Restless Legs – The Good News
If you suffer from restless legs, you’ll do anything to feel better. The good news is that there may be some simple things that could almost completely get rid of your restless legs permanently. In fact, I managed to completely cure my restless legs with just two supplements – one of which many of you are already taking.
Some of you may only get restless legs from time to time – like when you are really tired, long drives or when you sit to watch TV. I was like that for years but recently I had started getting restless legs every night. Stretching and using a hot water bottle helped but my legs were impacting my sleep quality. Then, I took an international flight from L.A. to Auckland and my restless legs were so severe that I considered never traveling again. It was so unbelievably painful. Except not traveling isn’t an option – my family lives in Canada so I need to do that international transit at least once a year.
So, upon returning home, I decided I needed to do something more. I was already taking 400mg of magnesium before bed every night, which seemed to help, but not enough. As usual when confronted with a health challenge, I dug into the research so I could better understand the causes and potential treatments for restless legs. I also participated in a webinar with the John Hopkins School of Medicine, Department of Neurology and the information in that webinar largely informed the protocol I’ve come up with to manage my restless legs.
Now, let’s get you sorted out.
What Causes Restless Legs – The Link With Iron Deficiency
The cause of restless legs syndrome is not well understood but it has been associated with low iron levels or anaemia, hypothyroidism, kidney disease, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, pregnancy as well as certain medications. There also seems to be strong genetic component. This means there may not be a clear answer for why you have restless legs.
For the purpose of this blog post, I’m going to assume you are a reasonably healthy person so I’m going to go after the obvious and most easy target – iron levels.
There is a link between iron deficiency and restless legs syndrome.
Not surprisingly then, the women I work with who have restless legs also have heavy periods and struggle to keep their iron levels up. Myself included.
Restless legs syndrome is linked to brain iron deficiency in particular. Also, the severity of restless legs symptoms seems to be related to the severity of the iron deficiency.
Interestingly, your iron levels are different throughout the day and your brain levels of iron may be at their lowest in the evening. Therefore, because restless legs may be related to brain iron levels and brain iron is lower in the evening, restless legs sufferers may benefit from taking iron supplements later in the day when their brain will absorb it better.
For some of my clients, simply switching to taking their iron around 6 or 7pm every evening has made a huge difference to their restless legs symptoms.
However, there are a few things you need to consider if you are going to supplement in the evening. Some people report that iron supplements cause insomnia or night sweats if they take them too late. Also, iron and magnesium shouldn’t be taken at the same time because they compete for absorption in your body. If you are taking magnesium in the evening you should take your iron at least a couple hours before your magnesium.
Also, you should get your iron levels checked before supplementing with iron because too much iron is associated with accelerated aging, inflammation and many chronic diseases like cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases (too much iron in the brain may not be a good thing either!).
Iron supplementation can be confusing and it’s super important that you get it right or you’ll never get your levels up enough. I recommend you read my guide to iron supplementation here.
Diosmin – The Ultimate Supplement For Restless Legs
In my experience, iron supplementation alone has not been sufficient to alleviate my restless legs symptoms. Luckily, I’ve found something more powerful – diosmin.
Diosmin is a flavonoid (natural plant chemical) derived from the rind of sweet oranges. Diosmin is available as a supplement in most countries and as a prescription in some places like Europe and the United States (the prescription formula is known as Micronized Purified Flavonoid Fraction). I don’t know enough about the prescription formula to comment on it in this blog post but if you suffer from restless legs you may want to ask your doctor about it. From what I’ve read in my research, the micronized formulation may work slightly better. However, I’ve had great results from the supplement form of diosmin and, if you are just an occasional sufferer of restless legs or you don’t have access to the prescription formulation, you can try a supplement from a reputable brand and see if it helps.
So, how does diosmin help?
If you’ve ever had restless legs you’ll know that movement and massage can relieve your symptoms. That’s because poor circulation can cause restless legs symptoms. Diosmin helps with circulation because it improves the health of your venous system. The health and strength of our venous system declines with age (that’s why we get varicose veins, spider veins and cankles) so we need to support it with natural options as best as we can. Studies have shown diosmin can help in many ways including:
- improving the health of the venous system including vein walls
- improving the working of vein valves
- decreasing swelling in places like the ankle
- lessening feelings of pain and heaviness, and
- having anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
My experience with diosmin:
Studies show that diosmin can start working within an hour or so and this has certainly been my experience and the experience of my clients who have tried using it.
In my first weeks of taking diosmin, I noticed that I would start feeling the sensation of restless legs (often when I was sitting down in the evening) and then it would just STOP. It’s the oddest, yet best, sensation ever! If you suffer with restless legs you’ll know what I mean. You just want something to make it stop and diosmin does that before it builds to a painful level.
A few weeks after I started taking it, I stopped getting restless legs altogether. When I’m tired and/or I’ve been on my feet all day, I can feel the slightest sensations of restless legs but taking diosmin stops the symptoms from progressing to anything even close to what I used to get. It’s easy to forget that I ever suffered with restless legs because I rarely feel anything anymore. The big test for me was when I was able to use it on an international flight. Normally my legs feel the worst on flights and on an recent flight I felt nothing at all! I took one diosmin before leaving the house in the morning and then one a couple hours later just before boarding my flight and I was perfectly fine.
You can see my entire supplement protocol below or if you prefer to watch it on YouTube click here.
Restless Legs Supplement Protocol
Here’s my restless legs supplement protocol:
Iron – 1-2 capsules at 6:30pm (30-45 minutes before dinner; with vitamin C)
Diosmin – 1 tablet at same time as iron (because I tend to get restless legs in the evening)
Magnesium – 400mg around 9pm (an hour before bed)
Remember, we are supplementing late in the day with iron because restless legs may be linked to iron deficiency in the brain and your brain absorbed iron better later the day. However, because iron and magnesium compete for absorption – it’s important to take them separately so take your magnesium a few hours later.
Since there are a lot of things that can interfere with iron absorption, you should also read this article to learn how to get the most out of your supplements.
I have noticed that on days when I do a lot of activity on my legs like walking or having a big leg training session, I sometimes need to take 2 diosmin tablets. I take one before dinner and then another before bed with my magnesium.
If you are someone who suffers with restless legs during the daytime or if you are traveling and want to prevent restless legs in the car/plane, you may have to change when you take your diosmin but for those of you who feel them worse at night, try this protocol.
A Few More Tips For Restless Legs
You’ll often hear that exercise relieves restless legs but that has not been my experience. In fact, the harder I worked my legs (ie. walking all day while on holidays or having a hard leg training session), the worse my restless legs would be in the evening. So while movement may relieve restless legs at the time it kicks in, I don’t necessarily believe that for those of us who are otherwise healthy and active, restless legs will be relieved by more exercise during the day.
The difference may be that light exercise relieves restless legs, especially for people who are sedentary most of the day, while intense exercise (that creates lots of muscle tension) may aggravate the symptoms. If exercise triggers your restless legs, massage, stretching and hot water bottles may also help. In fact, before using diosmin, I used all three of these before bed on leg training days. Just a couple minutes rubbing your legs with a cream containing ingredients that help with circulation can make a big difference to your sleep quality. Look for ingredients like arnica, peppermint and cayenne.
Finally, you have to consider your diet and hydration as part of your strategy. If your diet is poor, you’ll be lacking in key minerals needed for muscle function like magnesium, iron, potassium and calcium. You may need more than just a good multivitamin – most women benefit from additional targeted supplementation. If you exercise hard and often, you may find a natural electrolyte supplement helps.
Remember, if you want some help with all of this you can book a session with me and I can talk you through it.
I hope you find some solutions and relief in this article. There’s nothing worse than restless legs and sometimes we feel angry and frustrated when it’s happening. Just remember your body is always giving you signs that things are out of balance and your restless legs are calling attention to the fact that you need some self-care and to put your feet up for a while.
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