Men with Restless Legs Syndrome at Increased Risk of Early Death?

(Ivanhoe Newswire) – New research is now suggesting that men who have restless legs syndrome (RLS) may have an increased risk of dying earlier.
Researchers examined 18,425 men with an average age of 67 to determine who had RLS. A total of 690 men (3.7 percent) met the criteria for RLS at the beginning of the study. During the eight years of study follow up, a total of 2,765 patients died. Of the people with RLS, 25 percent died during the study, compared to 15 percent of those who did not have RLS.
“We found that the increased risk was not associated with the usual known risk factors, such as older age, being overweight, lack of sleep, smoking, being physically inactive and having an unhealthy diet. The increased mortality in RLS was more frequently associated with respiratory disease, endocrine disease, nutritional/metabolic disease and immunological disorders,” Xiang Gao, MD, PhD, with Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School and the Channing division of network medicine, Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, was quoted as saying.
For more information, go to: http://neurology.org/content/early/2013/06/12/WNL.0b013e318297eee0
SOURCE: Neurology, June 2013