WebMD recently published an article titled Restless Legs Syndrome, Heart Risk Tied that suggests a possible link between RLS and heart disease.

According to the article, RLS patients have been shown to have an increased risk for high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart disease in several previous studies.  The University of Montreal researchers asked 10 patients with untreated RLS to spend the night in a sleep lab, where researchers monitored leg movements and blood pressure changes. None of the patients had heart disease or hypertension, and none were taking blood pressure-lowering drugs.

The researchers found that blood pressure rates linked to sleep-related periodic leg movement rose by an average of 22 points for the systolic reading (top number of a blood pressure reading) and 11 points for the diastolic reading (bottom number of blood pressure reading).

They concluded that this degree of elevation, occurring frequently over time, could lead to heart and blood vessel damage. Their findings are published in the April 10, 2007 issue of the journal Neurology.

My take: The patients in the trial were not taking medication for RLS treatment, so it makes sense to me that their night-time leg movements would increase their blood pressure levels.  If I had to go even an hour without Requip at night, my thrashing around would definitely raise my blood pressure - and I'd probably burn enough calories from jerking my legs that I'd lose a pound right then and there.  

But fortunately I had a sleep study done last year while taking Requip, and it indicated that Requip was completely controlling my night-time RLS symptoms.  That means I was sleeping normally and shouldn't need to be concerned with elevated blood pressure levels, since my legs weren't moving at all.