Willis-Ekbom Disease (Restless Leg Syndrome), A Simple Guide To The Condition, Diagnosis, Treatment And Related Conditions

By Kenneth Kee

This book describes Willis-Ekbom Disease or Restless Leg Syndrome, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases

Restless Legs Syndrome every one hates you.
You rob people of the sleep and make them blue
Out of the blue my legs started feeling funny
My RLS leaves me with very little energy

You make me have the urge to move my legs
I feel that ants are crawling on my skin and laying eggs
I only feel comfortable when my legs are kicking
These sensations becomes worse when I am sleeping

Even at rest the patient come and irritate me
When can I ever stop suffering and be free
Because of you I had to quit the job I loved
Every day I watched for triggers that make my RLS worse

Please help me, doctor, be kind
I think that I am going out of my mind
Please help me to stop my legs from fidgeting
And allow me at least some hours of good sleeping

-An original poem by Kenneth Kee

The other day I had one patient who could not sleep for a few nights before of jerking movements of his legs one leg after the other.

He felt that he just has to move his legs because of the funny sensations he felt in the legs.

They occur only when he was lying still trying to sleep.
Primary
I found out that he was taking a high dose of antihistamine for his cold symptoms and asked him to stop them.

I also gave him some clonazepam (a mild tranquillizer with anti convulsant effect) to be taken only if he still has the jerking movements.

Happily for him after stopping the antihistamine his jerking movements stopped and he did not have to take the clonazepam.

Willis-Ekbom disease or Restless Legs Syndrome is a neurological movement disorder featured by a distressing need or urge to move the legs or arms (akathisia) normally followed by an uncomfortable deep-seated sensation in the legs that is activated by:
1. Rest;
2. Sitting or lying down,
3. Worsening at night or in the evening.
It is relieved by moving or walking.
It most often affects the legs, but can affect the arms, body, head, and even phantom limbs.
People who have RLS depict the unpleasant feelings as creeping, crawling, pulling, itching, tingling, burning, aching or electric shocks.
There is sleep disturbance and a link with involuntary jerking movements of the legs during sleep called periodic leg movements of sleep.

There are 2 types of Restless Legs Syndrome:
A. Primary or idiopathic central nervous system (CNS) disorder can be familial with a pattern of autosomal dominant or recessive inheritance happening at an earlier age of onset of 45 years and slower disease progression.
Psychiatric factors, stress, and fatigue can make the symptoms of restless legs syndrome worse.
B. Secondary Restless Legs Syndrome can happen due to some linked disorders such as:
1. Iron deficiency (especially); blood ferritin below 50 μg/L (seen in 20% of cases)
2. Peripheral neuropathy
3. Hypoglycemia
4. Parkinson's Disease
5. Folate or magnesium deficiency
6. Vitamin B-12 deficiency
7. Diabetes mellitus
8. Frequent blood donation
9. Rheumatic disease and Rheumatoid arthritis
10. Uremia
11. End-stage renal disease (seen 25-50% of patients with End stage renal disease may improve after kidney transplant)
12. Pregnancy (seen in 25-40% of pregnant women normally subsides within a few weeks after delivery).
Restless legs syndrome is diagnosed on history taking and 4 diagnostic criteria:
1. An urge to move the legs, normally accompanied by unpleasant sensations;
2. Occurrence of symptoms during rest;
3. Relief of symptoms by movement; and
4. Worsening of symptoms in the evening or night.
For primary Restless Leg Syndrome, drug therapy is mainly for symptomatic relief.

TABLE OF CONTENT
Introduction
Chapter 1 Willis-Ekbom Disease or Restless Leg Syndrome
Chapter 2 Causes
Ch

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kenneth Kee
• Release date: Dec 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463599648

Kenneth Kee

Medical doctor since 1972.Started Kee Clinic in 1974 at 15 Holland Dr #03-102, relocated to 36 Holland Dr #01-10 in 2009.Did my M.Sc (Health Management ) in 1991 and Ph.D (Healthcare Administration) in 1993.Dr Kenneth Kee is still working as a family doctor at the age of 74However he has reduced his consultation hours to 3 hours in the morning and 2 hours inthe afternoon.He first started writing free blogs on medical disorders seen in the clinic in 2007 on http://kennethkee.blogspot.com.His purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of his patients which is also his dissertation for his Ph.D (Healthcare Administration). He then wrote an autobiography account of his journey as a medical student to family doctor on his other blog http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.comThis autobiography account “A Family Doctor’s Tale” was combined with his early “A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders” into a new Wordpress Blog “A Family Doctor’s Tale” on http://ken-med.com.From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 1000 eBooks.He apologized for typos and spelling mistakes in his earlier books.He will endeavor to improve the writing in futures.Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.The later books go into more details of medical disorders.He has published 1000 eBooks on various subjects on health, 1 autobiography of his medical journey, another on the autobiography of a Cancer survivor, 2 children stories and one how to study for his nephew and grand-daughter.The purpose of these simple guides is to educate patient on health disorders and not meant as textbooks.He does not do any night duty since 2000 ever since Dr Tan had his second stroke.His clinic is now relocated to the Buona Vista Community Centre.The 2 units of his original clinic are being demolished to make way for a new Shopping Mall.He is now doing some blogging and internet surfing (bulletin boards since the 1980's) startingwith the Apple computer and going to PC.The entire PC is upgraded by himself from XT to the present Pentium duo core.The present Intel i7 CPU is out of reach at the moment because the CPU is still expensive.He is also into DIY changing his own toilet cistern and other electric appliance.His hunger for knowledge has not abated and he is a lifelong learner.The children have all grown up and there are 2 grandchildren who are even more technically advanced than the grandfather where mobile phones are concerned.This book is taken from some of the many articles in his blog (now with 740 posts) A Family Doctor’s Tale.Dr Kee is the author of:"A Family Doctor's Tale""Life Lessons Learned From The Study And Practice Of Medicine""Case Notes From A Family Doctor"

Book preview

Willis-Ekbom Disease

(Restless Leg Syndrome),

A

Simple

Guide

To

The Condition,

Diagnosis,

Treatment

And

Related Conditions

By

Dr Kenneth Kee

M.B.,B.S. (Singapore)

Ph.D (Healthcare Administration)

Copyright Kenneth Kee 2019 Smashwords Edition

Published by Kenneth Kee at Smashwords.com

Dedication

This book is dedicated

To my wife Dorothy

And my children

Carolyn, Grace

And Kelvin

This book describes Willis-Ekbom Disease or Restless Leg Syndrome, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases which is seen in some of my patients in my Family Clinic.

(What You Need to Treat Willis-Ekbom Disease)

This e-Book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader.

If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Introduction

I have been writing medical articles for my blog: http://kennethkee.blogspot.com (A Simple Guide to Medical Disorder) for the benefit of my patients since 2007.

My purpose in writing these simple guides was for the health education of my patients.

Health Education was also my dissertation for my Ph.D (Healthcare Administration).

I then wrote an autobiography account of my journey as a medical student to family doctor on my other blog: http://afamilydoctorstale.blogspot.com.

This autobiography account A Family Doctor’s Tale was combined with my early A Simple Guide to Medical Disorders into a new Wordpress Blog A Family Doctor’s Tale on http://kenkee481.wordpress.com.

From which many free articles from the blog was taken and put together into 800 eBooks.

Some people have complained that the simple guides are too simple.

For their information they are made simple in order to educate the patients.

The later books go into more details of medical disorders.

The first chapter is always from my earlier blogs which unfortunately tends to have typos and spelling mistakes.

Since 2013, I have tried to improve my spelling and writing.

As I tried to bring the patient the latest information about a disorder or illness by reading the latest journals both online and offline, I find that I am learning more and improving on my own medical knowledge in diagnosis and treatment for my patients.

Just by writing all these simple guides I find that I have learned a lot from your reviews (good or bad), criticism and advice.

I am sorry for the repetitions in these simple guides as the second chapters onwards have new information as compared to my first chapter taken from my blog.

I also find repetition definitely help me and maybe some readers to remember the facts in the books more easily.

I apologize if these repetitions are irritating to some readers.

Chapter 1

Willis Ekbom Disease (Restless Legs Syndrome)

Restless Legs Syndrome every one hates you.

You rob people of the sleep and make them blue

Out of the blue my legs started feeling funny

My RLS leaves me with very little energy

You make me have the urge to move my legs

I feel that ants are crawling on my skin and laying eggs

I only feel comfortable when my legs are kicking

These sensations becomes worse when I am sleeping

Even at rest the patient come and irritate me

When can I ever stop suffering and be free

Because of you I had to quit the job I loved

Every day I watched for triggers that make my RLS worse

Please help me, doctor, be kind

I think that I am going out of my mind

Please help me to stop my legs from fidgeting

And allow me at least some hours of good sleeping

-An original poem by Kenneth Kee

The other day I had one patient who could not sleep for a few nights before of jerking movements of his legs one leg after the other.

He felt that he just has to move his legs because of the funny sensations he felt in the legs.

They occur only when he was lying still trying to sleep.

I found out that he was taking a high dose of antihistamine for his cold symptoms and asked him to stop them.

I also gave him some clonazepam (a mild tranquillizer with anti convulsant effect) to be taken only if he still has