#116 - Sleep Unplugged Book Club #1-Navigating Life With Restless Legs Syndrome: Bouncing 'Round the Room

Sleep Unplugged with Dr. Chris Winter

For the first installment of the Sleep Unplugged Book Club, we will examine Andrew Spector's new book Navigating Life with Restless Legs Syndrome. This also marks a revisiting of the topic we covered in episode #13 (Restless Legs Syndrome: You Gotta Move). In this episode we will:

• Introduce Dr. Andrew Spector, a Duke University professor of neurology and restless legs expert
• Update and supplement information from episode #13 of this podcast about restless legs syndrome (RLS)
• Explore the role of iron in RLS and how to use ferritin and transferrin levels to guide potential therapies
• Touch upon the idea that despite different causes of RLS, determining the precise reason why you have RLS may not be particularly essential for choosing therapies
• List new treatment options that are not prescription medications
• Reexamine difficulties and downsides to dopamine agonist therapies
• Cautiously look at the use of benzodiazepines and opioids in perhaps a new light
• Touch upon other prescription medications that might be useful in the disorder
• Mention the relationship between insomnia and RLS

Produced by: Maeve Winter
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• The Sleep Solution and The Rested Child

Thanks for listening and sleep well!