I usually listen to Fox News on Sunday mornings. I say listen, because at the same time it is on my TV I am usually doing some thing else at the same time. On Sunday mornings, they have a feature called House Call. The basic idea of this feature is people write in with their questions, and Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld, M.D. takes the time to answer a few of them while he is on the Air.

Today, he responded to a question about the effectiveness of Quinine in the treatment of Rest Leg Syndrome (RLS). After he gave his opinion about the use of this medication, he went on and gave – what I considered to be – a soft pedaled description about RLS, and some ideas for what people could do to manage their symptoms.

What he said irked me. It was another expert playing down how much RLS symptoms can affect a person’s quality of life. It also just continued to add more to people’s – including doctors – misunderstanding.

I decided to write him a letter.

To: housecall@foxnews.com

Subject: Restless Leg Syndrome

Dear Dr. Rosenfeld,

Today I listened to your response to someone’s question about Restless Leg Syndrome, and the effectiveness of Quinine. After you addressed that question, you went on to speak about some suggestions of possible causes of restless leg syndrome and gave some ideas on how to alleviate the symptoms. While I am sure some or all of your suggestions work for some people, there is a significant portion of people with RLS whose symptoms are not alleviated by any of those things, and often not even with the current available medications.

In my family, my great-grandmother, and grandfather had RLS symptoms when they were alive. Currently, my mother, brother, and myself all have moderate to severe symptoms. My mother and I see the same doctor regarding our RLS – treating RLS is one of his specialties. He often says my mother’s RLS symptoms are the worst he has ever seen. For my age – as compared to the rest of the RLS patient population – my symptoms are fairly severe. My mother and I live in a constant state of sleep deprivation, and it has a huge, negative impact on our quality of life. There are many message boards on the internet where people discuss the impact that RLS has had on their life, and how horrible their existence is. Some of us with RLS can never escape from our symptoms.

The general public has a great deal of misunderstanding about how bad RLS can get. It is frustrating when I hear people talk about it as if it were not a big deal. I believe part of that misunderstanding comes from soft pedaled descriptions of RLS – like the one you offered today. When I hear experts talk about RLS, I really wish they would take a moment or two to inform the public about the “dark side” of RLS. It would be a great benefit. Not only would it help do away with the current misunderstanding about RLS, thereby creating a more accepting – believing – society, it might actually make it easier when we have to go to doctors who are not familiar with RLS. There is nothing like that feeling I get when people think I am not telling the truth about my RLS symptoms – including most doctors. It is an awful experience to have to explain repeatedly that you cannot take certain medications like Benadryl, Phenergan, Reglan, and many psychiatric medications because they exacerbate your symptoms and have them not believe you.

I really hope that consider what I have written, and take the time to investigate some of the RLS message boards out there. Here is a website that might help point you in the right direction if would like to learn more. We Move

I am not affiliated with the website, or organization in anyway. It just happens to be one of the best ones out there for offering factual and easy to read information about RLS – in my opinion.

Thank you,

Melissa Shell