Earlier this week while waiting in the lobby of my hair salon, I saw a full page Requip advertisement in Sports Illustrated magazine. Requip is currently the only FDA-approved medication for treating restless legs syndrome (RLS).

It's encouraging to see this kind of publicity for RLS. It increases the chance of other pharmaceutical companies investing in RLS research and medication, and it makes it less awkward or embarrassing when explaining the disorder to my friends and colleagues!

They had a good, understandable description of RLS (creepy, crawly, tickling sensations in the legs that are temporarily relieved by walking - but they always comes back, and usually worsen in the evenings).

They categorized moderate to severe RLS as occurring up to 15 times a month. I had to chuckle at those statistics, because I experience RLS episodes numerous times daily, starting as early as 11 in the morning, and sometimes earlier if I didn't get enough sleep the night before or am stressed out about something or anything.

With a disorder that affects as many as 15% of Americans, I think we'll start to see more publicity and knowledge transfer from the media over the coming months. And of course I'm hoping that will translate into an increased effort towards discovering causes and ultimately a cure!