Restless Leg Syndrome- Cause Of It?

Ben

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For some reason, I have had restless leg syndrome since I was a kid. I'm not sure if it's best to stop shaking my leg, or I should keep shaking it. It makes me feel very uncomfortable if I try to stop shaking it intentionally. It's generally only my right leg that shakes, unless I'm in a specific position laying facedown. I can start shaking my leg in the daytime if I'm nervous, but stopping the shaking doesn't feel uncomfortable unlike the night-time phase, or if I'm laying down. I have had problems with walking all over the place too since I was a kid, instead of standing still. I was thinking the cause of RLS is something along the lines of nerve excitation, and maybe only one hemisphere of the brain is excited. I read some article that showed people with ADHD have better concentration when they are allowed to shake their legs, and researchers think it's because it stimulates the frontal lobes of the brain, allowing them to relax. I wonder if my leg shakes when I'm laying down because I'm trying to get to sleep. It's worth stating I have trouble falling asleep at a normal time, and my natural sleep schedule seems to be falling asleep very late at night. I have anxiety, and I think I have elevated stress hormones in addition to hypothyroidism, which I don't think is completely treated yet. I also have acne on my face, back, and chest, and rosacea.
 

HDD

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Here is a quote from Ray Peat-

BRUXISM / RESTLESS LEG SYNDROME

I think it's caused by irritation and inflammation in the intestine, increasing serotonin. Starches and fibers support bacterial growth and can increase serotonin. Restless leg syndrome is another night-time reaction to bacterial overgrowth..


Are you eating the carrot salad?
 

HDD

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My youngest son paces quite a bit. Sometimes when anxious about something and sometimes for no apparent reason. I try to get him to eat raw carrots but we both forget. He gets constipated so that is why I want him to eat the carrots. Since you posted about the pacing it made the connection to serotonin for me and I will have to encourage him to eat them daily.
 

Peata

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Just from my experience a number of years ago, I had restless legs for a while at night when I wasn't eating enough nutritious foods, also having diarrhea, and well, I ended up deficient in potassium (and probably other things but I don't think everything was tested). For me, the restless legs wasn't so much about needing to burn off nervous energy by shaking them, it was more an uncomfortable, almost painful NEED to keep moving them when I lay down in bed, or else they would just bother me too much. I even used the old trick of putting a bar of soap in the bed, which seemed to work (maybe placebo, but I was taking what I could get at the time). It went away when I supplemented potassium and improved my diet some more.
 

Mittir

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I am going to reiterate what Haagendazendiane posted.
Digestive system is the source of most health problems.
Improper digestion increases endotoxin and serotonin,
which triggers a whole stress response of estrogen,
cortisol, inflammatory prostaglandins, histamine etc.
Excess estrogen and cortisol will lower production of active thyroid hormone.
It is almost impossible to fix problems without fixing gut.
No amount of supplements or thyroid can totally cure it.
I would suggest eating easy to digest foods.
Any food that irritate intestine will cause problems even if it is a
super healthy food. Also be very careful with supplements.
Most supplements are full of toxic excipeints. Even a tiny
tablet can cause lots of problems. Toxinless.com has lists of supplements
with safer excipients. Excipient free supplements can be contaminated
with unknown organism. RP used to cure people's allergies by telling them to avoid
all vitamin supplements. Raw carrot salad or cooked bamboo shoots are
very good at lowering endotoxin. I have also noticed just eating coconut oil
with food has similar benefits.
 
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Ben

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Mittir said:
I am going to reiterate what Haagendazendiane posted.
Digestive system is the source of most health problems.
Improper digestion increases endotoxin and serotonin,
which triggers a whole stress response of estrogen,
cortisol, inflammatory prostaglandins, histamine etc.
Excess estrogen and cortisol will lower production of active thyroid hormone.
It is almost impossible to fix problems without fixing gut.
No amount of supplements or thyroid can totally cure it.
I would suggest eating easy to digest foods.
Any food that irritate intestine will cause problems even if it is a
super healthy food. Also be very careful with supplements.
Most supplements are full of toxic excipeints. Even a tiny
tablet can cause lots of problems. Toxinless.com has lists of supplements
with safer excipients. Excipient free supplements can be contaminated
with unknown organism. RP used to cure people's allergies by telling them to avoid
all vitamin supplements. Raw carrot salad or cooked bamboo shoots are
very good at lowering endotoxin. I have also noticed just eating coconut oil
with food has similar benefits.
I ate the carrot salad a couple of times. I didn't notice anything, so I didn't feel motivated to add it to my routine. I like to sip on orange juice throughout the day, and according to RP it's not good to eat other food around the time you eat the carrot salad, so it does feel restricting. Not to mention I'm still at least slightly hypothyroid, and preparing the carrots feels like a big task to me.

I noticed the carrot salad is much discussed on this forum, but RP didn't mention it much in his articles. What you're saying makes sense about the gut being a chronic source of inflammatory factors which can't be fixed by thyroid or supplements. Rather than put a bandaid over the inflammatory factors, which would never be sufficient anyway, it would be better to solve the problem of whatever is causing them. I suppose I have no choice, whether or not it feels restrictive, or if it's a pain to prepare everyday. How long did it take for you to notice the effect of the carrot salad?

Peata said:
Just from my experience a number of years ago, I had restless legs for a while at night when I wasn't eating enough nutritious foods, also having diarrhea, and well, I ended up deficient in potassium (and probably other things but I don't think everything was tested). For me, the restless legs wasn't so much about needing to burn off nervous energy by shaking them, it was more an uncomfortable, almost painful NEED to keep moving them when I lay down in bed, or else they would just bother me too much. I even used the old trick of putting a bar of soap in the bed, which seemed to work (maybe placebo, but I was taking what I could get at the time). It went away when I supplemented potassium and improved my diet some more.
So how did you change your diet? I don't have any starches in my diet currently, and I drink a lot of orange juice. The only other food in my diet right now is cheese. It is the store-bought variety probably with artificial rennet. Unfortunately, I'm currently unable to go to any farms and buy cheese free of that kind of rennet, or buy milk free of added vitamin D. I don't notice any symptoms from the cheese, and it's a good way to get sodium and calcium in, so I decided it would be the best option available.

Haagendazendiane said:
My youngest son paces quite a bit. Sometimes when anxious about something and sometimes for no apparent reason. I try to get him to eat raw carrots but we both forget. He gets constipated so that is why I want him to eat the carrots. Since you posted about the pacing it made the connection to serotonin for me and I will have to encourage him to eat them daily.
I feel glad that I helped. Post the results once he has eaten the carrot salad for some time.
 

Peata

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Our situations are probably nothing alike and this was many years before I started Peat. But what I changed was to eat more food. I had no appetite back then and wasn't eating enough, or enough variety, and wasn't eating nutritious foods. So I was becoming deficient in things like potassium, which was affecting my muscles and nerves.
 

aquaman

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Ben said:
I ate the carrot salad a couple of times. I didn't notice anything, so I didn't feel motivated to add it to my routine. I like to sip on orange juice throughout the day, and according to RP it's not good to eat other food around the time you eat the carrot salad, so it does feel restricting. Not to mention I'm still at least slightly hypothyroid, and preparing the carrots feels like a big task to me.

I noticed the carrot salad is much discussed on this forum, but RP didn't mention it much in his articles.

1. You need to do it for 2 weeks every day minimum to get the effect. Grating a carrot takes 30 seconds.

2. He recommends it a lot in his radio interviews.
 
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Ben

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aquaman said:
Ben said:
I ate the carrot salad a couple of times. I didn't notice anything, so I didn't feel motivated to add it to my routine. I like to sip on orange juice throughout the day, and according to RP it's not good to eat other food around the time you eat the carrot salad, so it does feel restricting. Not to mention I'm still at least slightly hypothyroid, and preparing the carrots feels like a big task to me.

I noticed the carrot salad is much discussed on this forum, but RP didn't mention it much in his articles.

1. You need to do it for 2 weeks every day minimum to get the effect. Grating a carrot takes 30 seconds.

2. He recommends it a lot in his radio interviews.
The biggest task behind it is slicing the carrot into thin pieces like RP recommends. I haven't found a tool on the internet to efficiently accomplish this, although I would imagine something with multiple blades attached could do the job. And yes, currently I'm only eating cheese and orange juice. I take vitamins E and K, so liver isn't absolutely crucial, though I'm thinking about incorporating it. I procrastinate with the smallest things, and cheese and orange juice happen to not require any preparation at all. I sometimes make myself something different if I'm feeling less lazy, but that doesn't happen very often.
 
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j.

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The raw carrot without grating it still has great effects. Liver also has B vitamins.
 

Peata

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Yeah, I just eat the carrot (baby carrots, actually). I eat some olives with them.
 
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Ben

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How do you determine the amount of carrot? Some carrots are thicker than others, so I don't know what some posters mean by "a carrot a day". Also, how long should I typically wait to eat it after drinking orange juice, for example? RP doesn't recommend the carrot with food because it would lead to digestive acid secretion and thus more absorption of the beta-carotenes, which when left unconverted act anti-thyroid.
 

Peata

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I try to eat the carrot apart from a meal (at least an hour later), but I usually get hungry pretty soon after I eat it.. so I go ahead and eat something if I get hungry.
 
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j.

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Ben said:
How do you determine the amount of carrot?

Eat a carrot. If you feel hungry for more, eat another. After a few times, you'll figure out what's a good amount.
 

Peata

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I think I had endotoxin overload when I had the restless legs... I remember I had chronic diarrhea during that time. Along with not eating a good variety and quantity of foods, it no doubt contributed to deficiency.
 
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Ben

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Okay, I ate most of a large carrot with MCT oil, vinegar, and salt until I felt a full feeling in my stomach. I gave my mom a carrot to eat too. She isn't optimistic about dietary restriction and has a serious health issue, so maybe this will be the best way to help her. From what Mittr said, it seems important to ensure endotoxin is low. Did any of you notice pain-relieving, anti-inflammatory effects from the carrot? I think my mom would be most motivated for that type of effect.
 

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I notice headache relief and relief from nausea. I like using a julienne tool, but it is hard when my energy is low and you have to be careful not to julienne a finger. Ouch! If someone finds a good tool for this that isn't a danger to fingers or hard to use, it would be great! Maybe a knife is actually easiest, although the julienne tool makes a nice crunchy salad.

I have always tended to wiggle a foot when sitting and I hate to stand still for any time at all. Lately, I have had trouble sitting or laying down without feeling like I can't get comfortable. It's like Goldilocks, only you can't find anything that is 'just right.' There is a medical term for this or it sounds like this. Here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akathisia
I wonder if it is related.
 
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Ben

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Swandattur said:
I notice headache relief and relief from nausea. I like using a julienne tool, but it is hard when my energy is low and you have to be careful not to julienne a finger. Ouch! If someone finds a good tool for this that isn't a danger to fingers or hard to use, it would be great! Maybe a knife is actually easiest, although the julienne tool makes a nice crunchy salad.

I have always tended to wiggle a foot when sitting and I hate to stand still for any time at all. Lately, I have had trouble sitting or laying down without feeling like I can't get comfortable. It's like Goldilocks, only you can't find anything that is 'just right.' There is a medical term for this or it sounds like this. Here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akathisia
I wonder if it is related.
Interesting. The article mentions pacing back and forth, which I mentioned I do. I didn't try the carrot yet because it requires an empty stomach and I'm hungry all the time, but I noticed that attempting to relax can control it well. Try to identify and release tension in your legs when you sit.

I've never heard or seen a julienne. By a julienne, you mean something like this?

julienne-slicer1.jpg
 

HDD

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Swandattur said:
I notice headache relief and relief from nausea. I like using a julienne tool, but it is hard when my energy is low and you have to be careful not to julienne a finger. Ouch! If someone finds a good tool for this that isn't a danger to fingers or hard to use, it would be great! Maybe a knife is actually easiest, although the julienne tool makes a nice crunchy salad.

I have always tended to wiggle a foot when sitting and I hate to stand still for any time at all. Lately, I have had trouble sitting or laying down without feeling like I can't get comfortable. It's like Goldilocks, only you can't find anything that is 'just right.' There is a medical term for this or it sounds like this. Here it is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akathisia
I wonder if it is related.

I use a potato peeler when I make it a salad. I usually just slice it into little rounds and pour c.o. over it.


@Ben
Re: Carrot Salad Timing
by nwo2012 » Thu Oct 04, 2012 1:43 pm

cliff wrote:
"He said in an interview it is fine to eat it with a meal, I eat my carrot salad with OJ/milk with no problems."

by nwo2012
"The issue is not whether its fine or not. Of course its fine but you will still not absorb all the nutrients from that meal so better to have in a gap simply for that reason. Well at least that is my take on it."

nwo2012
"It decreases it a little but probably nothing too significant imo. Eating between meals might be the best but isn't as convenient "


(Sorry about my lack of quoting skills :oops: )
 

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