♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ The two most famous ♪
♪ Physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- Hi, folks, I'm Bob Schrupp, physical therapist.
- Brad Heineck, physical therapist.
- Together, we are the most famous physical therapists
on the internet.
- In our opinion, of course, Bob.
- Today, we're gonna show you how to treat
restless leg syndrome
without drugs.
These are 10 professional suggestions.
We're not experts on restless leg syndrome,
or RLS, are we, Brad?
- No, no,
but we've dealt with people. - I did the research.
We had a lot of patients, and I've done the research,
so we'll, we'll let you know what we have found out.
By the way,
if you're new to our channel, - Oh, yes.
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We provide videos on how to stay healthy, fit, pain-free,
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(Brad chuckles)
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We're always giving something away.
This week, we're giving away a handheld massager.
- I forgot about that.
- You want to be a liar, Brad?
- Yeah, I'm sorry about that, but look at that,
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- Yeah, it can actually get to those hard to reach areas.
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go to Twitter, Instagram or TikTok
if you want a 60 second version of our program.
- Perfect, Bob.
- So Brad, I gathered information from three sources,
- Sure. - that I thought
were reliable.
One was the Mayo Clinic,
I used to work there, by the way.
- Right.
- One was Cleveland Clinic, another prominent clinic.
- Oh. But you didn't work there.
- No, I didn't work there.
- No, no.
- And the last one was a study.
And I'm going to read the study's title,
which is always a boring thing
(Brad chuckles) that has multiple words.
- Yeah, those PhDs really come in (indistinct).
- Non Pharmacological Interventions
for Restless Leg Syndrome,
a Systemic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials.
Was by Harrison, et al.
So-- - His name was et al?
- No. - I know, I know.
That is, that's quite a title there, but it's, you know--
- We'll put a link below
so that you can
hopefully look it up, if you want to read it.
But they mentioned a lot of treatments
that had some success.
To be honest,
this is probably for people
who have, maybe, a mild case of restless leg syndrome.
- Sure.
- If you have a more of a intense version,
you're probably going to have to get
pharmacological help.
- Yeah, so, but some people may not be completely aware
of what restless leg symptoms are.
- Sure, yeah, we'll go over some of the signs.
- Okay.
- One is the urge to move your legs.
And you're gonna feel, like,
uncomfortable and unpleasant sensations.
- Is this throughout the day,
or just at night sleeping?
- Mostly at night. - Okay.
- And during inactivity.
It's, the,
the sensations are awful,
what I hear is like, it's creepy crawly,
weird thing
that keeps people awake sometimes too.
- It's annoying. - Yeah.
So, it does begin
or worsen during rest
or inactivity,
and it's partially or totally
relieved by movement.
So like, if you get up and move,
- Yeah. - It often--
It dissipates?
- It dissipates, yeah.
So,
but as you can imagine,
it can be very disruptive to sleep patterns.
- Yes. Yeah.
Yeah, I've had patients
where they hardly are getting any sleep because of this.
And that's the more severe cases,
they need to get some medication
so that they can get their life back in order.
- So, with all these,
what you want to do is try it.
Try it for a few weeks.
See if you see a difference.
And if you don't,
then you're not, you might as well not do it, I mean.
- Right.
So, how many options do we have, Bob?
- We have 10. - 10, okay.
- So, we'll start off with number one, avoid caffeine.
Try that for a couple weeks,
- Sure.
- and see if that makes a difference.
- Right.
- Two, you might try a magnesium supplement.
- Oh. - It may help.
You might have a deficit.
- So, go get some capsules, type of thing?
- Yeah, sure.
- From, you know, it's a natural--
- You wanna check with your doctor,
- Yes. - To make sure it's okay,
that it doesn't interfere
with any of your medicines or anything.
- Exactly.
- Third one, this was in the study.
I found it interesting.
Infrared therapy,
or infrared heat,
tends to help.
- So, the far infrared?
- Yeah.
So we, we actually often talk about this Thermotex.
It's a far infrared heating pad.
- Right.
- And what we like about it is actually,
- It's in there. - Yeah, the,
the heat penetrates a lot deeper than normal regular heat.
That's normal heat.
You can see it just penetrates like a millimeter.
- [Brad] So if you buy a hot pack, just a normal hot pack
down at the, online or whatever,
you know, it costs you $30, $40,
it's only gonna go skin deep.
- Right.
Far infrared heat goes two point--
- Three six.
- 2.36 inches,
so it really gets into the muscles,
and even into the bone, sometimes,
if it's over your back.
- Right, and it's not aggressive heat,
it's a mild heat,
it's not gonna burn you.
We really have had good experiences
as well as our patients. - Right.
- And if you're talking about restless leg syndrome problems
you know, you've got a lot of muscle,
- Right.
- and you want to get in deep with it.
That's probably why it works better.
- You might have to start with
you know, like, lying on your,
laying it in your lap.
You may want to put it there,
then you want to put it on your calves, you know.
- Sure.
- It's something you probably want to do before bed.
And you can kind of hit all the areas
of the leg and see if that helps.
- I would probably try the other ones first,
cause they are kind of expensive.
- Yeah, these are pricey.
They're an investment, so.
- Unless someone you know has one.
- Right.
- All right.
Number four, establish good sleep patterns.
So, they're like,
"Well, how can I sleep if it's going on?"
(Brad chuckles) - Yeah.
- Well, one thing is, you know, I read a book on sleep.
The number one thing
that seemed to help establish good sleep patterns
was going to the bed at the same time.
Even on the weekend, like,
let's say you normally go to bed at 10 during a workweek.
- Sure. - You should go to 10
on the weekends too. Tough to do.
- It's really just like raising kids.
You know, when your kids are young,
- Yeah. - Get 'em in that program.
- Get 'em in the habit.
The body adapts. - Yep, exactly.
- No (indistinct) you're gonna give it.
Number five,
this was in the study in both clinics,
so all three recommended this,
- Okay, that's good. - was exercise.
So, you can do as simple as walking,
- Yep. - but you can do biking,
both stationary or outdoors.
- And now, I think you mentioned this to me,
that typically people who get this
are older,
- Yes.
- like over 50, over 60. - Yeah.
And plus,
a lot of people have neuropathy along with it, so.
- So that can be associated with diabetes, diabetics?
- It could be, sure, yeah.
- If you have it, you probably know.
- Yeah.
- Are we gonna show-- - Yeah,
we should also show the FitGlide,
that's a device that we invented,
- Right, - and it's for a person
who can't,
well, it's really to be used in the chair,
it can also be used in the bed.
- Right.
But if you're unable to walk
because you have knee problems - Right.
- hip or balance problems,
and so you're forced to be
in a chair or walk short distances,
this is a great way to get some exercise safely.
- Yeah. So again, you could put this, you know,
and it's so lightweight,
it's less than,
it's about five pounds, right?
- Yeah, I got one finger holding it.
Yes sir.
- So you can do it right at night,
right before you,
well, not right before you go to bed,
you don't wanna do heavy exercise
right before you go to bed.
- Right.
- But maybe an hour before bed,
you could get those legs moving,
and you could kick out the stand there,
it's a little more comfortable.
Now, this is not silent.
There's a little swish swish sound.
- Yep. - You probably can't hear it
because our mics aren't picking it up.
But I just want to let you know
there is a little bit of sound.
And then also you can use a,
Brad, do you wanna lay down?
- [Brad] Sure.
- Lie down. - [Brad] Lie down, Bob.
- Lie down. - Keep those English majors
off our back. - Yeah.
- We've gotta keep 'em happy. - Yep.
- That's all for the, our betterment.
- [Bob] Now you have to,
if you do this,
you either wear shoes
or you put a towel down on top of it.
But you can see how you can actually
get those legs moving a little bit
in bed itself. - Yep.
- [Bob] So this is one of the few devices that'll do that.
- Yeah, works out very nice,
easy to clean. - [Bob] All right.
- Um, Bob, you know,
if someone is able to walk, you can walk,
you can do stationary bike. - Yep.
- Is that all good things? - Yep. That's all, yep.
- If you already have those,
or you're thinking about that treadmill, et cetera.
- Yep. It all works. It all works.
All right. Number six,
this was both a study and at Mayo too,
that you can actually use compressive devices
or wraps,
- Oh, like ACE wraps? - Yeah, ACE wrap.
Or you can actually,
there's devices that will fill up with air.
- Sure. - You know.
- If you're gonna do that,
you need to probably get trained,
- Check with a doctor first. - or instructed
on how to do it so you do it properly.
- Right.
And that can affect your blood pressure and stuff like that.
- Yeah, that's uh, you need help for that.
- Number seven, massage.
This was mentioned by, I think,
possibly all three,
but well, we, this works well.
They're using the handheld massager for this.
- Sure, sure. - What I like about this is,
this is not a real aggressive massager.
- Right. - This is not
like the massage guns
which are, penetrate a lot deeper.
(massager beeps)
This is gives you that light massage
that would probably be appropriate
for restless leg syndrome.
And you can,
with the handle, you can get all the areas.
- Especially, you know, if you're an older person,
as a matter of fact, Mike,
the guy who's doing the camera work for us.
Is it your grandmother, Mike,
that, she had the gun and it was too aggressive,
and with one of these,
that she was very pleased with it.
- And the other thing,
these are real inexpensive, - Yeah.
- I mean, they're really a deal.
So you can try one without spending too much cash.
All right.
Number nine.
No, sorry, number eight.
Some light stretching.
So, you could do your hamstrings.
So, you can do, you can even in bed, Brad.
- Yeah. - You could just go like this.
Lift up your leg,
and that's stretching your hamstring there a little bit.
- Yeah.
My wife does it this way,
and she does it constantly
cause she was having trouble with her hamstring.
- Keep you up at night, huh?
- Well, really works well for her, so.
- Good.
Yeah, it's one of those things,
laying down, if you can do a stretch laying down,
you're more relaxed.
- And there you can go do hip adductors.
- Sure.
- You know, and you can also do your calf muscles.
You would need a towel to pull.
- And sometimes simply doing ankle pumps,
- Yep. Pull it toward you when you,
when you pull the toes.
Yep.
That all just gives enough stretch sometimes
to relax it.
- That's right.
- Number nine, soaking in a warm tub.
- Ooh, now we're talking 'bout it.
- Yeah, that can actually help your sleep too, somewhat,
cause that cools down your core once you get out of it.
- Yeah. - You know, yeah, so.
And number 10,
just as a rule of thumb,
you're not supposed to try to resist the,
resist the movement.
Like, if it's restless.
- Oh, you mean the symptoms are making you,
- Yeah. - like, you don't want to--
- You don't want to stop,
try to stop it by resisting.
- Oh, that makes sense.
- It actually makes it worse. - Oh.
- I didn't know that, but now I know that.
- Right. - Let me pass it on.
- Well, these are some nice tips, Bob.
- Give 'em a try, you know, experiment.
- Right, exactly.
- That's what I want you to do.
And remember, Brad and I can fix just about anything,
- Except for.
♪ A broken heart ♪
- Oh, you gotta start singing lessons.
- I know. (Bob laughs)
- How do you know that?
Yeah, you need some work yet, Bob.
- Yeah, lots of work. - I'm sure you'll get there.