Carrying too much weight appears to be associated with a common sleep problem.
A study in this week's Neurology reports that being obese may increase the risk of restless legs syndrome, says author Xiang Gao, an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. Restless legs syndrome is a neurological condition characterized by burning and creeping feelings in the legs and an uncontrollable urge to move them to get relief. Symptoms may worsen at night, sleep experts say.
"The movements make it difficult to fall and stay asleep," says Carolyn D'Ambrosio, director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. "These people suffer terribly from pain and discomfort."
It is estimated that 5% to 10% of adults have restless legs syndrome, says Lisa Shives, medical director of Northshore Sleep Medicine in Evanston, Ill.
For the study, researchers questioned 65,554 women and 23,119 men, all participants in either the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study or the Nurses' Health Study II. They identified about 6% of the women and 4% of the men as having the condition. Those with a body mass index (BMI) score over 30 were nearly 1 1/2 times more likely to have the syndrome than those who were not obese.
Experts say the results are novel, says Phyllis Zee, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine. But she says it is too early to conclude whether weight loss is a treatment tool.
Obesity may be a result of restless legs syndrome rather than a cause, Shives says, noting that other data show sleep disrupts hormones and metabolism, which can lead to weight gain.
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