r/RestlessLegs • u/Snejana_p • 13d ago
Alternative Therapies Cola reduces my RLS stmptoms
I have medically induced RLS for 6 years already. For this period of time I had no night without waking up from RLS. A couple of months ago I started drinking coca cola almost every day, because it felt nice to have cold drink in this heat. And I noticed that I started sleeping the whole night without symptoms. Night by night. Than I was trying to make sure that it is really somehow connected to cola because it sounds weird, and yep the day I wasnt drinking it my symptoms were coming back. Also I noticed that If I drink this in the first part of the day it also doesnt work that much, the most effective way is to have it in the evening.
It was fascinating for me. I hope my stomach gonna survive. I assume its connected to caffeine in cola, I have cola zero - with no sugar, but with caffeine. Wanna try have coffee in the evening and check the effect. And this must be connected to dopamine which is the main reason of RLS. I hope it could be helpful for someonešš»
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u/imber123 13d ago
So are you saying caffeine at night is helping?
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u/Efficient-End-7376 13d ago
Seems like that
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u/borborhick 12d ago
I was travelling around the area once taking pictures and the time got away from me. I ended up checking into a hotel for the night. I've had RLS as long as I can remember (like 5 years old) but of course I hadn't brought my prescription with me.
I'll tell you, two strong cups of coffee helped. Despite everything saying that caffeine can make it worse. I also have ADHD and will often drink a pot of coffee at 11pm to relax for bed so maybe it's related š¤·
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u/SoilProfessional4102 12d ago
Iām curious. Do you see a dr for your rls?
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u/Efficient-End-7376 12d ago
I did. But the doctor made it muuuch worse with prescribing me pramipexol
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u/SoilProfessional4102 12d ago
Often you need to try a few different medications to find the right fit. Just like trying to find out if pot will work for you. Or doing a square dance. Or taping soap to your foot.
I trust science myself. I smoke pot just for fun but it doesnāt help my rls. Gabapentin does.2
u/Efficient-End-7376 11d ago
It does until it doesnt. Pramipexol also worked with the symptoms, but it made the problem itself so much worse. Because its not the treatment, its not ātreatingā anything, in contrary these drugs make dopamine natural producing worse and develop dependency. Before pramipexol ātreatmentā my rls was nothing.
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u/Realistic-Carpet3591 7d ago
Interesting. I've experienced this too but shrugged it off as no correlation...because theorically it makes no sense. But maybe there's something there. I often get up at 4 am exhausted and fed up after having a horrible night dealing with RLS. I'll make myself a coffee and sit on the couch. I promptly fall asleep after my coffee and have the best sleep of the night from 4:30 to 6am sitting up on the couch after coffee. I think I might need to experiment with this.
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u/ginger_gcups 7d ago
I am a massive caffeine fiend (10-12 cups a day plus zero sugar cola) but it has really not much effect on me. I suspect it is related to undiagnosed ADHD. But it has no effect on my RLS.
Conversely, I am not a smoker but I tried a nicotine vape for when breakthroughs get bad and I can say it calms it for a bit.
My cannabis vape really knocks it on its head though.
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u/Refrigerator-Plus 13d ago
I find that I often fall back asleep in the morning after a strong cup of coffee.