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Restless Legs Syndrom (rls)


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Renae Newbie
Thanks for all your thoughts about this. My husband is always asking me if I can please stop moving my legs around in bed. Besides the movement, he also has to endure the clicks from my knees, which he is convinced I make happen just to annoy him. (most of my joints move a bit too freely - related to Ehlers Danlos syndrome - some of them are quite noisy when they move)

I had never thought about restless legs in relation to c.d. - interesting to realise that other coeliacs also have a hard time being still.

Hi,

My 8 year old daughter has celiac and my 16 year old daughter has Ehlers Danlos (EDS). She has tested negative for Celiac. This is the first reference to EDS I've seen. Is there any connection between the two that you know of?


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BARLEY MISSING Newbie

Hi

Just was browsing the topics and this really took my interests as I too had and yes I said HAD restless leg syndrome and as you my husband just could'nt sleep or neither could I. I blamed it on the flannnel blankets, too much exercise, not enough exercise as I stopped thinking it was that. One day my sister looked at me and told me she had rls and the doctor told her that her Iron was down and she told me that when she got her Iron back up that her rls stopped, as so did mine but the only difference was I was diagnosed with Celiac as she wasn't , so is it the Celiac or Low Iron?

Karen B. Explorer
Hi

Just was browsing the topics and this really took my interests as I too had and yes I said HAD restless leg syndrome and as you my husband just could'nt sleep or neither could I. I blamed it on the flannnel blankets, too much exercise, not enough exercise as I stopped thinking it was that. One day my sister looked at me and told me she had rls and the doctor told her that her Iron was down and she told me that when she got her Iron back up that her rls stopped, as so did mine but the only difference was I was diagnosed with Celiac as she wasn't , so is it the Celiac or Low Iron?

Low iron could be due to the Celiac. Anemia is one of the primary symptoms.

debmidge Rising Star

RE: low iron

Does the iron level have to be below the norm? Anyone else have normal iron levels and RLS? (hubby's situation).

Also for him, anti depressants make RLS a lot worse - to point need to stop the anti depressants immediately.

janjal Newbie

Hi, I wake up with muscle cramps in my legs at night. It only happens maybe once every couple of weeks, but it might get me up pacing around the room three times during the night. I have taken calcium magnesium tablets for years. It seems worse when I don't drink enough milk.

I also have been anemic, and I have always loved chewing ice. That is really weird. I have had high liver enzymes over the last 12 years. That was one of my symptoms that the doctors could not figure out. My doctor retired and the new one figured out that I had celiac's. I had a biopsy done with a gastro doc.

natalie Apprentice
Crushed Ice was the BEST! I even craved cool air during my pregnancy WEIRD. I would get in the car and turn the air on high and just soak it in (obviously I was preg in the summer). I wasn't even hot.

Shelly

When I was pregnant with my first I took a picture of my husband at the breakfast table eating his cereal... he was wearing his parka, a winter hat and mittens ( in July) because I had the ac so cold. I used to be so hot!

itsmerob Newbie

My doctor suspects I may have Celiacs Disease, because of the symptoms I have been getting. Stomach pains, diahorrea, gas, tirdness. What I have had for a number of years is restless legs, mainly in my calf muscles, but for the past 12 months I have been getting it all over my body, chest, whole of my legs, arms, even my face and neck. It does seem like a coincidence that as my suspected celiac symptoms have got worse over the past 12, so have my restless limbs. As anyone else had any similar problems?


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ACK514 Rookie
Anyone else out there have RLS? If so, what do you do to try to relieve this? I can be up hours in the night with the constant erge to move my legs! Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks!

I have the same issue! I've only known that I have celiac for about 4mos now but i've had symptoms of RLS for years. I've been told that it can be tied to an iron deficiency which makes sense because due to celiac, I'm very low on iron. I've found that taking my multivitamin and my iron pills greatly decrease the symptoms. Also the days that I accidentally eat gluten I have jumpy legs at night. Hope that helps!

Ooni Newbie
Anyone else out there have RLS? If so, what do you do to try to relieve this? I can be up hours in the night with the constant erge to move my legs! Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Ooni Newbie

I have restless leg syndrome & I find that walking helps. I also had Klonopin for anxiety, and my gynocologist told me that it is also used forRLS. I tried it and it works. You have to be careful with it since it is a narchotic.

ariesmama Newbie
Hi

Just was browsing the topics and this really took my interests as I too had and yes I said HAD restless leg syndrome and as you my husband just could'nt sleep or neither could I. I blamed it on the flannnel blankets, too much exercise, not enough exercise as I stopped thinking it was that. One day my sister looked at me and told me she had rls and the doctor told her that her Iron was down and she told me that when she got her Iron back up that her rls stopped, as so did mine but the only difference was I was diagnosed with Celiac as she wasn't , so is it the Celiac or Low Iron?

Hi,

Was also just browsing...My mom and I both have rls, we both have celiac disease(self diagnosed, both of us), and I am also low in iron. I take iron pills, calcium pills, and other vitamin pills, but what really works to stop the rls for me is magnesium pills. I take 500-100mg in magnesium supplement vitamins(jamieson, 250mg tabs, horse pills) when the rls gets really bad and it just stops...

The Lovebug Rookie

I have celiac disease but not restless leg syndrome, while my husband has restless leg syndrome but not celiac disease. So I don't see any correlation. That said, my husband's RLS is so bad that I made him go to a sleep clinic. It was interfering with my sleep as well as his. Long story short, his sleep analysis indicated that he had leg movement 57 times an hour (or approximately one jerk every minute all night). No wonder he got up every morning feeling more tired than he had the night before. He yawned all day and took at least one two-hour nap every afternoon that he could. They gave him a prescription for Requip and it has been a miracle drug for him. We are both sleeping so much better! The secret is that is has to be taken 2 hours before bedtime. The couple of times that he has forgotten to take it with him on a trip, or his prescription ran out, he has a reaction which resembles epilepsy. So I guess that is a side effect of the drug withdrawal. But we're firm believers in Requip for RLS.

  • 2 months later...
320 days Newbie
Anyone else out there have RLS? If so, what do you do to try to relieve this? I can be up hours in the night with the constant erge to move my legs! Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks!

RLS can make one want to die. Trying to keep on an even keel is important to me. Two hours sleep last night. Not too successful, but not just the leg thing.

Supposedly there are some of the antidepressants that can help if you happen to be on them. There is the new drug on the TV. I used to have it MUCH more and thank whatever that it is rare now.....

  • 8 years later...
dopaminegirl Apprentice

RLS is significantly more prevalent among the celiac population than the general population, so I think there's definitely a correlation. Unfortunately, it doesn't aways go away once you go gluten free. There's also a link between RLS and inflammation, and, for me at least, most of my post-glutening symptoms can be linked back to generalized inflammation. 

For me, RLS is one of the first indications for me that I've been glutened (right after arthritis/muscle aches and dry mouth), though it's more of a "restless body syndrome" since it doesn't confine itself to my legs. I'm fortunate that it goes away as long as I'm gluten-free, I know many people aren't so lucky. This last time (currently recovering from being glutened at Thanksgiving *sigh*) I ended up getting up and playing video games till 4 in the morning. In retrospect, I probably could have used that time to do dishes or something more productive...

Only thing that ever works for me is to get up and move around and stretch as much as possible, I've been known to do some 2 am yoga, I know my dad used to go for walks around the neighborhood. Don't resist it, don't lay in bed and try to stay still, I really think that's the worst thing you can do. Get up and use your muscles and tire them out and hopefully that will help. If you have flexibility in where you have to be and when the next day, you can always try to do productive things and then sleep in once things have calmed down. Otherwise, caffeinate the next day and hope the next night will be better.

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    • trents
      Welcome to the celiac.com community @EssexMum! First, let me correct some misinformation you have been given. Except in the case of what is known as "refractory" celiac disease, which is very rare, it is not true that the "fingers" will not grow back once a consistently gluten free diet is adopted. Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition whereby the ingestion of gluten triggers an inflammatory process that damages the millions of tiny finger-like projections that make up the lining of the small bowel. We call this the "villous lining". Over time, continued ingestion of gluten on a regular basis results in the wearing down of these fingers which greatly reduces the surface area of this very important membrane. It is where essentially all the nutrition from what we eat is absorbed. So, losing this surface area results in inefficiency in nutrient absorption and often to medical problems related to nutrient deficiencies. Again, if a gluten-free diet is consistently observed, the villous lining of the small bowel should rebound. "We was informed that her body absorbs the gluten rather then rejecting it and that is why she doesn't react to the gluten straight away, it will be a build up and then the pains start. " That sounds like unscientific BS to me. But it does sound like your stepdaughter may have a type of celiac disease we know as "silent" celiac disease, meaning, she is asymptomatic or at least the symptoms are not intense enough to usually notice. She is not completely asymptomatic, however, because you stated was experiencing tummy aches off and on. Cristiana gives some good suggestions about ordering "safe" food for your stepdaughter from restaurant menus in Europe. You must realize that as the step parent who only has her part of the time you have no real control over how cooperative her other set of parents are with regard to your stepdaughter's needs to eat gluten free. It sounds like they don't really understand the seriousness of the matter. This is very common in family settings where other members are ignorant about celiac disease and the damage it can do to body systems. So, they don't take it seriously. The best you can do is make suggestions. Perhaps print out some info about celiac disease from the Internet to send them. Being inconsistent with the gluten free diet keeps the inflammation smoldering and delays or inhibits healing of the villous lining. 
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    • cristiana
      Good evening @EssexMum You are quite right to be concerned about this situation.  Once diagnosed as coeliac, always a coeliac, and the way to heal  is through adopting and sticking to a strict gluten diet. That said... I have travelled twice to France since my diagnosis, firstly in May 2013 and again in August 2019.   My spoken French isn't bad, and whilst there I tried my best to explain my needs to chefs and catering staff, and I read labels very carefully when shopping in supermarkets, but both times I came away with worsening gastric symptoms and pain. Interestingly,  after the second holiday, my annual coeliac review took place the following month and although I'd been very careful to avoid gluten all year, thanks to that August holiday my coeliac antibodies were elevated,  Clearly I hadn't been imagining these symptoms and they must have been caused by gluten sneaking in somehow. When I spoke to my gastroenterologist on my return, who is an excellent doctor, he told me with a smile that this was a very common experience in France among his patients, and not to worry too much about it! In fact, before we went away in May 2013, which was just after I had been formally diagnosed, he told me not to even bother trying to adopt a gluten free diet until I returned, knowing what France was like, but I was feeling so awful at that time I ignored his advice and at least tried to make a start with it. (I ought to say - both these visits were some time ago, so perhaps things are a lot better there now.) So what to do?  I would say at least try to explain to catering staff the situation - they should be able to rustle up a plate of cheese, boiled eggs, tuna, salad and fruit, and if things like crackers and gluten-free pot noodle or oats can be packed in the UK, those can be produced at mealtimes.    Of course, most larger supermarkets in France do now cater for coeliacs, but when I was last there the the choice wasn't as wide a range as we have in the UK but I think that is partly because the French like to cook from scratch, whereas our gluten-free aisles have quite a lot of dried or pre-baked goods in them/convenience foods, because I think we as a nation tend to use them more. I would be worth doing a bit of research on the internet before the trip, - the words you want are 'sans gluten'.  I've just googled 'sans gluten Disney Paris" and this came up.  I do hope at least some of this is of help. https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurants-g2079053-zfz10992-Disneyland_Paris_Ile_de_France.html  Whatever befalls in France, at least your stepdaughter can resume her usual diet on her return. On a related tack, would you be happy to post any positive findings/tips upon her return - it might be of use to others travelling to Disneyland Paris with children in future? Cristiana
    • EssexMum
      Hi, I am after some advice re my step daughter and her Coeliac Disease. She is 9 years old and had a very limited diet before being diagnosed (very fussy and very lenient parents), since being diagnosed it has become hard to find places out that will cater for her, but we manage.  History: She had been having severe tummy pains on and off every few months so had a bunch of tests and eventually was diagnosed with celiac disease a number of months ago. We was told that she is at a very high level and should avoid gluten for the rest of her lift, we was told that the gluten she has been eating has damaged the 'fingers' inside her and they will not replenish. We was informed that her body absorbs the gluten rather then rejecting it and that is why she doesnt react to the gluten straight away, it will be a build up and then the pains start. We was advised that by her not reacting straight away, it did not mean it wasnt harming her inside. We was given literature about buying a separate toaster and cutting board etc to avoid cross contamination and have been checking all food labels etc.  Problem: the issue is the novelty seems to have worn off with her Mum and we are now posed with a situation. They are going on holiday to Disneyland Paris for 3 nights and she phoned the hotel who said they cannot cater for gluten free. She phoned the GP and had a conversation and then told my partner that the GP had said it was fine for her to have gluten for the 3-4 days. He questioned it and she said no its fine, she hasnt had it for months so a few days wont hurt and she exposed to it anyway without knowing so it will be fine and shes not ruining her holiday etc.   My partner could see from the online notes that his ex wife had told the doctor that the child does not follow a strict gluten-free diet anyway - not true. At least not with us! My partner requested a call with the same doctor who told him that it is the mums discretion and that the child should be monitored for reactions - he explained that the issue is she doesnt react straight away. The GP said no its all mums discretion and she knows best. We are going to try to speak to the consultant at the hospital, but I just wanted to gauge some thoughts. It just seems bizarre to me that we can go from being told to avoid gluten for the rest of her life and how harmful it is to her body, to now it being ok for her to have it for a few days. Thanks in advance  
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