The earliest known account of RLS comes from Sir Thomas Willis, an English physician, who described the condition in 1672. He wrote of patients who, when trying to sleep, were afflicted by “leaping and contractions of the tendons” in their legs that forced them to move constantly to get relief.
Since then, there were only vague references to RLS, until Karl-Axel Ekbom, a Swedish neurologist, published detailed clinical studies in 1945 and 1947, documenting the characteristic symptoms — an uncontrollable urge to move the legs — and showing that the disorder often led to chronic insomnia. He coined the term “restless legs syndrome.”
As some sufferers also get RLS in their arms and torso, the condition has outgrown the name, and the International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group in 2013 proposed it be called Willis-Ekbom Disease — which unfortunately has the acronym WED, another stupid name. If we don’t get laughed enough for having restless legs syndroms, saying you have WED is sure to draw a few smirks.
The truth is, modern researchers have no idea what the cause of RLS is. Some leading explanations include:
Dopamine dysfunction: Problems in the brain’s dopamine pathways, which control movement.
Iron deficiency: Low iron levels in the brain.
Genetic factors: Many cases run in families, estimated up to 40%
Peripheral or central nervous system issues
Secondary causes: RLS can develop alongside conditions like kidney disease, pregnancy, or certain medications.
And there are hundreds of other minor theories. But none comes close to explaining the cause.
I referred earlier to a report published more than a decade ago. Why exactly no one followed up on this research I’m not sure, perhaps it was because they did a control study of patients who were using pramipexole compared to those who weren’t. These days it is not recommended to use that insidious drug, so I guess it’s almost impossible to reproduce the results. The researchers conducted the experiment twice, with almost exact results: the group that didn’t use pramipexole experienced hyphoxia in the legs during the night.
Peripheral hypoxia in patients with restless legs syndrome
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1389945713012720
What is hypoxia?