Effective Natural Remedies for Restless Legs Syndrome Relief

I've had restless legs for years and I've tried all the remedies mentioned here in EC. Many of them worked for a while and then stopped so I'd switch to another only to experience the same disappointment. Quite by accident I learned that eliminating sugar from my diet completely eliminated those darned restless legs. And by sugar I mean “blatant” sugar! I'm talking about stuff like cake, pie, cookies, syrups, candy, and anything that is loaded with it. I don't obsess over it or scrutinize every label, but so far this approach is working like magic. I hope this helps someone.

One other thing some people may want to avoid is milk, not sure if all dairy. I remember when I was 12 (I'm 51 now, have had restless legs since I was little) I was having headaches, and the doctor thought it may be an allergy and I remember he told my mom to take milk out of my diet for a month to see what happened. It didn't help my headaches but I remember clearly to this day that my restless legs went away. Came back of course when I started back on milk. The only thing that helps me now, food related, is to AVOID REFINED SUGAR completely. It takes a few weeks to kick in (no pun intended).

I have had chronic RLS for 5 years. 5 years without sleep! I have tried everything, I thought, without success. Then, 3 weeks ago, I read a posting on a ME site, (I have ME as well) by someone that had been on a low oxalate diet for a year. He had not had RLS since starting the diet. I had just finished a whole 30 diet which made me feel terrible. I couldn't understand this as I was eating lots of spinach, carrots, nuts and beetroot.

I read the post about the Low oxalate diet, and he had listed the food that I had been eating, and ate a lot of before the diet. I straight away went to the low oxalate info page and read everything. Straight away stopped eating high oxalate food, but so not to start my body 'dumping', ate medium to low oxalate food. I have experienced only slight twitching, more annoying than anything, with three nights of just an awareness feeling in my legs. With pretty much three full nights of sleep. For me this is miraculous! I have by the side of my bed oils, magnesium, homeopathic remedies and creams. The only thing I have used since starting the diet is an essential oil for nerves, and I have only used it a few times.

I highly recommend this diet. Read all that you can, start slowly and persevere! There are many conditions that a low oxalate diet helps.

I had RLS, only it was all over my body, it started mainly in my legs and then eventually got really bad everywhere. I had never heard of the soap trick until now. However, I went on a no carb diet for a few weeks to lose a few pounds and the Body RLS completely stopped. I tested it further by introducing wheat back into my diet, it came back. Now, I eat a totally wheat free diet as much as possible, sometimes when I'm out with friends I can't follow it well, but I mostly eat at home. Within about 3 hours of me consuming bread, pasta or crackers, or pizza, cake etc...anything with wheat, it starts up again. I don't have celiac, and no one else in my family has any history of wheat sensitivity. My joints also swell up, I feel very arthritic and my energy level goes way down, that's just after ONE serving! So, just wanted to let you all know that there may be a root cause that you don't know about. It might be the modern wheat, it might be the roundup they use to dry today's wheat crops to get them to market faster, I don't know. I just know. I don't use wheat anymore and don't have the problems.

If you suffer with RLS [restless leg syndrome] don't drink any kind of liquid at least 4 hours before bed nor eat any food with sodium.

I use to put frozen pulp fruits and honey in a blender and eat or drink 5 hours before bed. It works for me.

Liquid reflux and sodium are like poison for RLS suffers.

There's a few people who seem to think others aren't taking RLS seriously all because others are on this site sharing their positive results from what they've tried. Well for those of you who haven't noticed, most of us who are suffering with some ailment or another are pretty fed up with not being helped by the doctors they see or even medication that's more lethal than the ailment itself. We have chosen to become active in helping to heal our own bodies by making decisions based on what WE feel is right for OUR bodies and everyone has that same choice rather they use it or not.

When people who have had success with a certain protocol share their knowledge, that's such a wonderful blessing to others who have RLS or any other ailment and who DO have the hope of receiving help. Even if it only helps 10% of the majority, it worked for someone, they are thankful! :-) How selfish & heartless it is when people are criticized for sharing knowledge for relief with others, regardless of how ridiculous the method may sound to those criticizing all because the method didn't work for them. So that leaves me wondering why are they even here on this website? Earth clinic is a place where people come and share their knowledge based on what they've tried and what did and didn't help them. Most of the remedies listed on this site may seem strange, weird or unexplanatory as to how they scientifically work so that just makes me more curious as to why people who criticize would even bother reading on this website. If all these wonderful testimonies weren't to my liking, I would be reading elsewhere instead of trying to discourage people who are looking and hoping for some form of relief from their ailment.

As for my own personal experience with RLS, I have symptoms off and on and like a majority of others have stated symptoms are more aggressive when low magnesium and sugar are in the picture. These 2 are the prime triggers for MY symptoms. Once I raise my magnesium levels and cut out the sugar the symptoms usually resolve rather quickly. At times I can eat sugar and a few hours later I will have full blown symptoms mostly in my legs after I fall asleep. It would also be good for others to make sure they aren't dealing with some type of anxiety disorder as well because foods do cause certain chemical reactions within the body and these chemicals sometime cause anxiety to buildup in the muscles and a person can show signs resemble RLS especially if they aren't an active person, based on MY own experience. In my case, I've been diagnosed with both disorders.

I have also gotten relief a few times from doing exercises in which I tighten all my body muscles at once and hold them for about 15 seconds, then I release them. After doing these exercises for about 10 or 15 minutes I can usually fall back to sleep most nights. This may not work for everyone but it's a lot better than not trying anything. Be your OWN critic, try anything that's safe of course or don't! Just remember, you still have nothing to lose except the faith to believe your circumstances could change from YOU not trying.

Re creepy crawly leg sensations associated with restless leg syndrome... using an electric massager on the afflicted area of my leg, usually the calf, stops the creepy crawly sensation. This sensation is associated with Restless Leg Syndrome although my leg does not twitch or jump. I experience this sensation in the early afternoon or evening when I am lying down and resting on the couch. When I use the above treatment for about 5-10 minutes, the crawling sensation cycle is broken.

I find benadryl makes my restless legs MUCH worse, as does anything like this or any of the PM medicines (Excedrin PM, Advil PM, etc.).

Hi,

I just wanted to share that since giving up coffee, I don't have Restless Legs syndrome anymore. Simple.

Thanks

Epsom salt has been very effective at relieving RLS!!! WOW so happy!

I have a warm epsom salt bath using 2 cups of epsom salt in the bath, every night before bed.

I also take 800mg of Magnesium Glycinate daily (400mg am, and 400mg pm).

RLS can be very painful, excruciating, and I am so happy to have found relief finally.

Thank you for this cure

I have suffered from RLS most of my life (I'm 47)and discovered the link between RLS and mineral deficiency about 20 years ago. I have supplemented with Potassium, Calcium and Iron. I cook my own food, eat very little processed stuff, and have always craved spinach and broccoli (I even like brussel sprouts!). But even eating all the right stuff, I still need the supplements. I also suffer from endometriosis (horrible female problem), which I think is also related somehow to the mineral deficiency. I have been taking Blackstrap Molasses (full of good minerals) for about a year to try to combat those symptoms. I haven't experienced the "miracle cure" other women have written about, but at least I'm off the Percocet! Recently I have been reading on this site about magnesium supplementation. Am I right to think that low magnesium can cause malabsorption of other minerals? I'm going to try it for a while and see what happens.

Can say that I was diagnosed with RLS about 2 years ago. One night I was reading online and noticed that I was hurting in my lower back while sitting. I looked to see what would help that problem and found- 3 -simple exercies and when I did those I slept all night long. It seems that the lower back is related to Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS). I do also believe that a lack of minerals and folic acid and Vitamin D3 are also needed but the exercises doing them 3 to 6 times a day about a minute and I sleep all night long. This works whether I take the vitamins and mineral or not as sometimes I get lazy about taking pills all the time and can go weeks before I take the supplements again. But the exercises are simple: 1-Rotate the Hips as in trying to use a Hula Hoop. 2-Twist the upper body 3-Do squats with the knees as low as possible and do all of this no more that 1 minute for all 3 exercises. Do this a minumin of 3 times or more as needed.

Restless leg syndrome was the bane of my existence until one day I was talking to a friend who is a PhD in pharmacy and she offhandedly said, "Restless legs? Take fish oil." Just like that my problem was solved. I take 2400 mg. of fish oil before bed and haven't had a problem in months. Truly a miracle as I had tried literally everything else I heard of to solve this problem. I hope this helps others have a good night's sleep.

Folic Acid cured my inherited Restless Legs. My mother also had restless legs. I am 47 years old and I have had restless legs in the evening for about 10 years. I couldn't sit on the couch and try to relax or take a long car ride at night without my legs going crazy twitching. It's only been in the last year or so that it has actually affected me in bed while I'm trying to sleep. It progressively got worse until it was keeping me awake for most of the night. That's when I realized I was not going to take this lightly anymore. I have done research and tried many things over the years, but when you read so many things some of it just goes over your head. The folic acid connection was one of the things that just kept going over my head. So when I looked deeper into it recently, I started seeing many accounts of how folic acid deficiency can be inherited. Some people just cannot absorb and utilize folate effectively and that can be an inherited problem. I looked deeper and learned that some of the signs of folic acid deficiency, aside from restless legs, are periodontal disease (my mom had it in her mid thirties and had all her teeth removed), poor circulation (my hands & feet are always cold), and even Alzheimer's (my mom contracted Alzheimer's in her mid sixties). I read that if this is the case with you that you need to supplement with high doses of folic acid. I bought the 800 mcg tablets and started with just a couple of them at a time. I have built up to taking 15 of them at night before bed and my restless legs are no more. I can hardly believe it, but it's true. It took about a week or two for it to completely disappear and if my body adjusts to this dosage and it comes back, I will just continue to increase my dosage as necessary. I am a firm believer in healing ourselves with natural products and methods. I have used much information from this wonderful site to improve and cure my problems.

I'd like to add that EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), which is a form of self-applied acupressure, has also helped me greatly. Used correctly, it will stop the twitching in your legs. For me it was only temporary because of the folic acid deficiency, but it was a huge help to me in the middle of the night when I couldn't get to sleep because of my restless legs. I hope this can help someone else who struggles with this problem.

I had heard that for those who inherited restless leg seem to require high doses of folic acid. I've tried this and it works great. I take about 20, 800mcg's at night.