Without a formal interrogation and actually seeing someone with RLS, I would immediately assume it is a deficiency of the Heart (Spirit), which is something western medicine will not understand. Anything TICM does will never be understood by medical doctors and I often feel they don't even understand their own medicine. However, through questioning and explanations, the patient shall always understand so this is all that matters.
RLS is also known as Willis-Ekbom disease, a condition that causes uncomfortable sensations in the legs. These sensations have been described as tingly, crawling, creeping feelings, and cause the overwhelming urge to move the affected limb.
RLS symptoms typically occur when the person is sitting, resting, or sleeping, and often happen at night.
Some patients have primary RLS, which is idiopathic with no known cause which means western medicine does not even understand it themselves nor do they have an explanation yet still they are quick to label. Others have secondary RLS, which is typically associated with nerve problems, pregnancy, iron deficiency, or chronic Kidney failure.
For most patients with RLS, symptoms are mild. But if your symptoms are moderate to severe, RLS will have a big impact on a patient's life. It can prevent you from sleeping enough, and thus cause problems with daytime focus and thinking, your job, and your social activities.
As a result of these problems, RLS can lead to anxiety and depression. And the longer you have the condition, the worse it can get. It can even spread to other parts of your body, such as your arms so do see your TICM doctor. RLS sufferers feel aching, burning, tingling, crawling, electric shocks, tugging, and itching.
What can a patient do:
- see a TICM doctor.
- limit stimulants such as caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco as they aggravate the symptoms.
- sleep better: follow the Sunnah of sleeping.
- increase iron intake through vegetables and bone broths.
- vitamin D: get some sun. If you take supplements increase calcium intake through food from the previous post.
- massaging your leg muscles.
- wrap the foot as it puts pressure on certain points on the bottom of your foot. The pressure sends messages to your brain, which responds by telling the muscles affected by RLS to relax.