.....What kind of unpleasant sensations do RLS sufferers feel? Most commonly pain, itching, and burning, which can vary in intensity from mild to intense, although curiously, a surprisingly large number of people with RLS also claim that they feel as if insects are crawling under their skin, which one can only imagine must be a very unpleasant sensation, especially, of course, when it occurs regularly as you're trying to sleep.
.....Which brings up perhaps the worst consequence of RLS for most people: major sleep disturbances including 1) an inability to fall asleep, and 2) waking up frequently to try to relieve the symptoms, both of which can lead not only to physical problems (greater risk of accidents, poorer weight control, immune dysfunction, etc) but which can also lead to major psychological and social problems (depression, anxiety, marriage break-up, job loss, and so on).
.....Who gets RLS? The simple answer is "anyone" although it tends to be more common in women, the elderly, people with iron deficiency, people with other chronic health problems such as diabetes (tests for iron stores and for diabetes should be routine in anyone who's newly diagnosed with RLS), people with other neurological conditions such as Parkinson's disease, and people on certain medications (some drugs can bring on RLS, some can worsen RLS symptoms that are already present).
.....As for lifestyle factors that have been linked to RLS, the usual suspects - tobacco, coffee, and alcohol - are always trotted out as potential aggravating factors, but if you ask me (a dedicated lover of coffee and alcohol, but only at moderate levels, of course), the evidence linking either coffee or alcohol to bringing on RLS or making it worse is pretty weak indeed.
That said, if you have RLS, it's never a bad idea to try to limit your intake of coffee and alcohol to see if that has any ameliorating effect on your condition. (As for tobacco, hey, no one should smoke, anyway, whether they have RLS or not).
.....As stated earlier, there is no definitive test or Xray or neurological sign to distinguish this condition, so RLS is diagnosed entirely from history, that is, if a patient says they have unpleasant sensations which are only relieved by moving their limbs, they have
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