Restless Legs Syndrome - RLS and Metabolic Diseases

Five values. Not fourteen.

Obesity, thyroid, liver, gut, vitamin D, magnesium: every one of these has been studied in restless legs syndrome, and almost none of them leads to a treatment. That is precisely why this volume is above all a sorting: which laboratory value is worth having and which merely costs money and attention.

One exception stands out. In coeliac disease 31 out of 100 meet the criteria against 4 out of 100 in the control group, and in an observation without a control group half of those treated reported better legs after six months on a gluten-free diet. The thyroid and the acid blockers likewise deserve a look of their own.

At the end stands a list of five values and the one question that turns a finding into a treatment: where does my iron deficiency come from? Asking it gets you further than fourteen separate values with nothing connecting them.

WHAT IS IN THE BOOK

- Obesity: how strong the connection really is, and what comes first

- Insulin resistance, blood lipids and the metabolic syndrome

- The thyroid: 47.1 against 10 in 100, and what follows from it

- Vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, selenium and the trace elements

- Coeliac disease: the diagnosis you must not miss

- Inflammatory bowel disease and the acid blockers

- The phosphate drop after an iron infusion

- The balance: which five values are worth having

WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR

For patients who have had many laboratory values measured and are still no further forward, for anyone with thyroid, bowel or weight problems, and for health professionals who want a reasoned selection rather than a panel of everything.

ABOUT THE SERIES

Volume 31 of 52 in the book series on restless legs syndrome, part "RLS with Other Conditions". Every volume can be read on its own. The statements in this volume rest on 198 professional sources, each one listed individually in the reference section.