I frequently see commercials for “Restless Leg Syndrome”. How come I never heard of anyone having this condition, say, ten years ago?
Oh, it was there. I heard it first described in medical school, back in the late '70’s.
I’m not sure if they called it that then, but it was recognized as a genuine entity.
But now it’s sexy and there’s new and expensive drugs that can be prescribed for it. And advertised for it, which wasn’t done back in the day either.
Just because you hear about it doesnt mean it didnt exist. Where was cancer 500 years ago?
Nitpick
(scroll down to the “Origin of the word Cancer” section)
Descriptions of the disease itself, before the name was coined, are older.
Well, I can remember having restless legs more than ten years ago - more that twenty, probably. Everything has to be a ‘syndrome’ now though. SSLLS is Spontaneous Shoe Lace Loosening Syndrome, for example - and I think most people will now at least have heard of UFIA Syndrome.
Well, ropinirole, the first prescription drug for RLS, came out in 2005. But RLS certainly existed for me at least six or seven years ago, even though there weren’t commercials or prescriptions for it. I could never describe the feeling very well, and just put up with the discomfort because my docs told me it was just too much caffeine / sugar / reaction to an anti-depressant / whatevs. Though I took their advice and tried various changes in diet and exercise, it never improved.
About three years ago – still before ads became ubiquitous on TV – I got fed up one night when yet again I couldn’t fall sleep thanks to the discomfort (it’s a really weird, irritating feeling … like too much adrenaline or a low-voltage buzzing through my leg muscles). I went online and used the right keywords to discover that yes, other people had this too.
(Unfortunately, like tinnitus, idiopathic RLS doesn’t really go away. Lucky me, I have both!)
All this is a long way of saying it’s not something made up by drug companies to push their wares.
I think we never heard of it back then, because it is correlated with peanut allergies, and we all know that used to kill 'em way too young to get RLS.
Thanks to medical science, the peanut kids are living longer now.
I remember a Seinfeld episode in which Kramer complained that his girlfriend had the “Jimmylegs” at night, as a result of which he wasn’t getting much sleep.
So there you go. 10 years ago, they were called the Jimmylegs.
No it isn’t. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
I believe thou art whooshed, mightily, good sir.
Gee, guys, it’s probably not a good idea to whoosh a physician, especially if you have a prostate exam coming up. . . .
Seriously, I’m glad this question was asked. My reaction to the RLS syndrome was, “Geez, now they’re inventing diseases so they can sell more drugs.” That’ll teach me.
My mom has had RLS for more than 50 years, but didn’t discover the name (or there wasn’t a name) until 10 or 15 years ago.
Had it all my life. It just didn’t have a name. I assumed it was just me.
No I wasn’t.
This is GQ. One should not post malinformation in GQ. I was giving the poster who provided the malinformation the benefit of the doubt, rather than attributing it to malice.
I will not do so again.
Oh come on, Qadgop. Please don’t tell me I have to use smileys every time I satirize a topic. The reference to oft-discussed peanut allergy was intended to be light-hearted, not malicious. I respect your medical input in all relevant threads; if you were offended by my attempt at humor, I apologize. I thought it was broad enough to be recognized for what it was. I guess I was wrong.
I don’t mind satire when it’s labeled as such. But reading erronious yet not unplausible information in GQ doesn’t make me happy.
Having expended the effort to try to post decent, up to date, experientially-based info in an understandable format on a topic, it’s no pleasure to have to go back to debunk baseless nonsense, old wives tales, and unsupported, meritless contrary information.
Frankly, it’s one of the reasons I don’t post so much in GQ anymore.
See y’all in Cafe Society.
A lot of the health-related claims you see online are blatantly loony, yet are posted in utter seriousness so a whoosh can’t be assumed.
Once on another site I followed up someone’s question about getting a kidney cleanse, only to be told the cleanse was for their dog on the advice of its chiropractor.
It could happen…
I don’t know, making a drug and a disease “popular” is one guaranteed way to make me not to ever tell my doctor about it. I can live with it. And I know I am not alone - I know many people think like me.
Now it seems like everyone’s got RLS, and it makes people think those of us who have always been bothered by it are just making it up.
You are wrong. If you are trying to be funny, you are also wrong. Qadgop the Mercotan is right, and is a very valuable member of this community that gives of his medical wisdom freely. This is GQ, not MPSIMS, and posting deliberately wrong answers is - IMHO- being a jerk.
I think we need a rule saying none of this shit anymore here in GQ.