Symptom Spotlight: Restless Legs
Has this ever happened to you — you’ve just settled into your favorite TV watching chair or maybe you’re snuggled in bed, deep in restful sleep when out of the blue your legs take on a mind of their own and start doing the “twitch, twitch, wiggle, wiggle.”
And when your legs are awake, you’re awake.
Because when you’ve got restless legs, one of the only ways to get them to simmer down is for you to move – so you’re up walking around when that’s the exact opposite of what you want to be doing.
At Hamilton Vein Center we see lots of people who tell us that one of the main issues they have with their legs is restlessness and jumpiness, with the occasional leg cramping mixed in. All classic symptoms of restless legs – and one of the “under the radar” symptoms of vein disease.
The only way to know for sure if vein disease is present or not, is to perform a leg vein ultrasound. We rely on Doppler ultrasound to check the superficial veins in the legs because it is in these veins that vein disease occurs. More times than not, the ultrasound confirms that patients with restless legs do indeed have venous insufficiency – or vein disease. Matter of fact, approximately 91% of patients with Restless Leg Syndrome have underlying vein disease.*
Restless legs are one of those vein disease symptoms that flies under the radar of most every doctor, surgeon and healthcare professional because the conventional medical thought is it is a neurological issue and most sufferers brush it off as a muscle issue.
It is also thought to be genetic – which, coincidentally, is the #1 causing factor of vein disease.
The stats tell the story. (Don’t worry. It’s a happy ending.)
Two eye-popping stats associated with restless legs you need to know — one that is “ah-ha. I didn’t know that” and one that’s a sigh of relief:
1. ~ 91% of restless leg sufferers have vein disease*
2. 89% of restless leg sufferers who undergo a minimally invasive vein treatment note improvement in their symptoms post treatment.
So if you’d like to get your nights back and your legs back, come in for an ultrasound and find out if vein disease is the culprit behind your nighttime leg jitters. If it is, Hamilton Vein Center specializes in the latest, most advanced image-guided vein treatments. Today’s minimally invasive vein treatments were developed in the interventional radiology field — so you can feel comfortable and confident in your choice of vein treatment our vein specialists who are interventional radiologists and highly skilled in diagnostic ultrasound and image-guided technologies.
Relief is a phone call way. Call 281-565-0033 to schedule your appointment today.
Sources
* McDonaghB, King T, Guptan RC. Restless legs syndrome in patients with chronic venous disorders: an untold story. Phlebology. 2007;22(4):15663
