By Dr. David B. Thomson, BS,DC
Restless Legs Syndrome is an uncomfortable, uneasy feeling in the legs mostly at night or while resting. Restless Legs Syndrome is believed to effect 10 percent of adults over 50. It was it was first noted in western medical records in 1672 by Thomas Willis. It is considered to be a disorder of the nervous system, characterized by sensations below the knees. The restlessness results in (an almost) uncontrollable twitching and involuntary movement. There are many different descriptions of the sensations, some of them include an achy-crawling feeling; a cramping ache, a sensation of athetosis (involuntary writhing movements) of the leg. Patients also reported pins and needles, and prickly feelings. These feelings are accompanied by an irresistible urge to walk or move the legs. The distressing sensations normally subside after walking or movement.
This was the grim nightly reality for "Jim" and his wife. Two years ago Jim began to suffer with this syndrome, it began with some minor pains. He suffered with this pain and eventually went to a chiropractor who misdiagnosed him with a pinched nerve in his low back. The RLS progressed to the point that he was unable to sleep without waking his wife.
In November 2009 Jim began treatment with me. His sister-in-law who is a patient, convinced Jim's wife that he should make an appointment. The first thing Jim said to me when we met was that he really disliked chiropractors and that he was only in my office to get his wife and her sister to quit bothering him.
Jim told me he had tried "everything" for his RLS, including chiropractic, massage therapy, and several different medical doctors. Currently he was taking tramadol, a synthetic codeine. 6 times the recommend dosages. He had also tried the medications normally prescribed for RLS, which are the same ones used for Parkinson disease. None of the treatments were helping. in fact the long term use of the tramadol was beginning to loose it's effectiveness, as his body was building up a tolerance for the drug.
After my examination and review of this 52 year old male. Jim turned out to be quite a gentleman, his body mass index was within normal. He was a bright hardworking heavy equipment mechanic. He did not / has never smoked, he does not drink. He eats a fairly well, with a penchant for big steaks. I also looked at the x-rays of his low back. His lumbar spine had clear evidence of L5-S1 disc degeneration. The spine at this level was overgrown with bone spurs and arthritis. The intervertebral foramen, the area in the spine that the nerves exit were clearly smaller than normal. Jim reported lots of low back pain and pain into his buttock and upper legs.
After gathering this information I decided a three prong approach would be the best.
The treatment protocol I designed was to build the liver and heart chi deficiency with acupuncture. To address the low back issues I started adjusting Jim's spine, in the beginning with very light low amplitude adjustments. After a few weeks I had him doing some very specific low back stretches and exercises. Jim's diet lacked enough marine source EFA's to produce an anti-inflammatory response so I started him on 5 grams of pure EPA and DHA. The other part was that he needed a good whole food liquid nutritional this was addressed using a supplement called Intramax. The acupuncture was done before each adjustment for 20 minutes, I started with 18 points and added 4 more points after two weeks.
I treated Jim 12 times over the first 4 weeks. He reported improved sleep and decreased need for his drugs so I adjusted his treatment schedule. In December I saw Jim 8 times, in early January 2010 his symptoms were totally gone and Jim was no longer using any medication. Jim has returned to work, standing on hard concrete floors for 12 to 14 hours daily. Perhaps the best news was that Jim's wife came to the office personally to tell me she was able to sleep all night with Jim beside her with out being kicked!
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