Posted by smpayne69 on July 20, 2007, at 14:27:26
Greetings all!
I had been fighting with RLS (Restless Leg Syndrome) for years, and have seen specialists from all fields, read countless books in physiology and neurobiology; Most recently "Mind Wide Open" by Stephen Johnson and "The Universe in a Single Atom" by the extremely wise Dali Lama.
Like a lot of you, I got to an expatriated point in my life. The RLS started not only bothering me at night, but began affecting me throughout the day. Thereby, really effecting my work performance. So, I decided to put a lot of study into the subject, which was in itself difficult due to my RSL issue. Upon reading texts and listening to seminars, I began to have doubts about some of the theories surrounding RLS. One of the earlier theories was, of course, a psycological illness and could be treated by meditating or preoccupation. I then learned to art of meditation. I must admit, it did help once I was able to train myself to focus on nothingness, but the RLS knew I was not meditating at work or sleep, so returned. At that point I, through meditation, proved to myself that it was not a psycological condition. I then decided to try acupuncture, which directly interacts with nerves and nerve endings. Coordinating with a specialist, I went to a late evening session. I have always been sceptical of this type of medical process, but was open minded (a very good state to be in when testing a theory). About 1 minute into the process, the RLS was completely gone! He had isolated major nerve centers....so OK, it IS physical. The nerves were still in an uproad, however, the signal of that argument was not reaching my concious mind.
Now after all my research, I found that Dopamine is a major player in regulating nerve behavior and the human 'reward or pleasure' centers. Opiates are created naturally by the brain to reward you when you have done something worth the reward...like maybe winning Manager of the Year. This reward system is boosted dramatically by artificial doses of Opiates, such as that found in Heroin, Vicotin, Codein, Lortab, etc...
I was now at a very comfortable point in understanding what may be going on. This next step, I suggest you just take my word for and do not attempt yourself.
In order to validate to myself what was actually going on in my crazed serotonin/dopamine world, I decided to fake a severe back strain to go on Lortab for 8 weeks. When I started on the Lortab, I felt my pleasure centers firing up and giving me a central whole feeling of well being. On day 2, my RLS disappeared completely! So, 7 and a half weeks of great sleep and a general feeling of well being would be about to come crashing down around me. You see, the second part of using myself as a lab rat was about to kick in...withdrawal. Now, I had never experienced withdrawal before, but understood the symptoms. About 12 hours after I seized taking the Lortab, I started to feel the symptoms. Shaking, sweating, tightness of muscles, complete lack of concentration, and you guessed, the worst RLS I have ever had in my left. I was ready to shoot myself in the head about 4 days into it. But, logic prevailed and I was happy to know that I believe I had targeting the RLS culprit...dopamine!
As most probably read, another theory is Iron deficiency. I take a regular quality multivitamin from GNC and have a healthy lifestyle. I believe if it were Iron deficiency and so much that it caused nerve chaos in my legs (whole body during withdrawal) then I would see some basic Iron deficiency symptoms as well, like sores in the mouth, thinning nails, etc... But I had absolutly no Iron deficiency and was proved by a complete blood panel.
So, what was my next step you ask. Well, to prove my own theory, I needed a type of Dopamine booster. I feel there are a lot of people out there that have this deficiency through natural genetics and/or environmental elements while growing through childhood where the chemical formations are at its purist development.
The next part, and most recent, is quite funny. First of all, one of the doctors I went to a year ago placed me on Zoloft because I was having mood swings. I have been on that for a year, and have no mood swings at all since. I do believe that my serotonin levels are lower that normal and inhibiting the uptake as helped build up a healthy supply. However, to my studies and testing, the serotonin has no relation to RLS. So, it is a year of being on the Zoloft meds and I return to the doctor and a wealth of knowledge and true life self inflicted experience. The office had me complete a series of tests which were basically focused on Mood Disorder, Attention Deficit, and Depression. It was discovered that I was very ADD! Which, solidified my theory of low dopamin levels as a whole. I indicated to the doctor that I believe I had low dopamine levels and also believe I had high Zeta levels (Brain waves that controlled concentration and attention measured on a scale of 1 to 5). I explained that my own theory is, for some reason, my nerves are attempting to do something systemically, but unable to complete the communication to the very basic animal brain functions located in our brain stems, so is manifested at the origin...which simply seems to start in the lower body area. For those with severe RLS, or withdrawing from Opiate addiction, it will start in the legs, but will spread slowly upward to arms and hands.
With a dopamine boost, or blocker per say, those levels build up in your system and ultimately feed your body properly. I have since been put on Adderall XR and the RLS symptoms have pretty much disappeared. Every now and then I feel it a tiny bit, but I believe over time that with subside as well. I sleep extremely well, I have turned my professional life completely around, and living a much more fulfilling life.
The Revered Dali Lama makes mention to the simple fact that we are all animals to an extent. I believe that, and further more, I theorize that we are animals living in an age not designed for animals. As animals we pick and eat what we want, which many plants have these boosts of dopamine as a basic ingredient. I plan on doing my own study as to the differential of RLS between vegetarians and carnivores...it would be interesting to see the results.
Please take this 'book' with a grain of salt because my medical history and yours will be different. And please, DO NOT do the opiate test...I did it for all of us and the withdrawal process was the worst experience of my life. Just take the results as informational thought and speak to your doctor before trying anything. For myself, I truly believe I had a dopamine deficiency that both hindered my focus and concentration for years, and provided me with those countless sleepless nights.
I hope my research helps at least one of you to overcome your illness and please email me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,SMPayne.
poster:smpayne69
thread:770756
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070719/msgs/770756.html