Alternative treatment of PLMD?

[Wantok]

Anyone had any success in treating PLMD outside of Western medicine; i.e., Chinese medicine or Ayurvedic or naturopath?

Anyone tried this:
http://beyondwellbeing.com/herbs/herbal ... ents.shtml

Help!!!!

[ChicagoGranny]

This herb calms and nourishes the (TCM) Liver to calm the nerves and extinguish internal wind

SCAM!

Have you consulted with a board certified sleep doctor about treatments for PLMD?

http://www.sleepeducation.org/find-a-facility

[kteague]

Hi Wantok. Have you checked the RLS Foundation's discussion forum to see if they've talked about this? There's very little that hasn't been discussed over there, probably since they're a leading voice on RLS, and its treatments often parallel those for PLMD. There are some on here who also deal with PLMD, but I doubt our collective experience even scratches the surface of what's on that forum. That said, based on my dealing with PLMD for 10+ years, I feel that being nutritionally sound gives the body/brain an optimal baseline from which to search out solutions, starting with things like getting the ferritin level up to around 100. I've read that magnesium, Vit D, some B vitamins, and calcium are to be considered. Any nutrient known to impact muscle and nerve health could matter. My personal feeling is that the brain needs to heal too. The brain inclines to patterns. The pattern of chronically fractured sleep takes time to heal and start to develop new patterns of longer sleep. Not sure which nutrients relate to calming the brain. One thing I found that helped me is having music on during sleep that consists of easy listening oldies. I have some theories on why this works better for me than nature sounds and instrumentals, but I won't go into that now. Even after my OSA was treated and my PLMD was calmed, healing my sleep was a long slow process. Success came in increments. These days I can sometimes sleep for hours between wakeups. My PLMD is not cured, but it is much improved from those days of augmentation on dopamine agonist meds, and the nighttime movements are controlled fairly well with use of a TENS Unit on my lower back before bedtime. Best wishes finding what helps you.

[avi123]

About TENS units I could not find any reliable medical studies which support their usefulness. Not for my peripheral neuropathic diabetic feet pain, and also not for radicular spinal discs pain, compared to plain massage, per the NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine).

[kteague]

...About TENS units I could not find any reliable medical studies which support their usefulness...

You're right about that. Use of TENS for PLMD specifically has not been formally well explored, if at all. RLS and PLMD may have similar treatments, but the uncomfortable sensations of RLS and limb movements of sleep may respond differently to treatments, specifically TENS. Can't speak to the pain issues you mentioned. I didn't find TENS very useful for my facet joint arthropathy either. I would think finding a group of PLMD patients who have reasonably equal baselines to qualify would be difficult. Anyone on meds could skew the results. I think length of time suffering with the disorder makes a difference due to the brain's tendency to have patterns become ingrained. My personal opinion is TENS probably can't help those with augmentation or pharmaceutical induced limb movements. I think there is potential for TENS to be helpful if off any offending meds long enough to have returned to baseline symptoms. Early on the TENS was not effective for me, but that was during severe augmentation and the period for a few weeks after. But I persevered "just in case". I think the TENS interrupted the sensations between the brain/legs enough to break some bad patterns and begin to heal. Since then my motto is that avoidance is the best preventative. I try to not give my brain a chance to feel those old agonies - don't want to wake a sleeping monster. BTW, while it doesn't qualify as a research study, I've had more sleep studies than I can remember offhand. My sleep doctor and a movement specialist were working on my case. I've had studies both on and off various meds. Later both off then on TENS while off meds. My study on TENS had 1/3 of the movements than when not using TENS. My sleep doc was pretty impressed.

[cancun]

Also it really doesn't matter what any study shows, it only matter what works for an individual patient. If TENS works to relieve a percentage of Kteagues symptoms and she sleeps better that is all that matters. Also letting someone else know that it helps her can give someone else hope that there is a chance it might help them as well. Studies are nice but don't always amount to much if they don't help you.

[chunkyfrog]

+100, Cancun.
Nerve damage can greatly reduce effectiveness for some patients;
but for others, relief is readily available.
For those still suffering, the unfairness stings worst of all.