Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that makes people very drowsy during the day. People with narcolepsy find it hard to stay awake for long periods of time. They fall asleep suddenly. This can cause serious problems in their daily routine.

Sometimes narcolepsy also causes a sudden loss of muscle tone, known as cataplexy (KAT-uh-plek-see). This can be triggered by strong emotion, especially laughter. Narcolepsy is divided into two types. Most people with type 1 narcolepsy have cataplexy. Most people who don’t have cataplexy have type 2 narcolepsy.

Narcolepsy is a life-long condition for which there’s no cure. However, medicines and lifestyle changes can help manage the symptoms. Support from others — family, friends, employers and teachers — can help people cope with the disorder.

Symptoms of this disorder:

The symptoms of narcolepsy may get worse during the first few years of the disorder. Then they continue for life. They include:

• Excessive daytime sleepiness. People with narcolepsy fall asleep without warning. It can happen anywhere and at any time. It may happen when you’re bored or during a task. For example, you may be working or talking with friends and suddenly fall asleep. It can be especially dangerous if you fall asleep while driving. You might fall asleep for only a few minutes or up to a half-hour. After waking, you’ll often feel refreshed but you’ll get sleepy again.You also may experience a decrease in how alert and focused you feel during the day. Daytime sleepiness often is the first symptom to appear. Feeling sleepy makes it hard to focus and function.Some people with narcolepsy continue doing a task when they fall asleep briefly. For example, you may fall asleep while writing, typing or driving. You might continue to perform that task while asleep. When you awaken, you can’t remember what you did, and you probably didn’t do it well.
• Sudden loss of muscle tone. This condition is called cataplexy. It can cause slurred speech or complete weakness of most muscles. Symptoms may last up to a few minutes.Cataplexy can’t be controlled. It’s triggered by intense emotions. Often the emotions that cause cataplexy are positive. Laughter or excitement may cause the symptoms. But sometimes fear, surprise or anger can cause the loss of muscle tone. For example, when you laugh, your head may drop without your control. Or your knees may suddenly lose strength, causing you to fall.Some people with narcolepsy experience only one or two episodes of cataplexy a year. Others have several episodes a day. Not everyone with narcolepsy has these symptoms.
• Sleep paralysis. People with narcolepsy often experience sleep paralysis. During sleep paralysis, you can’t move or speak while falling asleep or upon waking. It’s usually brief — lasting a few seconds or minutes. But it can be scary. You may be aware of it happening and can recall it afterward.
  

  Not everyone with sleep paralysis has narcolepsy.

• Hallucinations. Sometimes people see things that aren’t there during sleep paralysis. Hallucinations also may happen in bed without sleep paralysis. These are called hypnagogic hallucinations if they happen as you fall asleep. They’re called hypnopompic hallucinations if they happen upon waking. For example, you might feel as if there is a stranger in your bedroom. These hallucinations may be vivid and frightening because you may not be fully asleep when you begin dreaming.
• Changes in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. REM sleep is when most dreaming happens. Typically, people enter REM sleep 60 to 90 minutes after falling asleep. But people with narcolepsy often move more quickly to REM sleep. They tend to enter REM sleep within 15 minutes of falling asleep. REM sleep also can happen at any time of the day.

Other characteristics

People with narcolepsy may have other sleep disorders. They might have obstructive sleep apnea, in which breathing starts and stops during the night. Or they may act out their dreams, known as REM sleep behavior disorder. Or they may have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, called insomnia.

The Possible Causes:

The exact cause of narcolepsy is unknown. People with type 1 narcolepsy have low levels of hypocretin (hi-poe-KREE-tin), also called orexin. Hypocretin is a chemical in the brain that helps control being awake and when you enter REM sleep.

Hypocretin levels are low in people who experience cataplexy. Exactly what causes the loss of hypocretin-producing cells in the brain isn’t known. But experts suspect it’s due to an autoimmune reaction. An autoimmune reaction is when the body’s immune system destroys its own cells.

It’s also likely that genetics plays a role in narcolepsy. But the risk of a parent passing this disorder to a child is very low — only about 1% to 2%.

“Hemophilia is a rare disorder in which the blood doesn’t clot in the typical way because it doesn’t have enough blood-clotting proteins (clotting factors). 

The main treatment for severe hemophilia involves replacing the clotting factor you need through a tube in a vein.

This replacement therapy can be given to treat a bleeding episode in progress. It can also be given on a regular schedule at home to help prevent bleeding episodes. Some people receive continuous replacement therapy.

Replacement clotting factor can be made from donated blood. Similar products, called recombinant clotting factors, are made in a laboratory, not from human blood.”

MAYO CLINIC (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hemophilia/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20373333)

“The central nervous system is made up of the brain and spinal cord. The spinal cord comprises a bundle of nervous tissue and support cells that send messages from the brain to the rest of your body. But did you know that, on average, the spinal cord ceases growing at four years of age?

And while the brain may be done growing by your teenage years, it is not considered fully developed until your mid-to-late 20s. That’s because the prefrontal cortex, responsible for planning, prioritizing, and impulse control, is one of the final regions of the organ to mature. This helps explain why teens are more likely to make poor decisions and engage in potentially harmful behaviors without considering the short or long-term risks involved.

Additionally, once your brain is fully developed, it may become more difficult to accept new ideas and change behavior. Although the reasoning isn’t completely understood, research has shown that while adolescents see increases in social vitality and openness measures, these decrease with age.

It’s a myth that you only use 10% of your brain. Rather, neuroscience confirms that the brain is always active and firing even when you’re sleeping. Another common fallacy is that brain size determines how smart you are. Intelligence is determined by the number of synapses (or connections) between brain cells, not by brain girth.

Have you heard the myth is that the brain breaks down with age?  Well, know that some cognitive functions, such as memory, may decline as you get older, other mental skills, such as comprehension, vocabulary, conflict resolution, and emotional regulation, can improve. And research has shown that when the elderly keep their minds active by exercising their brains with crossword puzzles or games like Sudoku and bingo, their intelligence may also increase.”

Penn LPS (https://lpsonline.sas.upenn.edu/features/7-fascinating-facts-about-neuroscience-and-brain-how-well-do-you-know-your-brain)

“The American Cancer Society’s estimates for soft tissue sarcomas in the United States for 2024 are:

• About 13,590 new soft tissue sarcomas will be diagnosed (7,700 in males and 5,890 in females).
• About 5,200 people (2,760 males and 2,440 females) are expected to die of soft tissue sarcomas.

These statistics include both adults and children.

The most common types of sarcoma in adults are:

• Undifferentiated pleomorphic sarcoma (previously called malignant fibrous histiocytoma)
• Liposarcoma
• Leiomyosarcoma”

American Cancer Society (https://www.cancer.org/cancer/types/soft-tissue-sarcoma/about/key-statistics.html)

“Sarcomas are rare cancers that develop in the bones and soft tissues, including fat, muscles, blood vessels, nerves, deep skin tissues and fibrous tissues. According to the National Cancer Institute, about 12,000 cases of soft tissue sarcomas and 3,000 cases of bone sarcomas are diagnosed in the U.S. each year. Bone sarcomas are more common among children while soft tissue sarcomas are more common in adults.”

John Hopkins Medicine (https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/sarcoma#:~:text=Sarcomas%20are%20rare%20cancers%20that,in%20the%20U.S.%20each%20year.)

“Cleft lip with or without cleft palate is among the most common of birth defects. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that in the United States:

• About 1 in every 1,600 babies is born with cleft lip with cleft palate.
• About 1 in every 2,800 babies is born with cleft lip without cleft palate.
• About 1 in every 1,700 babies is born with cleft palate.”

National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (https://www.nidcr.nih.gov/health-info/cleft-lip-palate)

“The causes of orofacial clefts among most infants are unknown. Cleft lip and cleft palate are thought to be caused by a combination of genes and other factors.

CDC research has found some factors that increase the risk of having a baby with an orofacial cleft:

• Smoking during pregnancy
• Having diabetes before pregnancy (type 1 or 2)
• Use of certain epilepsy medications during pregnancy”

CDC Birth Defects (https://www.cdc.gov/birth-defects/about/cleft-lip-cleft-palate.html)

“Group B streptococcus (also called Group B strep or GBS) is a common type of bacteria (tiny organisms that live in and around your body) that can cause infection. Usually GBS is not serious for adults, but it can hurt newborns.

Many people carry Group B strep bacteria and don’t know it. It may never make you sick. GBS in adults usually doesn’t have any symptoms, but it can cause some minor infections, like a bladder or urinary tract infection (UTI).

While GBS may not be harmful to you, it can be very harmful to your baby. If you’re pregnant, you can pass it to your baby during labor and childbirth.

About 10 to 30 percent of pregnant women carry GBS bacteria. The best way to know if you have GBS is to get tested.”

March of Dimes (https://www.marchofdimes.org/find-support/topics/planning-baby/group-b-strep-infection)

This is a problem with the Liver and in a nutshell it is IRON OVERLOAD!

Hemochromatosis (Hemo meaning blood, Chroma meaning change in color and Osis meaning swelling)  is a condition where there is abnormal accumulation of iron in the organs resulting in organ toxicity. It is the most common autosomal recessive genetic condition along with being the most common cause of severe iron overload. 75 percent of patients who have hereditary hemochromatosis are asymptomatic. The diagnosis can be made based on the clinical symptoms of the disease. Since most patients are asymptomatic, they are diagnosed when their serum iron levels are noted to be elevated during a routine chemistry screening panel. Some of the tests performed on an individual suspected with hemochromatosis include genetic testing to test for HFE mutations, transferrin saturation levels, hepatic iron concentration, and serum ferritin studies. Imaging studies such as a chest radiography and echocardiography might be beneficial to help evaluate cardiac disease in patients with hemochromatosis.

Early diagnosis is important in hemochromatosis, like in most every other diagnosis.

The aim of therapy is to remove iron before it causes irreversible parenchymal damage. Once the diagnosis is confirmed, it is treated by phlebotomy to maintain normal iron stores and rid the body of excess iron. Chelation therapy uses agents such as deferoxamine, deferiprone, or deferasirox. Surgery may be required if there is end stage liver disease or severe arthropathy. In the United States, hereditary hemochromatosis is found in 1 of 200 to 500 individuals. Most of these cases are seen in individuals of northern European origin. It has the same prevalence in Australia, Europe, and other western countries. The highest prevalence is among individuals of Celtic origin and less among those of African descent.

Symptoms would be:

1.) Fatigue and 2 types of fatigue, that would be:

Physical fatigue occurs when there is transient inability to achieve peak physical performance.

Mental fatigue is the temporary inability to maintain optimal cognitive performance. It is a common and non-specific symptom that can be seen in stress, overwork, depression, boredom, anemia, inadequate sleep, malnutrition, pregnancy, infections, and more. It can manifest as somnolence in patients.

2.) Impotence in patients with hemochromatosis is due to a result of hypogonadism. Hypogonadism can occur in hemochromatosis patients due to pituitary or testicular iron deposition.

3.) Arthropathy that’s a disease of a joint. In arthropathy, there can be joint pain, stiffness, swelling, and decreased range of motion. Patients can see this occuring because of the accumulation of iron in the joint tissues. The most commonly affected joints are the knees, feet, wrists, neck, back, metacarpophalangeal joints, and proximal interphalangeal joints.

4.) It has been observed that 62 percent of patients with hemochromatosis experience partial loss of body hair. The most commonly affected area is the pubic area. Approximately 12 percent of patients experience total body hair loss. In some patients, the thinning and loss of hair may be reversed through therapy.

5.) Koilonychia refers to spoon nails where the nails are abnormally thin and have lost their convexity resulting in flat or concave nails. Causes of koilonychia include iron deficiency anemia and it can be seen in 25 to 50 percent of these patients.

6.) Skin Hyperpigmentation or Bronzing of the skin refers to darkening of the skin. It is due to the combination of melanin and iron deposition which is characteristic. It is one of the classic triad symptoms with the other two being cirrhosis and diabetes in the late stages of the disease. This usually occurs only when the total iron content in the body is more than 5 times the normal levels.

7.) Amenorrhea refers to the absence of menstruation in females who are in their reproductive age.

8.) In the heart it can cause the following: Atrial flutter is a problem with the way your heart beats. Such problems, whether in the rhythm or speed of the heartbeat, are known as arrhythmias. Heart Failure is the other.

In addition to these symptoms it can also cause problems with the spleen, adrenal glands, pituitary gland, gallbladder or thyroid.

For helping in possible PREVENTION of this diagnosis and most others stay as healthy as possible and get yearly check ups to pick up this or any other diagnosis EARLY!! In so many cases of diseases the early picked up or diagnosed the better the results turn out in most cases.  When a disease just start in your body is being treated compared to late in the disease higher the odds will resolve or you will last longer with a better quality of life, just like with so many other diseases!