Identifying Restless Leg Syndrome Is the First Step to RLS Treatment

Do your legs seem to have a life of their own? Your torment has a name, and it is called Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS). As a sufferer of this affliction, you need to know about RLS treatments that will cure this odd-sounding illness that has characterized by an urge to move the legs, particularly when at rest. Of course, you can only eliminate Restless Leg Syndrome by first identifying it.

Many people experience heartache, and occasionally tragedy with Restless Leg Syndrome. Some people describe having to endure sometimes intense creepy-crawly feelings in their legs. Often they have to cope with the profound sleep deprivation that accompanies severe RLS. Some are unable to travel, go to the movies, or even sit still long enough to have a dinner with their family. Others have lost jobs, were ridiculed or even abandoned by their families. Sadder still, others consider self-mutilation and suicide.

Just about everyone knows of someone who is a nightwalker. Some victims have had RLS since infancy, while others have developed it much later in life, first noticing symptoms when they have been sitting still for a long time, or when, after lying down to sleep, they find themselves wanting to move their legs. You may not even know that someone in your life has RLS. Although it is both ancient and common, the disease has long been overlooked, and its victims have often been isolated, neglected, and misunderstood.

Restless leg syndrome was often called "the most common disease you had never heard of." As a matter of fact, most physicians, as little as 10 years ago, had little or no familiarity with Restless Leg Syndrome. So how could such a common disorder be so unknown? One reason was the inadequate amount of time given to the study of sleep in general in medical schools. Also, it is an unfortunate fact that doctors rarely ask patients about sleep, and self-conscious patients rarely bring up the subject. Furthermore, when patients do describe the weird sensations that keep them awake at night, their doctors often wrongly attribute the symptoms to stress, insomnia, depression, muscle cramps, nervous conditions, or aging.

Only now are medical professionals beginning to recognize Restless Leg Syndrome for what it is, which is a sensori-motor disease, where relief can be obtained only through movement or medication. Fortunately, RLS treatment procedures and Periodic Limb Movements (PLM) medications have moved from being unknown in urological laboratories, to the front pages of medical journals and national and international conferences. Many RLS victims can now sleep better, even if not well, thanks to devoted researchers, who worked into the nights in coming up with treatments to this affliction.

While awareness has improved, however, millions continue to suffer from RLS. Cases range from mild (people shift uncomfortably while sitting in a theater or airplane) to severe (people are forced to get out of bed and walk, sometimes until dawn, by an intolerable sensation in the legs). To this day, many people with RLS have yet to identify their affliction. Correctly doing so is an enormous first step toward getting the proper RLS treatment.

James has been writing articles relating to health for over 5 years. Please visit his latest website about Restless Leg Syndrome at RLS Treatment, with information on What Causes RLS, with ideas and discussions that anyone suffering from this affliction would be interested in.

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