Today I had a VERY encouraging visit from a 52 year old women who has been suffering from Restless Legs Syndrome “my entire adult life”. Her symptoms have become so severe that she rarely gets a good night’s sleep and the pain is debilitating. Her description sounded like it was more severe than other patients with RLS that I have treated.

She has been treated with a medication called Requip for her symptoms but it causes debilitating headaches after 2 consecutive days of use so she is trying to stop it all together.

A month ago one of her friends let her try medical marijuana using a vaporizer to see if it helps and to quote her she said “It was the best night of sleep I have ever had in my life!” READ ON….

Today in my Irvine office I had a follow up appointment with a 54 year old male who suffers from Restless Leg Syndrome. He had been using a medication called Requip (ropinirole) for the past 6 months without good results. His doctor recently switched him to a new medication called Mirapex (pramipexole) which has not been effective either. Both of those drugs work by stimulating dopamine receptors in the brain (dopamine is a neurotransmitter). They are drugs similar to those used to treat patients with parkinsons disease.

As medical director for Medical Cannabis of Southern California I have the opportunity to evaluate patients who present with the diagnosis of Restless Legs Syndrome. Most of these patients come to me after having an incredible experience with cannabis to treat their symptoms. The following is an actual patient I had in my office yesterday.