The Bedtime Jitters- Dealing with Restless Leg Syndrome

Restless Leg Sydrome (RLS) is an irresistible urge to move your legs that occurs when you go to bed and all during the night. 10% of the population experiences this problem. If you have RLS, the constant movement interferes with your ability to get a good night’s sleep. These sensations and your body’s reactions to them will either partially, or fully wake you multiple times during the night. RLS can be inherited and is most likely to show up after age 40. It is also a neurological problem, so people with diabetes, kidney disease, or back problems will have a … Continue reading →

Nine Tips for Brain Health

Your brain is one of the most important organs in your body! If you want to keep your brain healthy and sharp, try these tips for brain health. Stay mentally active. Take a class at the local college, learn a new skill or language, or play Scrabble. Crossword puzzles and Sudoku are great games to keep your thinker nice and sharp. Your brain needs challenges to keep functioning at its peak. Get enough sleep. If you aren’t sleeping enough, you’ll feel less alert. If you aren’t sleeping well over a long period of time, your brain function can be impaired. … Continue reading →

Living With Parkinson’s Disease

Life with a chronic, progressive disease is a major transition. A person who once thought of themselves as healthy must suddenly adjust to the thought of life with a disease that has no cure. Early in the progression of the disease, the psychological aspects of having the disease may be more of an issue than the motor problems. You may experience denial, disbelief and anger before eventually coming to terms with the fact that you have Parkinson’s disease. If you have Parkinson’s disease, you will never return to “normal”. Your treatment goal will not be eliminating all signs of the … Continue reading →

Treating Parkinson’s Disease

At present, there is no treatment to slow or halt the progress of Parkinson’s disease. Treatment focuses instead on the most bothersome symptoms for each individual, like tremors, slowness, or stiffness. There is no standard or most effective treatment for Parkinson’s disease; the choice of medication or surgery is based on each individual patient. Perhaps the most commonly prescribed medication for Parkinson’s disease is levodopa. This medicine is converted to dopamine by enzymes in the brain, and helps reduce the symptoms of slowness, stiffness, and tremor in most patients. Levodopa is paired with some kind of enzyme inhibitor to prevent … Continue reading →

Parkinson’s Disease Research

There is currently no cure for Parkinson’s disease. Medications or surgery can help ease the symptoms, but right now there is nothing that can stop the progression of the disease. That doesn’t mean doctors and scientists aren’t working on finding a cure. Research studies are being done all the time, focusing on new medicines and surgical techniques to ease Parkinson’s disease symptoms and slow the progression of the disease. These studies cannot be done without volunteers. If you have Parkinson’s disease, you may be interested in volunteering for a research study or clinical trial. Not sure if volunteering for a … Continue reading →

Driving With Parkinson’s Disease

Driving means freedom. If you can drive, you can take yourself to work, to the store, to visit friends — anywhere you need or want to go. However, driving is a complex skill. If you have Parkinson’s disease, you may not be able to drive safely. The main symptoms of Parkinson’s disease include tremors (shaking), slowness of movement, and stiffness (rigidity). Shaking and rigidity can affect your arms, hands, and legs — even when you are relaxed. You may have difficulty turning the steering wheel, using the gas and brake pedals, and operating turn signals and other car features. Slowed … Continue reading →

Parkinson’s Disease: Overview

Thanks to Michael J. Fox, a lot of people have heard of Parkinson’s disease in the last few years. But the disease has been around longer than that! You may know the name, but do you know the basic information about Parkinson’s disease? Parkinson’s disease is a brain disorder caused by the loss of nerve cells in the substantia nigra part of the brain. In a normally functioning brain, these nerve cells produce dopamine — a chemical that allows coordinated function of the body’s muscles and movement. When eighty percent of the nerve cells that produce dopamine are damaged, we … Continue reading →

Why We Have a Blood Brain Barrier

Our brain is connected to the rest of our body through countless blood vessels, however unlike other organs and regions of the body not everything that is in the blood, can actually get into the brain, and visa versa. This is called the blood brain barrier. Often people mistake it with the meninges, although the meninges are chemically connected to the rest of the body and medication can freely pass it. The blood brain barrier exists because many of the molecules used in our body for signalling processes between tissues are the same molecules used in the brain for signalling. … Continue reading →

Eat Less To Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease?

A new lifelong study of the diet of squirrel monkeys has shown that a reduced-calorie diet may help slow the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City will be publishing their results this November in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. The researchers studied a group of squirrel monkeys for their whole lives. Some were kept on a restricted calorie diet; the rest were allowed a normal diet. The squirrel monkeys that were on the reduced calorie diet were less likely to experience changes in their brains like those that signify Alzheimer’s … Continue reading →

About Alzheimer’s Disease: Treatments and Research

No treatment can stop Alzheimer’s disease… yet. After a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, patients live an average of eight to ten years. Some live with the disease for as many as twenty years. In the early and middle stages of Alzheimer’s disease, there are some drugs available to help slow the progression of memory loss. Generic name: tacrine Name brand: Cognex Generic name: donepezil Name brand: Aricept Generic name: rivastigmine Name brand: Exelon Generic name: galantamine Name brand: Reminyl/Razadyne There is a drug to treat moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease, called memantine (name brand: Namenda). The effects of this drug … Continue reading →