Muscle Twitches that are driving me crazy - Restless Leg Syndrome Message Board

joe28paws · 09-08-2005, 02:03 PM

Hi All,

I don't know if this has anything to do with my RLS, but all night last night, I couldn't sleep my left leg was twitching really bad, it was driving me crazy. Finally I fell asleep and when I woke up this morning it hurt a little.

Now my right leg is twitching as I type this, the muscles or nerves are driving me batty.

My husband can literally see the twitching, I don't even have to look at it I can feel it.

Does twitching have anything to do with RLS? I have never noticed my legs to twitch like this before.

Thanks,
JC

rita01 · 09-14-2005, 12:35 PM

JOe28paws,
I don't believe twitching has anything to do with RLS. Try magnesium, adding more to bowl tolerance. Taking too much will give diareah. Back off a bit from that point.
This is something you should check with your DR to make sure something else is not going on.
You may also want to try B vitamins, juicing celery, carrot and beet juice. I read in a juicing book that said celery juice gives the body the natural sodium in the body (not table salt) and seems to be good for many things.
The other suggestions are fish oil, resveratol. There is a company that makes the resveratol as a liquid in a capsule. This is the only one that worked for me. I tried the dry version. It didn't seem to have any affect.
My twitching comes and goes. I have no idea why.

1GoodNana · 10-13-2005, 08:11 PM

I believe twitching can be a symptom of RLS. Everyone has slightly different symptoms. My legs twitch and you can see the muscles move sometimes. You have to really watch for it, but you can see it. Drives me absolutely over the edge! Also we use different descriptive words to try to explain our symptoms, and sometimes the words don't necessarily mean the same thing to everyone.

1GoodNana · 10-22-2005, 08:54 AM

Actually there is another neurological syndrome that has lots of twitching involved where you can actually see the muscle moving underneath your skin. The twitches might travel all over your body and don't just necessarily stay in one place but the most mentioned part of the body is calves & feet. People who have this all start out believing they have ALS and are really scared until they get a diagnosis that they have BFS. Based on what I read, it doesn't seem to be as treatable as RLS although everyone tries similar remedies. I can't go to the neurologist until January due to changing over to another insurance policy, so I am trying to self-diagnose by reading symptoms for the same reason everyone else is . . . . 1) to try to determine that I don't have ALS or something really bad and 2) to see if there is anything that might give some relief to the symptoms.

The syndrome I am talking about is Benign Fasciculation Syndrome (BFS), and there is a variation of it that includes actual muscle cramps (sometimes in very odd places which I have). You might want to go to that message board and read their symptoms and comments to see if they fit you more than those of RLS. Frankly, right now I can go either way, and feel right at home on this board or the other one. Had a very bad night last night but it was twitching muscles in my calves and feet more than anything else with the right one being much worse than the left one. I slept from 6:30 AM to 8:30 AM. Just feel great today as you can imagine. I keep coming to the boards to see if a miracle has occurred overnight and someone has discovered something new that might help.

(sorry I haven't mastered how to get a link into this message body yet so just copy this into your browser):

http://nextination.com/aboutbfs/forums/index.php

I noticed that there is not a forum on Healthboards for Benign Fasciculation Syndrome (BFS) although there is probably some discussion of it over in neuro muscular. I couldn't seem to find much about it here. The main difference that I see is that BFS occurs any time and not just primarily at night or when you are resting. However, the two syndromes are similar enough that I bet one is misdiagnosed as being the other quite often. When I first read symptoms for RLS here I thought TERRIFIC I've found what I have. And then after a period of time and since I was having muscle twitches during the day, too, I kept researching other forums and that's how I found the BFS board. I certainly have the list of symptoms they discuss and yet still want to move my legs all of the time to get relief so . . . . who knows? I won't know until I can find a good neurologist and get all of the tests and then I still think it's difficult to get 100% diagnosis. Just my opinion.

Everyone try to have a good day even if you are like me and got almost NO SLEEP at all! Ugh!

1GoodNana · 10-24-2005, 04:58 PM

I have had muscle twitches and spasms for years although the emphasis was more on spasms and cramps for a long time. For a couple of years now I have been having increasing twitches. It was at night only for a while and now 24/7. It is rare that I am ever completely without twitches. There is no muscle weakness although when the twitches are really bad, my muscles feel tired. If you had all of the tests and they were negative, i.e. didn't prove anything more serious, and you still have intermittent twitches all over then I suspect it's possible that you have Benign Fasciculation Syndrome (BFS). Following is some information I found about the syndrome. I have about decided that I have BFS rather than RLS (Restless Legs).

What are the symptoms of BFS?
This condition represents a hyperexcitability of the neuromuscular system.

Common symptoms of BFS are frequent muscle twitches (fasciculations or fascics), generalized fatigue, "pins and needles" sensations, migrating numbness, muscle cramping and/or spasms in the affected areas (usually the feet and calves), muscle aches and stiffness exercise intolerance, headaches, and itchiness.

Clinically some patients have mild increases in creatine kinase. Muscle biopsy may show mild neurogenic changes. Electrodiagnostic studies show peripheral nerve hyperexcitability.

Often the symptoms will get worse at night, or during periods of sickness or viral infections, stress, or overexertion.

Many people experiencing these symptoms fear they may have ALS or MS. A simple clinical rule is that fasciculations in relaxed muscle are never indicative of motor system disease unless there is an associated weakness, atrophy, or reflex change.

What are fasciculations?
Fasciculations, or fascics are localized twitches of the muscle fibers.

From the On-Line Medical Dictionary:

A small local contraction of muscles, visible through the skin, representing a spontaneous discharge of a number of fibres innervated by a single motor nerve filament.

Copy this web link into your browser and check out the description of Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS):
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/restless_legs/detail_restless_legs.htm