# I know its not cancer but FUCK big pharma for not curing Restless Leg Syndrome...FUCK! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 28, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737 "2013-07-28T16:07:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/41 "2013-07-29T02:16:58Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > I though Restless Leg Syndrome was one of those fake diseases like Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or diabetes. It’s called Morgellons by proxy. You cannot cure a disease that does not exist. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/42 "2013-07-29T02:18:45Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > It’s called Morgellons by proxy. > > You cannot cure a disease that does not exist. Munchausen. ---
**Author:** ![Uber\_the\_Goober](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/58956e/32.png) [@Uber\_the\_Goober](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uber_the_Goober)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/43 "2013-07-29T02:21:44Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Absolutely not a joke. RLS was my fucking nemesis for years. Nothing ever helped except marijuana; and that was only slightly. RLS has contributed in a big way to my lifelong struggles with insomnia. It wasn’t until I began being prescribed Tramadol (brand name Ultram) for my chronically torn rotator cuffs a few years ago that I stumbled up this magnificent side effect. I haven’t been plagued by RLS since. > > Knowing full well how torturous restless legs can be, I’d say consider it. The big drawback to the medication is that it _is_ a narcotic-despite being categorized by the FDA as a non-narcotic due to a molecular structure technicality of the drug-and as such carries the dependence and addiction risks of an opiate. Um…try to withhold your disgust at my ignorance - but how do you get restless legs if you’re paralyzed from the waist down? :dubious: Is it kinda like a phantom leg pain thing? I mean…most people with restless leg syndrome have a hellish desire to move their legs - and the desire is manifested in a definite feeling in the legs themselves. I imagine this would be disconcerting for someone who can’t thrash their legs about when the urges hit…at least that’s how my ex-wife described it. So how’s that work with legs that you can’t otherwise feel? ETA: Oh, and phuck big pharma. Bastages they all are. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/44 "2013-07-29T02:22:31Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > That is also interesting, and the rise in akathsia diagnoses (and self-diagnoses) seems to have tracked the rise in their use. To be fair, though, this may not mean anything other than people who are sensitive to developing akathisia are also vulnerable to developing the kinds of illnesses that medication targets. It may be that these drugs “unmask” the condition in someone who already has it and just doesn’t know it. I don’t know if this explains the rapid rise in diagnoses, but it is an alternative to the “drugs are making us sick!” hypothesis. IIRC, abnormalities in dopamine levels has been linked to RLS. So maybe this explains why anti-psychotics tend to be more akathisia-inducing. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/45 "2013-07-29T02:32:03Z")
> [@Bob Ducca](#): > > Stoid - Don’t you take enough ADD medicine each day to get a rhinoceros hopped up (I recall you detailing your dosage before and it was a crazy high amount)? Maybe cutting back on the speed will settle your legs. Well, I can’t sacrifice my focus…although good sleep helps enormously. I know it isn’t the drugs because it isn’t constant. It’s very much tied to my activity and a few other things. But I’ve had plenty of blissful sleep on meds. In fact many’s the night I could barely catch a wink, I take my meds very early, and within an hour slip into a very comfortable RLS-free sleep. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/46 "2013-07-29T02:33:27Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > IIRC, abnormalities in dopamine levels has been linked to RLS. Also in ADD. Hmmm… ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/47 "2013-07-29T03:05:19Z")
> [@Girlundone](#): > > I am starting to fashion my own tin foil hat… If you’re serious, you should wear it wherever you go. It will allow other people to accurately give your opinions proper weight. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/48 "2013-07-29T03:30:02Z")
PS: That opinion is based on fashion sense. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/49 "2013-07-29T03:57:46Z")
> [@Girlundone](#): > > If a disease is cured, eventually it is completely eradicated, right? leaving no demand for the cure anymore. And being “a billionaire” is different than earning trillions, annually, year after year after year. Illnesses are an ongoing cash cow for the pharmaceutical companies. Nothing you’re saying makes sense: 1. Obviously no pharmaceutical companies makes “trillions” of dollars, 2. If there’s a cure for something, the a drug company is, obviously, in a prisoner’s dilemma where they have no choice but to produce the cure, if it’s profitable, because if they don’t someone else will. You might be able to treat the disorder and make revenue every year without curing it - but you don’t know that. If a cure is found and your company does not produce it, you get nothing. If a cure is found and you’re the one who finds it, at least you get something. 3. For all people claim drug companies suppress cures to sell treatments, nobody seems to be able to provide a solid example. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/50 "2013-07-29T04:00:56Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > I’ve had what sounds like RLS and (we’re in the Pit, right?) it STILL sounds like a bullshit syndrome\*, and I don’t envy the guy from Big Pharma who, fifteen years ago, went to management with a proposal to spend millions on a treatment for a condition that nobody back then had. Or realized they had. But now that daytime TV has discovered it and and millions have decided the have it, there’s billions to be made from it and I’m sure they’ve got their best men on it. I’ve known I had RLS all my life, and I’m 41. I’ve ALWAYS known there was something weird about the fact that I quite literally could not lay motionless in bed and fall asleep. I found it amazing other people could do that. I’ve had this damn thing for as long as I have been able to form permanent memories. I just didn’t have a name for it. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/51 "2013-07-29T04:06:46Z")
I have a mild case of RLS, and I find that a dose of vitamin C helps me (I take the regular pill - 500 mg, I think). It seems like too easy a solution, but my legs are jumpy and twitchy, I take a pill, and a little while later I forget about my legs, so I assume that they aren’t jumpy and twitchy any longer. ---
**Author:** ![Girlundone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Girlundone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girlundone)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/52 "2013-07-29T06:02:17Z")
[QUOTE=RickJay] 1. Obviously no pharmaceutical companies makes “trillions” of dollars, [/QUOTE] Trillions was an exaggeration, but it looks like pretty big business to me. [QUOTE=RickJay] 3. For all people claim drug companies suppress cures to sell treatments, nobody seems to be able to provide a solid example. [/QUOTE] I didn’t make that claim. I wondered why the vaccines available aren’t made available in countries where they are still experiencing needless deaths from diseases. [QUOTE=Qadgop the Mercotan] If you’re serious, you should wear it wherever you go. It will allow other people to accurately give your opinions proper weight. [/QUOTE] I guess this is your way of saying you don’t agree with my opinion. Fair enough. Listen, if you won’t dismiss my opinions based on my little tin foil beret, then I won’t dismiss yours based on your stupid username. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/53 "2013-07-29T06:07:01Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I’ve known I had RLS all my life, and I’m 41. I’ve ALWAYS known there was something weird about the fact that I quite literally could not lay motionless in bed and fall asleep. I found it amazing other people could do that. I’ve had this damn thing for as long as I have been able to form permanent memories. > > I just didn’t have a name for it. > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I have a mild case of RLS, and I find that a dose of vitamin C helps me (I take the regular pill - 500 mg, I think). It seems like too easy a solution, but my legs are jumpy and twitchy, I take a pill, and a little while later I forget about my legs, so I assume that they aren’t jumpy and twitchy any longer. I don’t know if it’s just a matter of expression, but I don’t think of it as my legs being jumpy or twitchy, they aren’t. There is a sensation deep inside the leg that I can only describe as a kind of internal tickle, and the only way I can try to relieve it is to _voluntarily_ move, which acts scratching that internal itch. I writhe, or wiggle or slam or rock or pound… but all of it is technically voluntary. I just can’t seem to resist the urge to voluntarily do SOMETHING to scratch that relentless internal itch. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/54 "2013-07-29T06:19:34Z")
Can you order quinine from a Canadian pharmacy? As I understand it, only a tiny percentage of people have a bad reaction to quinine, and for the rest, quinine is the only drug that relieves RLS. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/55 "2013-07-29T07:00:12Z")
> [@Uber\_the\_Goober](#): > > Um…try to withhold your disgust at my ignorance - but how do you get restless legs if you’re paralyzed from the waist down? :dubious: > > Is it kinda like a phantom leg pain thing? I mean…most people with restless leg syndrome have a hellish desire to move their legs - and the desire is manifested in a definite feeling in the legs themselves. I imagine this would be disconcerting for someone who can’t thrash their legs about when the urges hit…at least that’s how my ex-wife described it. > > So how’s that work with legs that you can’t otherwise feel? Well for one thing, I can feel everything, everywhere in my body, completely. And I suffered from RLS before I became a paraplegic and it actually got much _worse_ after my paralysis. Because now I have restless legs that are unable to move but I can still feel. It truly is a hellish nightmare being afflicted with this problem and being stuck with some damn legs that you can’t even move. But _need to_ soooo badly. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/56 "2013-07-29T07:35:37Z")
Girlundone, I think you’re asking a reasonable enough question. At least one person tried to answer it. I’ll have another go. I’m a layman. Yes, the reason (IMO) why preventable diseases haven’t been eradicated everywhere probably does have something to do with money. But it’s also like asking, why, since we have easily enough capacity to feed everyone in the world, do people still starve? There’s no need for a conspiracy to explain why. “Big Agri” is run to make a profit, not feed everybody for free. For there a medical conspiracy to make sense, there would have to be a profit made off treating the symptoms of measles, diptheria, etc. I’m guessing that there isn’t much of one and that they simply go untreated or that the sufferers use traditional remedies. And, that profit would have to go to the same companies that are withholding vaccines. Not to mention how ghoulish that would be. Yes, businesses have done unethical things. Even so, nobody thinks that because there is the clear opportunity for profit that therefore funeral home directors will go on murder sprees to drum up business. ---
**Author:** ![Sticks\_and\_Scones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sticks_and_scones/32/16951_2.png) [@Sticks\_and\_Scones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sticks_and_Scones)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/57 "2013-07-29T11:07:43Z")
I’ve often felt that RLS is worse than depression. Thank goodness taking Mirapex (pramipexole) works for me. Without it I would be in sad, sad shape. I find that when I eat too many sweets that my RLS gets worse. Usually that’s when I end up with my arms joining in as well like **Stoid** mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/58 "2013-07-29T11:20:08Z")
> [@Girlundone](#): > > I didn’t make that claim. I wondered why the vaccines available aren’t made available in countries where they are still experiencing needless deaths from diseases. Can you name a country where a specific vaccine is “not available” despite there being money available to pay for it? If you actually mean “why won’t pharmaceutical companies give away free vaccines?”, well, that’s because they’re companies, not charities. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/59 "2013-07-29T11:52:20Z")
And vaccines **are** being made available whenever possible, but cost and suspicion of locals can hinder efforts, along with problems like [the difficulty of getting systematic vaccination done in a war-torn region](http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/07/22/203601730/SOMALIA-POLIO-OUTBREAK). ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2013, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737/60 "2013-07-29T12:22:52Z")
> [@Girlundone](#): > > Trillions was an exaggeration, but it looks like pretty big business to me. > I didn’t make that claim. I wondered why the vaccines available aren’t made available in countries where they are still experiencing needless deaths from diseases. But they are. Can you provide a single example of “BIG PHARMA” refusing to provide vaccines in a country experiencing needless deaths? Or d’ya think maybe the needless deaths are because of the local government being run by incompetent kleptocrats? After all, one of the biggest killers in the world isn’t a viral disease; it’s diarrhea. Upwards of two million children a year literally shit themselves to death every year due to unsafe drinking water. Few people seem to know about it, because it’s not an interesting disease and it happens to black and brown kids that people in the West don’t care about most of the time. But there’s absolutely nothing being denied to the countries where this happens, it’s a cheap thing to fix, and the solutions aren’t under the control of Big Pharma, so why is it still happening? > [@](#): > > I guess this is your way of saying you don’t agree with my opinion. Fair enough. Listen, if you won’t dismiss my opinions..,. Ignorance isn’t an “opinion.” If you say something that’s just false, welcome to the place people will be very quick to challenge you on it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-know-its-not-cancer-but-fuck-big-pharma-for-not-curing-restless-leg-syndrome-fuck/664737.md?page=4)