If you have narcolepsy, excessive daytime sleepiness, and/or cataplexy, you know how hard it can be to function in “real-world” time.
And while treatments have improved, there is still no cure for this chronic and debilitating condition. But sometimes to find the end–a cure–you have to find the beginning–the cause.
Tel Aviv University’s Professor Yehuda Shoenfeld believes that narcolepsy has many of the same characteristics as autoimmune diseases, and he feels it should be treated accordingly.
He is hoping to have narcolepsy classified as the 81st known autoimmune disorder stating that a better understanding of narcolepsy will lead to better treatments.
He and his team of researchers have been studying the effects of neurotransmitters in mice and they noticed that while mice usually circle before they sleep, mice with fewer of the targeted neurotransmitter just fell asleep and then woke up moments later.
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), narcolepsy might have a number of different causes. One cause can be traced to the patient having low levels of the neurotransmitter hypocretin–which promotes wakefulness. Another theory states that while close relatives of a person with narcolepsy are more prone to also having it, only in rare cases is narcolepsy caused by a genetic defect. Other rare cases are triggered by traumatic injury. No one theory has been proven, though. For more information about narcolepsy, visit the websites linked below.
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