Is the cause of Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) really unknown?

The great medical brains of our time are at a dead end. This is hardly surprising, for doctors are not much interested in the cause of a disease, but only in its symptoms.

But some of us are not fixated on symptoms. We are too much concerned for our health for that. We want to know why, when we are trying to sleep, our legs come alive on their own, giving us so much hell?

Why?

Let us consider these facts:

RLS is likely to show up when

(1) you have done some physical exercise like jogging, not long before going to bed.

(2) you have done a bout of drinking -- not just alcohol but also tea, coffee or sugary soft drinks.

(3) you are middle-aged and, as it so often happens with the aged, your sense of thirst has taken a hike.

Add this all up and what have you?

DEHYDRATION

In the vast majority of cases, that is.

So if you are driven from bed each night to walk up and down like the dog here, drink plenty of good old water - throughout the day, as well as when you do have RLS - and you will be sleeping like a baby.

But of course there are other causes of RLS. Some people, for example, claim that eating raw chillies (with their food) brings about the problem; some others blame peanuts, almonds, coffee and eggs; still others swear that it is impairment of blood flow in the legs that causes RLS and that massaging the legs always relieves the distress.

Dehydration, however, is likely to be the most common cause.