It is almost an irrepressible urge to run that can attack at night and take away sleep. Professor Luigi Ferini-Strambi, professor of Neurology and director of the Sleep Medicine Center of the San Raffaele Turro Hospital in Milan, explains how to deal with it
Feel the legs who paw, who would like to run when you are in bed, or sitting, and maybe you are even done sport during the day: this is one of the main ones symptoms of leg syndrome restless. A disturbance that, however, with doing more or less sport, more or less has little to do with moving, because it is not a vascular disorder, but a neurological disorder. “The restless legs syndrome it is a disorder characterized by this need to move the legs, a discomfort that is sometimes difficult to define: for some, in fact, it appears as a pain, for others as a tingling “, he explains to Official Active Professor Luigi Ferini-Strambi, full professor of Neurology at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and director of the Sleep Medicine Center of the San Raffaele Turro Hospital in Milan.
Symptoms of Restless Legs Syndrome –
The various nuances of the symptoms can make diagnosis difficult: “This neurological disorder generally affects the legs from the calf down and has three main characteristics: if the subject moves the legs the disorder is attenuated or even disappears; the disorder occurs only when sitting or lying down, not when standing; finally, it is a disorder that affects from 7-8 in the evening until 2-3 in the morning, no later than. This is because it is a disorder related to dopamine, the release of which by the medulla decreases in the evening hours, while it goes up again in the early morning hours. These three characteristics are fundamental to the diagnosis, which is clinical and not instrumental ”, remembers Professor Ferini-Strambi.
The cause –
Restless legs syndrome, explains the neurologist, is quite common: “It affects about the 2-3% of the general population, although it is often undiagnosed and patients have lower limb Doppler tests which are useless since it is not a vascular disorder. In addition, sufferers are often mistaken for anxious, stressed subject, but these factors have nothing to do with restless legs syndrome. Rather an important weight is that of familiarity: 50% of those with this disorder, in fact, have other family members affected by the same problem ”, explains Professor Ferini-Strambi. To be more exposed are then the women and people later in life, adds the neurologist, who however specifies: “There are also children who suffer from it, already around the age of 4-5, usually because they have family members who have the same disorder. And sometimes in the case of the youngest patients this disorder risks being confused with the hyperactivity syndrome ”. Finally, there is another factor that can increase the risk of suffering from restless legs syndrome: the iron deficiency, with low levels of ferritin. “For example, those who do a lot of blood transfusions or donations may be subject to it. In these cases iron supplements are evaluated but not by mouth, but intravenously ”, explains Professor Ferini-Strambi.
Therapy –
Restless Legs Syndrome can have a major impact on the patient’s quality of life because it can massively affect the patient’s quality of your sleep: “There are forms in which the discomfort lasts only about ten minutes, but others in which it lasts for hours. In these cases, the subject sleeps much less than necessary and this has a significant impact on the day and on the quality of life ”, explains the neurologist. And if the effects of this disorder are on the quality of sleep, i medications for therapy are not those forinsomnia: “This is precisely one of the ways to arrive at the diagnosis. If, in fact, a subject takes drugs against insomnia and has no response, this must lead to suspicion that he suffers not from insomnia but from restless legs syndrome. Therapy consists of drugs that act on dopamine or on system GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid, the most important inhibitory neurotransmitter of the central nervous system, ed). In the most severe forms, therapy includes opiate drugs. But the doctor will decide which therapy is best. The important thing is to cure this ailment, which also has negative effects on heart, since restless and poor sleep causes an acceleration of the heartbeat and a increased pressure. Also, like theinsomnia, can increase the risk of diabetes and in general have a negative impact on the immune system, of which sleep is a great ally ”, recalls Ferini-Strambi.
Restless Legs Syndrome and Sports –
If even the sensation you feel is therefore similar to an unstoppable desire to move, even to run, to play sports, it might not help and sometimes even be counterproductive: “A excessive physical activity it can have negative effects. It must also be said that there are particularly serious cases in which patients keep an exercise bike near the bed and start doing it when the discomfort is felt in a heavy way. But in general, since it is a neurological disorder and not a vascular one, the link with sport is scarce. The subject, in any case, will tend to avoid sitting for a long time because symptoms could appear ”. But is it cured of restless legs syndrome? “There therapy is symptomatic therapy, that controls symptoms. But there are cases where improvements can be made over the years. The important thing, however, is to manage the therapy well, maintaining a low dosage of drugs ”, warns Professor Ferini-Strambi.
© breaking latest news