RESTLESS LEG SYNDROME? I THINK I HAVE SYMPTOMS OF IT. MY LEG JERKS A LOT AT NIGHT....I'M SEEING A NEW RHEUMOTOLOGIST NEXT WEEK AND WILL ASK HIM ABOUT IT. I ALSO HAVE FIBRO AND CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME. DOES ANYONE ELSE? I DEVELOVED THE CHRONIC FATIGUE LIKE FOUR MONTHS POST SURGERY.....I CAN SLEEP FOR 24 HRS IF I DON'T TAKE SOMETHING TO KEEP ME AWAKE

so your leg is jerking on it's own?
or
it feel like you need to move them?

sometimes I get what i call RLS but maybe it 's not really that- it's more like I need to move my legs or jiggle them - they won't just relax.

But if I take a calcium/magnesium supplement or drink /eat foods with calcium my legs will calm down.

I have jumpy legs that twitch, tingle, jump and jerk. I don't know if it is technically RLS, but I do know that it's annoying.

I also have fibro and CFS. I take meds at night to help me get better sleep that is deeper and more refreshing so that I have less fatigue, and I also take Provigil twice a day to help keep me awake.... it helps, but it's not perfect.

For my legs, I sleep with a leg wedge pillow that raises my legs up and that reduces the jerks and jumps and twitches a lot while I am sleeping.

My leg wedge pillow is similar to this one -
http://www.makemeheal.com/mmh/product.do?id=10588

Have you ever heard of Dr Gott? He is sort-of like Dear Abby, but his newspaper column answers medical questions. Years ago, someone wrote to him suggesting that a bar of soap under the sheets reduces RLS. He printed the letter and asked people if they had ever heard of it.... ever the years he has gotten and printed many many letters from people who got relief from RLS by putting a bar of soap under their sheets. No one knows why it works, but they tried it and it worked.

Here is a link to a webpage that printed Dr Gott's soap under the sheets column -
http://www.reallans.com/mmml.shtml?/002240.shtml

Take care,
Liz

THANKS EVERYONE FOR YOUR INPUT. MY LEFT LEG, MAINLY JERKS AND TWITCHES VERY STRONG ON ITS OWN. I WONDER IF ANYONE HAS TRIED RELPAX? THAT IS THE DRUG THAT IS ADVERTISED TO HELP RLS.

Law,
The problem I had was diagx when i went off the meds of psych for nerve pain. They were triggering the jumpiness, restlessness.

This symptom went away when I went off them. I do use Topomax, but eveything OK,
I think it was messing with the electrical impulses in the brain making hyper activity.

Di

had rls when coming off meds ......morphine!!!!! it caused it.....try quinine....tonic water....so looking to tonic water....or gin in it......just an idea
take care,
Victoria

I WAS ADVISED THAT QUININE CAN CAUSE SOME PROBLEMS WITH THE HEART. I HAVE SYMPTOMS OF IT. LYRICA ACTUALLY HELPS IT. THAT IS RLS. MY LEGS GERK AND TWITCH ON THEIR OWN. I TAKE THREE TO FOUR CONCERTA PILLS AND ONE TO TWO PROVIGIL TO KEEP ME AWAKE. AND SOMETIMES I STILL DRAG..AT LEAST MOST OF THE TIME.

Quinine in injected can cause heart electrical issues yes.......but need to do more research on this one....a can of tonic water has very litttle quinine in it so you may try it It worked for me......this is truely hell I can not understand how you are dealing with it long term.......it really is hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't imagine dealing with this long term my two weeks were enough for a lifetime..

hugs,
Victoria

1: Vet Hum Toxicol. 2003 Dec;45(6):303-6. Links
Death by quinine.

• Morrison LD,
• Velez LI,
• Shepherd G,
• Bey T,
• Benitez FL.

Section of Emergency Medicine, Louisiana State University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
We report a case of a man with a 9.75 g ingestion of quinine. The patient presented with recurrent pulseless wide complex tachycardia for which he received sodium bicarbonate, defibrillation and overdrive mechanical pacing. Despite treatment, the patient died. Quinine is still available for the treatment of leg cramps and drug-resistant malaria. In overdose, quinine affects multiple organ systems, including vision, hearing, the cardiovascular, and renal systems. We review the current approach to quinine intoxication.



HUGE DOSE!!!!


1: Trop Med Int Health. 1998 Jun;3(6):482-9. Links
Quinine pharmacokinetics: ototoxic and cardiotoxic effects in healthy Caucasian subjects and in patients with falciparum malaria.

• Claessen FA,
• van Boxtel CJ,
• Perenboom RM,
• Tange RA,
• Wetsteijn JC,
• Kager PA.

Department of Infectious Diseases, Tropical Medicine and AIDS, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
OBJECTIVE: To study the pharmacokinetic behaviour of quinine in Caucasians with and without malaria. METHOD: Quinine-dihydrochloride was administered intravenously as a single dose of 300 mg to 12 healthy subjects and as multiple doses of 600 mg in 4 h every 8 h in 10 patients with falciparum malaria. Plasma quinine concentrations were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography RESULTS: Quinine pharmacokinetics are time-dependent: the apparent elimination halftime is shorter in the accumulation phase than in the elimination phase; in malaria patients the maximal quinine concentration was reached in half the time calculated on the basis of the elimination phase after the last quinine infusion. Nevertheless a loading dose seemed advisable to reach adequate therapeutic levels quickly. In malaria patients the highest plasma concentrations during or at the end of the infusions were positively correlated with body weight. There was no correlation between body weight and the volume of distribution of quinine as calculated during the elimination phase. Hearing loss was audiometrically documented in 9 healthy subjects at a mean maximal plasma quinine concentration of only 2 mg/l. All malaria patients suffered serious cochlear hearing impairment. The ototoxic effects in both healthy subjects and patients appeared to be reversible. No electrographic changes were noted in the healthy subjects, whereas a clinically insignificant mean lengthening of the corrected QT interval was seen in the malaria patients. CONCLUSION: Intravenous quinine pharmacokinetics in healthy Caucasians were similar to those reported for Nigerian or Thai subjects. At effective doses quinine causes considerable but reversible cochlear hearing losses in both healthy persons and in patients. Our findings do support the need for a loading dose. The fact that in malaria patients there was no correlation between body weight and quinine VD as calculated during the elimination phase renders questionable the usefulness of dosing quinine according to body weight.





1: Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1997 Nov-Dec;91(6):694-6. Links
Lack of a significant adverse cardiovascular effect of combined quinine and mefloquine therapy for uncomplicated malaria.

• Supanaranond W,
• Suputtamongkol Y,
• Davis TM,
• Pukrittayakamee S,
• Teja-Isavadharm P,
• Webster HK,
• White NJ.

Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Quinine dihydrochloride (10 mg salt/kg infused over one hour) and mefloquine (15 mg base/kg) were given simultaneously to 13 adults with uncomplicated falciparum malaria. Supine and standing blood pressures were recorded and the electrocardiogram monitored. Plasma concentrations of the 2 drugs were similar to those reported previously for the 2 compounds given individually to a similar group of patients. Although postural hypotension was common (6 cases before treatment and 7 after) and the electrocardiogram QTc interval was prolonged by a mean of 12% (SD = 8) following drug treatment, there was no evidence of a clinically significant cardiovascular pharmacodynamic interaction between these 2 structurally related antimalarial compounds.



Quinidine-induced potentiation of cardiovascular effects of nitrendipine: functional aspects and possible molecular mechanisms.

• Herzig S,
• Jischa J,
• Beinhauer A,
• Geirhos B,
• Tacke K,
• Hempelmann RG.

Department of Pharmacology, University of Kiel, Germany.
The functional interaction between the dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker nitrendipine and quinidine was studied in isolated preparations from guinea-pig cardiac ventricle and in mesenteric arterial segments under a variety of experimental conditions. The negative inotropic potency of nitrendipine is clearly enhanced by quinidine (3 x 10(-6)-10(-4) mol/l) by up to two orders of magnitude, i.e. cardiac nitrendipine effects are potentiated. Vasorelaxant effects, however, remain largely unaffected (nitrendipine potency is increased by half an order of magnitude maximally). To elucidate the mechanism of this interaction, the ability of quinidine to potentiate the negative inotropic effect of a series of 12 dihydropyridines was compared with their voltage-dependence of action in guinea-pig left atria. No significant correlation is found (r = 0.18). Furthermore, quinidine inhibits rather than stimulates binding of tritiated nitrendipine, nimodipine or (S)-isradipine to isolated cardiac membranes. Therefore, the mechanism of the quinidine-nitrendipine interaction differs from those previously proposed for modulation of dihydropyridine binding by other drugs. We hypothesize that quinidine-occupied calcium channels adopt an intermediate affinity for nitrendipine, higher than in resting channels, but lower than the high affinity present with inactivated channels. Model calculations which are based on this assumption are able to reproduce all experimental findings of this study.
PMID: 7675123 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]



1: J Emerg Med. 1993 May-Jun;11(3):279-85. Links
Delayed cardiotoxicity following quinine overdose: a case report.

• Bodenhamer JE,
• Smilkstein MJ.

Department of Emergency Medical Services, Denver General Hospital, Colorado 80204-4507.
Quinine poisoning typically results in a constellation of non-life threatening symptoms which include tinnitus, deafness, nausea, vomiting, vision changes, headache, and hypotension. Cardiac conduction defects, dysrhythmias, and cardiovascular collapse have all been reported after overdose and generally occur within 8 hours of ingestion. We report a unique case of delayed cardiotoxicity following quinine ingestion. Toxicity included marked ventricular conduction abnormalities for which serum alkalinization appeared to be therapeutically beneficial, and torsades de pointes requiring overdrive pacing for termination.
PMID: 8340583 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]


Hope some of this helps.....
Victoria