Belly fat + obesity = Restless legs syndrome

New York, April 7: A new research has revealed Monday that having a big belly or being obese could put a person at an increased risk of developing restless legs syndrome (RLS), a neurological disorder characterized by abnormal or unpleasant sensations occurring in the legs.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School suggest that belly fat makes men and women vulnerable to developing the aforementioned neurological condition which considerably affects both movement and sleep.

RLS is a condition in which there are feelings of burning, itching and discomfort in the legs while the person is sitting or lying down. These uncomfortable and sometimes painful feelings in the legs that lead to sleep disorders make the person want to get up and move around. And when the sufferers do so, it gives them temporary relief.

In a study involving 65,554 women and 23,119 men, lead researcher Dr. Xiang Gao, an instructor in medicine at the Harvard School of Public Health, and colleagues found that obese people were 42 percent more likely to have RLS than those with normal-weight. And study subjects with larger waistlines or abdominal obesity were even more prone to have RLS risk than those with the trimmest waistlines.

"Individuals with a higher waist circumference, a marker for central obesity, are also 60 percent more likely to having RLS relative to those with a low waist circumference," Gao said.

All the study participants were health professionals who took part in either the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study or the Nurses' Health Study II, and none of them had diabetes, arthritis or were pregnant.

Gao and team identified 6.4 percent of the women and 4.1 percent of the men as having the RLS. And men and women with a body mass indexdefine (BMI) score over 30 were nearly one-and-a-half times more likely to have the condition than those with lower BMI.

"These results may be important since obesity is a modifiable risk factor that is becoming increasingly common in the U.S.," said Gao. "More research is needed to confirm whether obesity causes RLS and whether keeping a low BMI score and small waist size could help prevent RLS."

The findings, published in the April 7 issue of the journal Neurology, also suggest a link between obesity at age 20 and a higher prevalence of RLS in mid life or later.

The disorder commonly affects the legs, but in rare cases it can affect the arms and torso also. In addition, RLS can cause difficulty in falling or staying asleep.

According to the Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation, a substantial number of people who suffer from RLS also have periodic limb movements of sleep (PLMS). These are jerks that occur every 20 to 30 seconds on and off throughout the night. This can cause partial awakenings that disrupt sleep.