Restless legs syndrome, high blood pressure link seen

For middle-aged women, restless legs syndrome may come with an elevated risk of high blood pressure, researchers say.

Restless legs syndrome is characterized by crawling sensations and repeated muscle twichings in one or both legs, and an uncontrollable urge to move them -- which may compel a person to walk in circles for hours at night.

Some health experts, as this earlier post points out, have doubted that it’s a “syndrome worthy of treatment.”

Regardless, the repercussions of RLS may be real. The study published online Monday in the journal Hypertension found that middle-aged women with restless legs symptoms were 20% more likely to suffer from hypertension, or high blood pressure. Those who had more frequent symptoms (15 or more times per month) had a 41% higher risk of hypertension.

Other research has also linked the disorder to damage to walls in the heart (called left ventricular hypertrophy, which is associated with an increased risk of stroke and heart attack), as well as to erectile dysfunction and higher death rates from kidney disease, according to this Times health section story.

For more information, check out the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s page on restless legs syndrome.

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