Study links vitamin D deficiency to sleep disorder

A Saudi study, the first of its kind worldwide, has discovered a link between the lack of Vitamin D and Restless Legs Syndrome, a sleep disorder found mostly among women. The syndrome is characterized by discomfort during rest, the urge to move the limbs, accompanied by abnormal sensations. The study was introduced during the annual meeting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine in the US state of Baltimore. It showed improvement in the symptoms of some patients after taking compensatory doses of vitamin D as a treatment for other problems linked with osteoporosis or porous bones. Dr. Ayman Bader Kareem, chest disease and sleep disorders consultant in Jeddah, supervisor of the sleep disorders center at King Abdulaziz University, said that 12 patients with the syndrome were given high doses of vitamin D. “They all showed improvement of the symptoms without exception.” Dr. Siraj Omar Walli, associate professor and director of The Sleep Medicine and Research Center in Jeddah, and one of the participants in the study, said the syndrome is a sleep disorder where patients complain, mostly women, of a strange and uncomfortable feeling in both legs, with the urge to move them. Doctors Afnan Shukur, Ayah Bodal and Ahmad Al-Syari from King Abdulaziz University participated in the study. From: ArabNews