Get rid of restless legs for good

Restless leg syndrome (RLS) may not sound like a big deal. Especially, if you’ve never had it. But if you’re one of the nine million Americans on the receiving end of this disorder, you know it’s more serious than it sounds…

Restless leg syndrome usually strikes at night, which means you’re up all night with itchy, tingly, creepy crawly feelings in your legs that make it impossible to lie still, let alone sleep. And any condition that robs you of your sleep is serious no matter what.

That’s because people with sleep disorders are up to 65 percent more likely to develop cancer, after all. And a study conducted a few years back by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston found that if you have restless leg syndrome, you have a 40 percent higher chance of dying in the next eight years.

But it’s really hard to find an effective treatment. If you turn to your doctor for help you’ll probably end up with a prescription for ropinirole, a drug that could help you or could make your symptoms worse.

Plus ropinirol has serious side effects — like dizziness, fainting, severe nausea, narcolepsy, hallucinations and addictive behaviors, to name a few.

But thankfully, it’s not your only option, especially now that there is a natural treatment for RLS that is more effective than any drug your doctor can offer you…

The latest research from the Lake Erie Research Institute in Pennsylvania found that a simple foot wrap can treat your RLS symptoms almost one and a half times more effectively than ropinirol, the most commonly prescribed drug used to treat RLS.

Researchers created a leg wrap that puts pressure on two muscles in your foot — the abductor hallucis and the flexor hallucis brevis. They used the wrap in an eight-week clinical trial that included 30 moderate RLS sufferers… and the results were amazing!

Almost all of the study participants (90 percent to be exact) who used the leg wrap experienced an improvement in their RLS symptoms. On the other hand, only 63 percent of study participants taking ropinirol saw an improvement in their symptoms. Participants using the leg wrap also reduced their sleepless nights by a whopping 82 percent.

Researchers think the wrap is so effective because it targets the two muscles known to ease RLS symptoms and because it causes the brain to release dopamine (RLS sufferers are thought to have a dopamine deficiency).

“By putting pressure on specific muscles in the feet, we are able to create a response in the brain that relaxes the muscles activated during RLS,” said Phyllis Kuhn, MS, PhD, and the study’s lead researcher. “It’s a near perfect example of the body regulating itself without drugs, many of which have the potential for significant adverse side effects.”

While the leg wrap researchers used isn’t available for sale quite yet, there are other leg wraps on the market you can use to treat your restless leg syndrome. Or you can try massage and acupressure, which have a similar effect. Both of these bodywork methods can be used to apply pressure to the specific muscles that ease your RLS symptoms. They also encourage your brain to release dopamine. So give them a shot. You have nothing to lose and a lot of gain… like a good night’s sleep.

Sources:

1. “Sleep Apnea Tied to Increased Cancer Risk.” The New York Times blog. http://well.blogs.nytimes.com. Retrieved June 28, 2016.

2. Li, W. Wang, J.W. Winkelman, A. Malhotra, J. Ma, X. Gao. “Prospective study of restless legs syndrome and mortality among men.” Neurology, 2013.

3. J. Kuhn, D.J. Olson, J. P. Sullivan. “Targeted Pressure on Abductor Hallucis and Flexor Hallucis Brevis Muscles to Manage Moderate to Severe Primary Restless Legs Syndrome.” The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, July 2016, Vol. 116, 440-450.