donnunn.com

One of the commercials I hear pretty regularly on KOMO 1000 on my drive to work is a notice of a medical study for a drug under investigation for treatment of Restless Legs Syndrome.

The advert's done in suitably cheesy style with sound bites from alleged sufferers of this condition, how it's difficult to relax and how the one guy ends up pacing more than half the night! and the other old lady can't get to sleep because she constantly moves her legs.

So I was about to write the whole thing off as a bit... well, nuts. And not a bit nuts but completely batshit insane. And then I fired up a Google search on restless legs syndrome (and I think it really should be restless-leg syndrome, but nevermind) and found out that

• Sufferers of this condition have their own foundation and support groups (and doesn't "rls.org" sound like some fruitcake branch of the Mormon church?)
• The sensations are sometimes described as "burning, creeping, tugging, or like insects crawling inside the legs" (!)
• Treatments include "lifestyle changes, certain self-directed activities, and, in some cases, drug (pharmacologic) therapy"

All of which seems like quite a bit of information developed about what I had assumed was some drugmaker's effort to create a new Condition of the Moment to Require a New Drug Therapy That Only We Provide.

I've experienced a bit of discomfort in my legs a few times in my life. I wouldn't have described it in the manner above, necessarily, but I tend to move my legs (well, my feet anyway) a lot when I'm in bed anyway. I don't lose sleep over it; in fact, I find if I can't move my legs or feet at least a bit, that's when I don't sleep well.

Maybe I need a study for Restful Legs Syndrome. Surely there must be a drug for that?

Of course if those sensations are real, I say screw the lifestyle changes and self-directed activities. Bring on the drugs, and not just the GRAS or proven-therapeutic ones. Hand me my bowl and lighter, man.

Or have I said too much?