How is restless leg syndrome related to Parkinson's?

Restless Leg Syndrome is a physical trait of some but not all Parkinson's disease cases, caused by a lack of Dopamine, says Melissa Houser, MD, a neurologist at Scripps Health,

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Often it can become so severe that it wakes you up during sleep and people have to get out of bed, pace around,

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put their feet in hot water or cold water, and leads to excessive daytime sleepiness. And there are treatments for that, too.

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Restless leg syndrome is highly correlated but not predictive of Parkinson's disease. It's a syndrome wherein the patient reports

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a weird kind of fizzy or not necessarily painful sensation in the legs, usually occurring at night,

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or when they lie down to rest, which is temporarily relieved by moving the legs only to come back once you're

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trying to go to sleep again. Often, it can become so severe that it wakes you

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up during sleep and people have to get out of bed, pace around, put their feet in hot water or cold water, and leads to excessive daytime sleepiness.

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And there are treatments for that, too. We again think restless leg syndrome is associated

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with a dopamine deficiency in the central nervous system, so we treat it with dopamine. Or mainly we treat it with chemicals

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that mimic dopamine without actually being dopamine, called dopamine agonists. [MUSIC PLAYING]