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Narcolepsy Symptoms and Causes

Article by Miguel DeLaHoya

Narcolepsy is really a persistent disease from the nervous system. Excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) may be the primary symptoms and it is present in 100% associated with patients of narcolepsy. Other primary symptoms of narcolepsy consist of:

1. loss of tone of muscle (cataplexy), 2. distorted perceptions (hypnagogic hallucinations), as well as 3. inability to move or talk (sleep paralysis). Additional symptoms include disturbed night time sleep as well as automatic behavior (sufferers carry out certain measures actions without aware consciousness). All the symptoms of narcolepsy might be present in numerous combos as well as examples of intensity.

Narcolepsy generally starts in teenagers or even young adults and impacts both sexes similarly. The first symptoms actually excessive daytime sleepiness, which may remain unacknowledged for a long time as this evolves progressively over time. Another signs and symptoms may follow excessive day time sleepiness through months or years. Narcolepsy frequently remains undiscovered or even wrongly diagnosed for quite some time. This might happen because doctors don’t think about the proper diagnosis of narcolepsy frequently enough. They might think about narcolepsy just within people who have the primary characteristic of extreme daytime sleepiness. Narcolepsy might not be considered in the evaluation of sufferers who arrived at doctors worrying of tiredness, or even issues with focus, attention, brain memory, and gratifaction, and other illness.

Improvements have been made in recent years in determining the cause of narcolepsy. The newest discovery has been the actual finding of irregularities in the framework and purpose of a specific group of neural cells, called hypocretin neurons, in the minds of sufferers along with narcolepsy. These types of cells can be found inside of the brain known as the hypothalamus and and they normally exude neurotransmitter substances (chemical substances launched through neural cells to deliver messages to other cells) known as hypocretins.

Tests within dogs and mice along with narcolepsy indicate an abnormal hypocretin system as a cause of the development of their narcolepsy. Individuals with narcolepsy have been found to have a substantially reduced quantity of hypocretin nerve cells in the brain. They likewise have a decreased degree of hypocretins within the cerebrospinal fluid (the fluid that is all around the brain and the spinal cord).

It is theorized that the autoimmune response causes losing nerve cells within the brain within patients with narcolepsy. Environmental surroundings (for instance, an infection or trauma) might trigger a good autoimmune response where normal brain cells are attacked through the body’s personal immune system. As a result, the actual neurons are damaged as well as ultimately destroyed, and they as well as their natural chemical chemicals vanish. Whether narcolepsy is definitely an autoimmune illness continuesly needs to be confirmed.

The role associated with heredity within humans along with narcolepsy isn’t totally recognized. Absolutely no consistent pattern of heredity continues to be acknowledged in families. It is estimated that relatives of patients with narcolepsy could have a greater predisposition to build up narcolepsy or even sleep-related irregularities, for example increased day time sleepiness, increased REM sleep, or others. In dogs with narcolepsy, the condition comes in a predictable pattern. In these animals, the actual narcolepsy is the result of a mutation in a specific gene which is accountable for producing a receptor (binder) in the brain for the hypocretin neurotransmitter.

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Learn more about on Narcolepsy Symptoms and Causes and how is narcolepsy treated.

Symptoms of the Narkolepsy diagnose

Article by Ottis

Narcolepsy patients experience excessive sleepiness and frequent bouts of sleep during the day. This affects normal daily activities such as school, work, social life etc. This chronic sleep disturbance associated with the nervous system and is not a mental illness. It is the second leading cause of intense daytime sleepiness, with the first sleep apnea. In addition to excessive sleepiness, patients with narcolepsy have symptoms such as sudden loss of muscle tone, sleep paralysis, hallucinations and dreamlike. The frequency of patients with all the symptoms is very less. Narcolepsy symptoms are also not specific to them. There are also other diseases such as sleep apnea, depression, bacterial / viral infections and chronic diseases that disrupt normal sleep patterns that have similar symptoms. This makes it difficult to diagnose by simply look at the symptoms. Therefore, diagnostic tests are used to confirm this disorder in patients.

The first step in the diagnosis of narcolepsy is a thorough physical examination of patients. The doctor will ask about the patient’s personal and family medical history to determine whether there are any cases of narcolepsy in the family before. Certain blood tests are also done to rule out other causes that can result in similar symptoms. The next step involves a couple of narcolepsy-specific tests to be performed to confirm the disruption of the patient.

Epworth Sleepiness ScaleThis test essentially comprises a questionnaire filled in by the patient. The doctor is a questionnaire that the patient and ask him to answer eight questions on a scale from zero to three. This helps in analyzing the patient’s chances of falling asleep during daytime activities such as reading, watching TV, sitting, etc. The maximum score is 24 of the questionnaire If thePatient’s score is between 0-10, it shows normal daytime sleepiness. All guests over 10, or specifically, 18 and higher indicates a high degree of daytime sleepiness. Patients with such high scores are then further tests for the diagnosis prescribed.

PolysomnographyA polysomnography is performed by sleep specialists who know how to diagnose narcolepsy performed with this test. To subject the patient must stay overnight in a sleep laboratory for this study. In this test, the patient is required to sleep at night, placed with a number of electrodes and bands in different parts of the body. The electrodes are placed on the face and scalp and over the lip. Bands are placed around the chest and abdomen. An oxygen sensor is mounted with a finger and other sensors are connected to the person who attached the legs.

Multiple Sleep Latency TestThis test is usually performed the next day after the polysomnography is performed. Also here are electrodes attached to various parts of the body of the patient and he is asked to take four or five, 20-minute nap after every 2 hours during the day. The sleep patterns of the electrodes is then mainly concentrating on the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) phase. A normal person enters the REM stage after 80-100 minutes of sleep, while a person with narcolepsy this phase occurs within 20 minutes. The time to sleep is also monitored. A person with narcolepsy lasts no longer than 5 minutessleep compared to a healthy person needs at least 10-15 minutes for the same.

Genetic Blood TestThis test is not correct because there are some positive results, even in healthy people. Narcolepsy is bound to an antigen. The doctor can check for this test for the presence of this antigen in the blood of the patient. The symptoms of narcolepsy are due to the presence of this antigen in the body caused because the body begins producing antibodies to protect itself from the antigen.

Apart from these tests, the CSF is sometimes tested for orexin and hypocretin levels in narcolepsy patients to confirm. If a person feels excessively sleepy during the day, sleeping during the performance of daily activities, faces difficulties in movement after waking up and / or is unable to keep his / her head because of the weakness in the neck muscles, it is better to go narcolepsy screening. This problem may not appear serious, but imagine falling asleep while walking or driving, which can be very dangerous. Currently there is no cure for narcolepsy. However, the identification of symptoms at the right time in the administration, so that the effect of this disorder in a patient in daily life to a large extent can help to minimize.

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The Treatment For Narcolepsy

Article by Gary M. Miller

The good news for those of you who have been falling asleep at the drop of a hat is that there is a treatment! Although this is some positive encouragement, it’s not time to completely celebrate just yet. The modern treatment for Narcolepsy involves mainly the symptoms and it is important to recognize that much about this disorder is still unknown. Both the diagnosis and the treatments still remain somewhat open-ended. There has been continuing research about Narcolepsy, however, and scientists are studying methods for how to support a more accurate diagnosis. Although there are medications to cure the related symptoms such as cataplexy, EDS, hallucinations, and sleep paralysis, scientists still can not come up with a full treatment that will eliminated the disorder as a whole. Instead, we treat the symptoms one at a time and hope for a more complete cure in the near future.

According to many scientific clinical trials since 1999, the drug Modafinil had been used for the treatment of excessive daytime sleepiness or EDS. Antidepressant drugs such as tricyclics and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, on the other hand, are effective drugs for cataplexy syndrome. Again, there is no known cure for narcolepsy as a whole because of its unpredictable nature. This doesn’t mean you should give up. There are a lot of great symptomatic treatments that can help you to live a somewhat normal life.

As many people know, Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder where symptoms can be experienced at a very young age and can only be diagnosed after years. Patients have been known to fall asleep almost instantly in the middle of a sentence and this can be quite dangerous considering the many places you need to be during the day. Studies show that in most cases, patients who suffer from narcolepsy had developed infection, immune-system dysfunction, trauma, hormonal changes, traumatic injuries, tumor growth due to exposure to toxins and stress prior to their narcolepsy symptoms attack. This has been a hopeful discovery for the sufferers who are eager to receive a treatment. Aside from this finding, a number of variant forms of genes called Allenes have been pinpointed in a group of human genes. People who are diagnosed to have narcolepsy are those who have only specific variants in the genes but these alone are not sufficient to cause the disorder. There are still clinical studies that show the condition to be more unpredictable by nature. Although the FDA approved the drug xylem or sodium oxybate, also known as GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate) to treat narcolepsy, its was later restricted due to safety concerns associated with it.

None of the currently available medications are able to help narcolepsy patients have a consistent state of alertness. Many sufferers confess poor work or school performances due to the poor mental alertness. Some would even experience a loss of muscle tone which leads to motor accidents. The symptom cataplexy occurs spontaneously at times and is triggered by sudden or strong emotions such as anger, stress, fear, humor, and excitement.

Narcolepsy cannot yet be cured because of the lack of understanding of its causes but EDS and cataplexy are both the most disabling symptoms of the disorder and can only be controlled by drug treatment. Again, the treatment regimen is only considered to be a symptomatic change and not a symptom elimination.

The National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) sponsors research on neurological disorders including sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome, and narcolepsy. As part of this responsibility, the NINDS also supports various medical institutions across the country in their respective research. Some of the most helpful scientific studies conducted over the years include “A Safety and Effectiveness Study of a Single Dose of JNJ-17216498 in Patients With Narcolepsy” and “Body Weight Regulation in Patients With Narcolapsy”. Other studies that have proven somewhat enlightening are the “Effectiveness Of The Drug GSK 189254 In Treating Patients With Narcolepsy” and the “Trial of Xyrem (Sodium Oxybate) for the Treatment of Narcolepsy”. All of these have concluded that, while there are available medications to relieve some symptoms of narcolepsy, there is still no complete cure for the condition as a whole.

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Over 70 Million people in the USA suffer from some kind of Sleep Disorder! There are actually hundreds of ways to improve your sleep but the first thing that is needed is to raise more awareness! If you want to sleep better tonight, you can visit this information Sleep Aid Web Site that is packed with FREE information: http://www.Sleep-Aid-Solutions.com

Struggling with Narcolepsy Symptoms

Article by Gerrard Mackenzie

Imagine a life that is consistently attacked by sleepiness and drowsiness. It is like a sleeping pill with a sustained release formula which can instantly debilitate a person anytime and anywhere, in the most unexpected situations (during brief conversations, while driving, sitting in a public place, etc.)

It may be a frustrating for narcolepsy patients to always feel helpless to nature’s call to sleep during the waking hours, especially considering the fact that they have to live with it for the rest of their lives. The persistence of narcolepsy all throughout life however, does not mean that one cannot do anything but to completely surrender to the sleep attacks. At the very least, one can control its major symptoms like excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, sleep paralysis, hypnagogic hallucinations, and automatic behavior.

The process of accurately identifying the problem involves thorough assessment by means of clinical evaluation, accomplishment of questionnaires, sleep logs or diaries, and sleep laboratory tests. Clinical evaluation may include the accomplishment of medical history and physical examination. Accomplishment of various standard questionnaires can help estimate of the degree of daytime sleepiness. Here, activities are enumerated and the patient will be asked to recall and rate the likelihood of him / her falling asleep during such activities. Sleep log or a sleep diary can also be maintained for a more accurate evaluation of disruptions in sleep pattern.

Polysomnogram and the multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) are some test which can confirm the diagnosis of narcolepsy. The polysomnogram is used to record sleep brain waves, the number of nerve functions, as well as muscle functions during nighttime sleep, while the multiple sleep latency test (MSLT) is used to measure the degree of daytime sleepiness.

Most likely, it is narcolepsy if the patients easily fall asleep and in an instant, they enter the REM sleep stage, the 5th and the last sleep stage. Unlike in the case of people with healthy sleep, who pass through stages 1 to 4 first (though there are times when they regress to a lower stage and later on progress to a higher stage), narcoleptics by-pass the initial stages characterized by gradual slowing of brain waves.

All these tests help rule out other sleep disorders which may have similar symptoms like insomnia (as narcoleptics could experience disturbed nighttime sleep) and REM sleep disorder.

Since the combination of symptoms may vary from person to person, treatment is individualized or symptoms-based. Generally, central nervous system stimulants are used to treat excessive daytime sleepiness, a symptom experienced by 100% of narcolepsy patients. Other classes of medications are prescribed for other symptoms.

Non-pharmacologic measures on the otherhand, may involve scheduling of short naps (10 to 15 minutes) two to three times per day to help control excessive daytime sleepiness and to help a narcoleptic stay alert throughout the day. Most narcoleptic patient symptoms also improve with a regular 7