“It feels like a toothache in your leg,” says one woman.
“Creepy, crawly bugs,” says another.
“Almost like a really bad cramp,” adds a third.
They’re talking about restless legs syndrome, or RLS, a health condition which affects an estimated 8 million Americans – but manages to get very little attention or respect.
The New York Times, however, recently focused a spotlight on the rarely discussed condition, which has a strong genetic component. The Times prominently featured the stories of seven men and women who have been diagnosed with it on the Health section of its highly trafficked web site.
Among them: Dr. David Rye, a neurology professor at Emory University who has both studied the condition and suffered from it.
Rye and his colleagues helped discover a gene variant involved in the condition’s development; years later he would develop it himself. Saying that many people in the medical community mistakenly believe restless legs syndrome is a psychological disease rather than a physical one, Rye said he has very good evidence to the contrary – a tape of himself sleeping every night for about a month.
“I kicked every night, 30 times an hour, like a broken record,” he told the Times. “This isn’t just a restless leg. It’s a restless curiosity, it’s a restless mind, it’s a restless spirit.”
Indeed, one of the biggest complaints patients have about the neurological condition is that it interferes with sleep and wellbeing. The symptoms of restless legs syndrome include an uncomfortable sensation in the legs when sitting or lying down, as well as an urge to constantly move about.
“That’s why we’re called ‘nightwalkers,’” explains a 44-year-old Dallas woman who noticed her first symptoms as a child. “Most of us walk all night long.”
RLS is thought to stem from an imbalance of the brain chemical dopamine, which sends messages to control muscle movement. It tends to run in families, with heredity accounting for more than half your chance of getting the health condition.
The Navigenics genetic test can assess whether you have a genetic susceptibility to the condition, enabling you and your doctor to be on the lookout for early signs of it.
There are some treatments that are effective at controlling RLS. Yet perhaps more importantly, making positive lifestyle changes like limiting caffeine consumption and getting enough sleep can go a long way toward reducing your risk of developing it in the first place.