, January 17, 2005 3:28 AM

To:

Subject: restless leg syndrome

* Just my own take here, on what may be two different " versions " of

RLS. Some

time ago when I was making my own mito dx (EVENTUALLY confirmed by docs) I

listed and then searched online for all my various symptoms.

I have all my life sort of twitched or shaken my feet, especially when

trying to fall asleep but also at other times when sitting. When I was a

child my father called my frequent leg pains " growing pains " and I always

thought that my shaking was to somewhat minimize this ache/pain. Aspirin

helped me to fall asleep.

My online search a few years ago turned up the term " restless leg syndrome "

which seemed to describe what I had. Both these online descriptions AND my

own experience is that this was basically voluntary, i.e. I could willfully

STOP it whenever I wanted, but for some reason it just HAPPENED when I

wasn't thinking about it. At any rate, a couple of online sources I just

reviewed link RLS to peripheral neuropathy (PN). BTW I NOW feel that my foot

shaking is somehow linked to my feet pains (PN) in that it seems to

alleviate the pain and lets me fall asleep. I also sometimes do this while

sitting; people sometimes have to ask me to stop vibrating my chair or the

table, which I don't notice that I'm doing. :-)

Another data point of unknown relevance is that my son who has ADHD, used to

(when he was a child) do this same kind of shaking, of both his feet AND his

hands, when sitting or standing. He never could explain exactly WHY he did

it, but he could easily stop it for a time if asked to. I should add that I

had/have (undiagnosed, milder) ADHD since childhood, and that MY

foot-shaking began early on, long before any mito symptoms showed.

, you seem to be saying that your version is entirely involuntary

and that you can't stop it by choice. I therefore understand that " my " RLS

is probably NOT what you are talking about, which is more along the line of

myoclonus, if I understand Laurie right. But I just thought I'd bring it up,

in case there's some confusion I could head off, especially regarding online

terminology. I hope I haven't ADDED to the confusion.

Steve D.