How come only Americans get restless leg syndrome?

Question

Is it because it's disease mongering baloney? And it appears that only Americans can be allergic to cigarette smoke. Is that possible?

Answer 1

pfffft it's not a matter of medicine, it's a matter of law and money. america needs to justify everything by law and sell everything so every single new minute thing gets a new classification which the rest of the world gives a **** about.

dozens of "diseases" and "syndromes" have give the fear-factor magazines like Time or Newsweek a new cover story for when there's no plane ramming into a building. how many times did ADHD make the headlines? or how about Bipolar disorder? nevermind carb crazes because everything gives you cancer/heart diseae/ mental disease nowadays.

I'm not trying to undermine any of the diseases, which actually are syndromes or disorders or diseases and do occur. but look at it this way. how many children were on ritaline before the rushed and lame DSM lot came up with ADD terminology? and after that before the fabulous impact of AD H D (wow, H, smart)? how about Maniac-depression, coined by Kraepelin close to 100 years ago and renamed and restructured by the AHA and the ICD (which is a good thing) but then exploited as this whole new epidemic by your pseudojournalists?

PFFFFFFT I have restless leg syndrome. I'm Colombian.

Answer 2

Why do Americans get RLS? I think it's the same reason we get any other trivial disease, because our healthcare system is (and let's quote the New England Journal of Medicine on this one) "at once the most expensive and the most inadequate system in the developed world." Our healthcare system focuses on prescription drugs to fix every little itch and pain, so obviously pharmaceutical companies love "discovering" new diseases to present to the nation via television commercials. Drug commercials are just like other commercials - they are trying to sell you something that you probably don't need (but their products can actually kill you).

Americans get RLS because, instead of leading healthy lifestyles that include healthier eating and exercise, we sit at desks all day and rush rush rush through the day and don't even have time to stretch a leg, and we're trained (brainwashed?) into thinking that if we have a symptom, we should seek out some pill to make it go away fast. No questions asked. Did I mention that pharma companies present their own biased research to doctors to "teach" them about their new diseases and drugs?

I'm not saying that there aren't people who truly suffer from these kind of ailments, but I think they are much rarer than we are led to believe. . . . . (And the chiropractic advocate in me wants to add that if your spinal column is misaligned and pinching the nerves that run to your hands and feet, this could cause numbness/tingling. I saw that happen in the office where I used to work. Just a side note.)

Answer 3

They don't. Lots of people get RLS, they just tend not to be so vocal about it.

As for the rest, as an outsider, Americans DO appear to be more hysterical than the rest of the world, even Italians. They also appear to be more prone to fads .

Americans - sorry if that is a sweeping over simplification of 600 million people, but I can only go by what I see. I'm sure you don't need to "whoop and holler'" quite so enthusiastically at ever minor event that occurs.

Answer 4

Every sickness needs a medicine.

Many Americans live in air conditioning which increases exposure to allergins (including cigarette smoke). Americans do not clean out furnace filters, etc.

Answer 5

I am an American that suffers from a very long list of maladies. I have learned this through all the commercials that have thankfully informed me of just what sorry shape I really am in.

Answer 6

American's aren't the only people with RLS. But we seem to blow our problems out of proportion. As soon as they come up with Attention Deficit Disorder, BOOM, there's millions of people that are "struggling" with A.D.D.......Whatever.


Sometimes I cross my legs.....And yeah, I get a tingling feeling.....But I walk it off......I don't go crying to the doctor.

Answer 7

Maybe it's all that FILTHY chemical infested toxic (literally) food we eat. Some America food's chemical content and refined sugar might have done it.

Answer 8

Canadians do too

Answer 9

because like you americans are fat junk food eating slobs. lay off the debbie snack cakes.

Answer 10

The more doctors, the more sickness.