Schuylkill Health will be holding its next free community education program at 6 p.m. March 13 titled "Catching Some ZZZ's," which will discuss restless legs affecting sleep.
Dr. Joseph A. Cable, pulmonologist, sleep medicine specialist and medical director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Schuylkill Health, will lead discussion focusing on restless leg syndrome. It will be in the conference rooms at Schuylkill Medical Center-South Jackson Street.
"It's something we haven't done before," Cable said Tuesday morning. "It's been a bothersome thing. People don't usually go to the docs and complain about it, unless it's terrible, but maybe it will increase a little awareness."
The discussion is part of the Community Health Awareness Talks program at Schuylkill Health.
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, restless leg syndrome is a disorder in which there is an urge or need to move the legs to stop unpleasant sensations, stress makes it worse and the cause is not known in most patients.
Cable said the discussion will give the public an overview of the symptoms people might have as far as restless legs, any underlying medical problems and what could potentially be done to relieve some of those symptoms, either with or without drugs.
It would also discuss whether a sleep study is necessary since "a lot of times you don't know if it's sleep apnea or something else."
He also said that narcolepsy causes leg movements at night.
"It's just kind of an overview of problems related to leg movements, both during the day and during the night time," Cable said. "It can be disturbing to sleep."
While Cable said that nobody really knows what causes restless legs, he said there are two types and it can be related to a lot of other medical illnesses.
The first type is idiopathic, meaning nobody knows exactly why it starts, and the secondary type is related to other medical conditions like iron deficiency, kidney failure, arthritis, Parkinson's disease or another medical illness that may be precipitating the leg movements or associated with it.
"You can be any age, but it's more so between ages 20 and 80," Cable said. "It happens in children and teenagers, but it's only about two percent."
Cable said that he had a patient last summer who couldn't sleep and she didn't know if it was just her legs.
"That's all that showed up on a sleep study," he said. "When she got treated, she felt like a million bucks."
Those that want to attend are asked to register by calling the Education Department at 570-621-5108.
Refreshments will be served.
