Restless leg syndrome and neuropathy

[dinesh16]

I am a 41 yrs old male. 2 years ago I was diagnosed with restless leg syndrome. About 8 months back I also developed a burning sensation in my hands and feet. I consulted a doctor who said that it could be carpal tunnel syndrome. I have performed the phalen's test and the tinel's test at home in the morning hours. But the tests were negative. I do not have  any of the classical symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome.

The problem does not stop there. I have plenty of other symptoms like impotence, stomach bloating, sharp pain in left big toe (once in a while), pulsatile tinnitus, muscle weakness, nightmares during sleep, abnormal sounds in stomach, urinary incontinence. I need to go to the bathroom several times during the day and night. I have got a blood sugar test done and it has come out negative. I do not have diabetes.

My chest feels tight when I exercise. When I go for a walk and come back, I am breathless.  I have got an ECG and exercise stress test done both of which came back negative, but they showed sinus arrhymias. My heart rate varies from 80 to 100. My heart rate goes up to more than 100 after meals and comes down a little bit after 2 hours. Similary my sytiolic blood pressure varies from 105 to 142. I find it impossible to sleep on my back, because whenever  I try sleep on my back, I start snoring and I am suddenly awakened from sleep. I don't know if it is sleep apnea.

My hands go numb during sleep. Sometimes it the right hand, sometimes both the hands, very often it is the left hand. I am frequently awakened during nights. When I am awakened from sleep I can feel my hand getting numb. The numbness lasts for about a minute.

I would like to know if the burning sensation is due to carpal tunnel syndrom or due to peripheral neuropathy ? If it is peripheral neuropathy which I understand is quite often associated with RLS, does it cause any heart disease ?

[soscrewedupfubr]

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[ggreg]

I have RLS and it was triggered by my lower back pain from a car wreck, broke my spine in three places years ago.  When you say urinary incontinence, you followed that by how many times you go to the bathroom, so I'm wondering if you mean you also mean you dribble and lose control of your urine, which is true incontinence.  If the latter is the case, then I would associate all your leg and feet problems and incontinence with a rather serious lower back problem, which a neurologist can order a scan, do a workup on you, and come up with a treatment plan for that.

Now, your heart situation and breathing and snoring on your back, I am wondering if you are at average weight or if you're overweight.  If the latter is true, if you can lose some weight, that will make those problems ease up tremendously.

But let us say you don't have a bad back and you are not overweight.  When you were talking about your hands and feet burning, this can happen from your muscles being all tensed up, which usually occurs from a lot of anxiety in your life.  That can also cause nightmares, a sure-fire sign your life is turned upside down or at least feels like it.  Muscle tension can also squeeze off nerves to the hands and feet, there are trigger points that if they are pushed, it brings relief to those areas.  The best thing in the world you can do for all that, aside from pinpointing the source of your stress and talking to a psych therapist, is to go for several visits to a professional massage therapist who practices Swedish massage, which is a deep muscle workout.  People who are filled with tension from some stresful source will get all sorts off oddball symptoms.

I might also add that if you work all day in front of a computer, you gotta get up every hour and walk around for a few minutes, get that blood circulating, release tension, and in general give your back a break.  In addition, swimming in a pool at the YMCA is good exercise, doesn't stress out your back or lackluster muscles, and has the effect of releasing tension the way all exercise does.  Also, if your nightmares are from not breathing properly, perhaps, and denying you deep REM sleep, then exercise will help you breathe better and sleep better.  Exercise also helps the heart rate normalize.

I thought I was in bad shape, but son, you are a rambling wreck.  I feel for you.  I also cannot sleep on my back, and when I sleep on my side, I have to lift my chin so I won't wake up with a start with a sensation of choking.  This is because I am overweight.  All I gotta do is exercise and lose weight, but I'm telling you, my lumbar back pain, plus I hurt my thoracic spine, got the RLS, feet are real sore, that it's really hard for me to stay on any exercise program at all, because my body just won't hold me up for long.  It's a Catch-22.  I gotta bite the bullet and get on with it tho, I sure have enough medicines on board to manage it at different points in the day when the drugs are at their peak.

Clarify some of the stuff I've mentioned, or if you want, just get a referral to see a neurologist and let him do a scan of your back, if you have any notion that that is what is contributing to your RLS, your leg and feet problems, your impotence and urinary incontinence.  He can do a lot with those symptoms.  I hope something of what I've said will help you out a little bit here and there, enough to where you can relax better and feel better.  Keep us posted.