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Nutrition Possible restless leg syndrome

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Craig36

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Hi everybody.

While I've never been a great sleeper, I've had some significant insomnia issues over the last couple of years that has prevented me from achieving much in the way of fitness. I generally know I'm going to have a restless night of flopping around, tossing and turning, because I can feel it in my lower leg muscles. Specially I get cramps when I point my toes; as well as slight spasms in calf muscles. The spasms may or may not occur during the day, but tend to be more pronounced around bedtime.

Regardless I thought I'd throw it out here in the forum to see if anyone has any experience with this. I'm thinking it could be related to diet, stress exercise, etc. etc. I generally drink about two quarts of water a day.

Thanks
 
A few questions just to flesh things out:

What is your normal routine for about 2 hours before bed?

Have you tried to do anything for the cramps before, like eating more salt, supplementing magnesium, etc?

What did your doctor say about it?
 
Craig36 said:
Hi everybody.

While I've never been a great sleeper, I've had some significant insomnia issues over the last couple of years that has prevented me from achieving much in the way of fitness. I generally know I'm going to have a restless night of flopping around, tossing and turning, because I can feel it in my lower leg muscles. Specially I get cramps when I point my toes; as well as slight spasms in calf muscles. The spasms may or may not occur during the day, but tend to be more pronounced around bedtime.

Regardless I thought I'd throw it out here in the forum to see if anyone has any experience with this. I'm thinking it could be related to diet, stress exercise, etc. etc. I generally drink about two quarts of water a day.

Thanks
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Hello Craig, your diet and habits are probably contributing factors which are chronic, you need to research and figure out what's lacking in your body and causing cramps.
When I start to get cramps I take a mineral salts complex called Bioplasma, within minutes the cramps subside and don't come back. Pour 10-12 of the small tabs into the cap and dump them under the tongue, don't touch them, then let them dissolve as slowly as possible and avoid drinking water for 5 mins or so. They absorb quickly and you'll get relief.
Ideally you should check with a naturopathic doctor for guidance on determining nutrient deficits and a sensible plan to help alleviate cramps and poor sleep symptoms.
 
The nutritional side of things has already been mentioned.
also, "don't follow medical advice from dudes on the interwebz" as the old saying goes, consult a medical professional (I'd say one that specializes in sleep Medicine / Psychosomatics) or a CBT psychologist if no medical professional can help you.
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Ok, time to share my own Ideas.
I've only just started studying Psychology so I may completely off and biased here:

As far as I know, the weirdest symptoms (including some of those you mentioned) can arise from combinations of sleeplessness, life stress and anxiety/depression.

Some years back (I was 18-19 at the time, I'm 22 now), I had a horrible boss and back then, I thought the "suck it up and do your work" attitude could solve anything. Turned out it doesn't, I burnt out, couldn't work for 3 months (diagnosed as burn-out syndrome) and I developed something similar to asthma (we ran all the tests, couldn't find an issue so we concluded it was psychosomatic), which lasted for a year and a half, on and off.

What I'm trying to say here are two things basically.
- If you haven't tried yet, and there is any possibility, try to reduce overall life stress and try to have a more relaxed day. Work out as much as you enjoy it, but don't overdo it. If it has no effect within a month or two, get back to normal working and training intensities.
- Try fixing your sleep or taking power naps, or really anything that will increase quantity and more importantly quality of sleep. As a Psych guy, I'd say do some soul-searching if there is something "keeping you up at night", this could be a completely shallow thing or some unprocessed experience or inner conflict which you aren't yet aware of. I've had this kind of stuff keep me up all night, it took a therapist to fix it, but you may well be able to fix it on your own, once you realise what's going on. (btw that therapist was the guy who got me into psychology in the first place).

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Other than that, if you want to stay more in the "physical realm":
- Generally keep your neurotransmitters pumping by taking cold/contrast showers, meeting up with friends and having good conversations, getting some fresh air maybe hiking/biking on the countryside. Massages can be great too
- Avoiding alcohol, nicotine, caffeine. Avoid junk food, know what goes inside your body.
- Try intermittent fasting. 16/8 or Warrior Diet for example.
- There are some relaxation / meditation techniques which may or may not help you. I followed one called Gold Medal Mental Workout for a while and the relaxation techniques (exercises 4-6 if I remember correctly) from the book have proven to be very useful for releasing tension and stress.
 
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Thanks to everyone for their contributions:

I don't think it's psychological, I think this is a physical issue. I could be wrong, but I think there is a cause and affect relationship with my lower legs and sleep. I've gone to medical and natural medicine professionals. I started with my doctor, but that was a dead end. She referred me to a sleep study. Ironically I couldn't sleep because I was thrashing about and was hooked up to all of the sensors. Since then I went to a natural medicine person who provided me with all kinds of vitamins and mineral supplements.

Typically I try to drink at least two quarts of during the day, and I keep my stimulation low before I got to bed. My workouts are generally in the morning or early afternoon.

It's hard to say if the aforementioned supplements are really working. But I have noticed some slight success by ingesting salty water before bed; my theory being my twitchy legs are due to a sodium deficiency. Moreover, when I'm much further into a sleepless night, I'll have a couple of pieces of bread; my other theory being I need these carbs for the serotonin. I am otherwise someone trying to be low-carb. That is when I'm not completely exhausted. Regardless I'm probably completely packed full of cortisol.

I need to loose twenty pounds, hence why I'm low-carb. I lift about three days a week, followed by a short met-con, or K-bell session, and do cardio on my non-lifting days.

Could I be on a chronic low-carb flu roller coaster?
 
RLS is progressive. I spent every night walking around the house because I couldn't even sit down. Once it starts affecting your sleep is the time go go onto meds. Unfortunately this syndrome gets worse with age and never gets any better.
 
try doing to soft tissue work before bed. I've found it relaxes my body and prepares it for sleep. I would especially concentrate on your glutes and legs to try and see if that helps.
 
If, and it's an important if, you've been officially diagnosed with restless legs syndrome, make sure someone checks your ferritin level. A serum iron level is not accurate for this . It has to do with iron stores in the central nervous system. And don't just start iron without knowing your iron levels/stores, as too much iron can do lots of bad things. But low iron stores is low hanging fruit for RLS if ferritin is low. Best of luck
 
I was successfully low carb and thin for years until the birth of my twins seven years ago. Since then I've never really been able to keep it together.

Recently I've noticed my legs are twitchy, lets say over the last year or so. Last night I ingested about 30 grams of carbs via wheat thins and it seemed like my legs started to calm as I drifted off into what was a pretty decent night of sleep for me (a rare seven hours). That suggests I'm in the carb-to-fat transition; always crashing just before I make it over the hump to becoming a fat burner.

At least that's what I'm thinking. I'll continue post and listen to any suggestions I can get. In the meantime I think I'm going to get a leg roller and an appointment with my DR. to test for RLS.

Thanks
 
IF it's due to electrolyte issues, it's most likely magnesium, or maybe potassium, or possibly calcium Eat mixed nuts regularly? Good cheese? Bananas? Dark, green, leafy things? Sodium is so common, hard to be low on it. If you're low on these otheres, extra sodium could push further out of balance. If you supplement magnesium, get one that's bound to a protein or something- the basic ones (magnesium oxide?) go right through you and don't absorb. Magnesium bound to malic acid is very good.
 
Perhaps. But I've been taking countless vitamins via my Natural Medicine professional; potassium, magnesium, vit D, vit B-12 that didn't seem to make a difference. To experiment, last night I didn't any of those at all. To include the salty water. I counted out some wheat thins and drank about a half of glass of milk.
 
to experiment, it takes several days for body to metabolize nutrients and build biochemical paths to use them if they've been lacking. If I were you, I'd try a good handful of quality unsalted mixed nuts every day, large salad (with EVOO, vinegar or lemon) with dark greens- spinach, romaine, etc., couple ounces of good quality cheese, pumpkin seeds as a snack or in salad, etc. Lots of good natural whole foods- and keep it up for a couple weeks, if you want to see if that helps. Supplements are a wild, unregulated game and there's so many variables. Lots of studies show (not that it matters...haha) that nutrients from natural foods are much more utilized than most supplements.
 
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@Craig36, this needs to be discussed with your doctor. If the doctor you saw wasn’t helpful, try another doctor, but please rule out medical conditions under the care of a medical professional.

-S-
 
Steve,
You are right. I'm all over the map. I'm going to find another local doctor and do as directed. Last night I didn't sleep very well due to my restless. Furthermore, after I fell asleep I later awoke with foot cramps.

It's no wonder I can't seem to loose the twenty pounds I've been chasing, nor achieve my fitness goals.
 
Craig36 said:
I was successfully low carb and thin for years
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Craig does the RLS coincide with this? Meaning something changed along the way, I always look to what I'm doing differently today as opposed to what I was doing when the problem wasn't there.
My father has RLS and swears by a foot vibration machine he uses before bed.

At any rate, best of luck to you
 
Pedi sleep doc here. This is not medical advice but I would recommend asking to see a sleep doc as many primary care docs are not that familiar with restless leg syndrome. Alternatively a neurologist maybe more available and can be helpful; they could look for other causes of your symptoms.

RLS is based on history and is highly subjective.

1. Leg symptoms are uncomfortable and interfere with sleep onset
2. Symptoms worsen at night
3. Movement improves symptoms

There are no tests for RLS per se but two tests can be helpful
1. A serum ferritin level. If below 40ng/mL I treat to a target level of 75 and assess for effect. Only get this checked when well as a cold may falsely elevate it
2. An overnight sleep test in a lab (not at home). This will measure for periodic limb movements of sleep and these are present in 80% of RLS sufferers. Obviously you’ve tried this already. Sometimes the second night is better and worth pursuing if other avenues don’t provide answers.
3. If the doctor does not think it is RLS assessing the muscles via an EMG can be helpful. But RLS is pretty common.

The RLS foundation has lots of useful info.
Home - Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation
Long story short, go see a sleep expert as diagnosis and treatment can be pretty tricky. Good luck
 
DrFierce,
Thanks for all of the information you provided. I think you know how miserable this condition is, so I appreciate all the information I can get.

Elli,
No, what is MSM powder? Because it can sometimes be an electrolyte issue, I'm going to make some Keto Lemonade this evening to see if that helps.
 
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