Wakeup Diet & Exercise Program Restores natural circadian rhythms
WakeupDiet™.com: Links

> Please see the alphabetical index at right.

Jet Lag & Shift Work

  • Jet-lag remedies #1. Suggestions at this website might help narcoleptics & sufferers with other diseases that have a phasal component. (For example, hangover, stress, flu & premenstrual syndrome.)

  • Jet-lag remedies #2. This site mentions melatonin, a chemical that the body secretes to stimulate sleep. Also discusses the role of carbohydrates in relaxation, & proteins for alertness. These are important concepts in the Wakeup Diet™.

  • Diet for shift workers helps to maintain wakefulness during night shift. Article stresses good nutrition. While not as strict as Wakeup Diet™, Indian diet parallels Wakeup Diet™. Both diets stress high protein, low fat & low carbs. Illnesses, such as cancer & heart disease, that typically befall night workers.

  • Jet-Lag Diet (JLD) . We don't endorse this diet in its entirety. Yet at least some of its methods are very reasonable. You'll find important parallels to Wakeup Diet™: JLD considers meal times & daily cycles. Cycles include sunset & sunrise, rest & activity.

Medical Research About Jet Lag


Daylight Savings Time & Phase Shifts

  • 1998 DST study. Article about phase-shift problems after DST changes. The article concludes that sleep deprivation might cause a 17 percent increase in traffic accidents. Of course, changes in meal & activity times also impact sufferers of phasal disorders. To a great extent, sleep quality depends on what occurred during the previous day.

  • New England Journal of Medicine. This page summarizes the NEJM article on workplace errors & traffic accidents. Both problems increase on the day after Daylight Savings Time changes.


Impact of Diet on Narcolepsy

Medical Research on Diet

Anecdotal Evidence

  • Postprandial somnolence: The $64 medical term for "sleepiness after eating." A blog about connections between sleepiness and eating. Responses mention how eating also worsens narcolepsy symptoms. Alertness effects of amino acids in food: Avoiding L-tryptophan foods and increasing L-tyrosine foods.

  • Testimony from people who successfully relieve narcolepsy symptoms with foods.

  • What works & what doesn't. Comments on diet & sleepiness. Home remedies. Starches seem to worsen symptoms for these sufferers of excessive daytime sleepiness. Other foods including proteins contain L-tryptophan. All such foods can cause problems, even with normal people. By the way, the Wakeup Diet™ program doesn't support all these home remedies. For example, caffeinated beverages such as green tea cause phase shifts & violate the Stability Principle.™

  • Blog: Diet and exercise means of controlling narcolepsy. The correspondents are working out their own solutions that tend to parallel the Wakeup Diet™.

Hypotheses

  • Wheat gluten. Some people with narcolepsy might also have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. This forum discusses the gluten hypothesis & events that allegedly lead to narcolepsy. Heidi Lindborg's paper is available. Despite her excellent bibliography, no studies support Heidi's thesis. We base the Wakeup Diet™ on different principles. For example, the diet restricts gluten-free starches that have caused sleep attacks. See Gluten.

References

  • Food Values of Portions Commonly Used. A paper by Carol High Johnson suggests checking foods for their L-tryptophan content. With the Food Values book, you can easily research tryptophan in many familiar foods, including restaurant foods. Tryptophan is why warm milk before bedtime assures sleepiness. Ms. Johnson's diet avoids foods, particularly proteins, that contain tryptophan. (Reference to Ms. Johnson's paper: July 20, 1991 submission to the National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research, Chicago, IL.)


PMS, Phasal Problems of

  • PMS Symptoms. Note the similarity between symptoms of premenstrual syndrome & the symptoms of narcolepsy & jet lag! (See our symptom list on the right side of our home page.) Exclusive news flash from WakeupDiet.com: These parallels are no coincidence. All these ailments cause phasal dislocations: The patient's body clock is out of sync with its normal daypart. Or worse, various time-related body functions are out of sync with one another.

  • PMS Home Remedies. Great advice! Better, yet: Some of these remedies may relieve symptoms of narcolepsy, cataplexy & other diseases with phasal components.


Hypothalamus Damage

  • Hypocretin. Link to Robert Cloud's narcolepsy life story. Robert is an attorney. Introduction to orexin / hypocretin.

  • Case histories. Stories of Gary Beattie, construction worker, & Bill Baird, former stock broker. Both have had narcolepsy for many years. Connection between orexin & diet abnormalities.

Medical Research About Hypocretin


Problems with Conventional Treatments

  • Medication information. The good & the bad about Dextroamphetamine, Dexedrine, Dexedrine Spansule, Oxydess, Spancap, Methamphetamine, Desoxyn, Desoxyn Gradumet, Amphetamine, & Adderall. Also mentions Ritalin.

  • New finding: Provigil might be addictive. Article from US News & World Report. All treatments, pharmacological or not, have a cost to the patient. Provigil offers many advantages, but it isn't a panacea. You must consider the negative impact. Be a conscientious consumer. Take account & take charge of your own health. With your healthcare provider, discuss alternatives, such as the Wakeup Diet™.

  • Research summaries; Provigil problems; alternatives. The site author is an M.D. Details research by Thomas & Kwong. The study proved that Provigil countered memory deficits of sleep deprivation, but only for moderate tasks. The Volkow 2009 study proves that Provigil is habit-forming. The European Medicines Agency suggests that doctors not use modafinil for any disease except narcolepsy. (Including sleep apnea.) Risks, including cardiovascular risks, are too high.

  • YouTube: Provigil & serious skin reactions. Newfound side effects, including terminal & benign skill rashes. One of these is very serious: Stevens Johnson Syndrome. Page mentions other effects including angioedema, anaphylaxis, hallucinations, suicidal thoughts, mania, & psychosis. Photos of Stevens Johnson syndrome: Click SJ Syndrome.

  • Quick overview describes major medications for sleep disorders. Mentions problems with medications for narcolepsy, such as tachyphylaxis. That is, the tolerance effect that renders stimulants less effective or ineffective.

  • Amphetamines: Link to heart attacks. Article in layman's language from Reuters. Outlines recent medical discoveries from research on amphetamine compounds.

  • Dexedrine risks: Liver damage, abdominal cramping, vomiting, mood swings, high fever, etc.

  • Xyrem (sodium oxybate) side effects. These include breathing difficulty, swelling, hives, sleepwalking, confusion, agitation, vomiting, bladder control, tremors, & hallucinations. (And more.)

  • Medication Madness (Peter Breggin) YouTube interview. A psychiatrist and author of 20 books on psychiatric medications explains risks of psychiatric drugs. These drugs include stimulants that narcoleptics use. Risks for children (including brain damage) are particularly troubling.

  • Child dies from prescribed stimulant use. The drug is Adderall, and subject Matthew was only 14. He had ADHD. Matthew died suddenly as a result of cardiac arrest. Many narcoleptics, some of them children, also take Adderall.

  • Dr. Peter Breggin's site about side effects from psychiatric medications.


Patents

  • Hypocretin Treatment, Patent 7,112,566: Must read! Siegel et al. patent includes topics: Studies of injectable hypocretin-1 and hypocretin-2. Canine tests. Determination of Hcrt1 (hypocretin 1, orexin A) dose that eliminates cataplexy and normalizes sleep architecture: 0.3—10 µg /kg. Discovery that higher doses worsen these problems. Discussion of many disorders that such treatment would alleviate...
    Narcolepsy REM Sleep Behavior Disorder Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS, PLMS) Circadian Rhythm Disorder Sleep Apnea
    Hypersomnia Insomnia Alzheimer's Depression Depression Schizophrenia
    Recommended blood test for narcolepsy: Presence in serum of hypocretin antibodies. Means of determining human doses and testing patients. Possibility of symptom reversal. Administration means: Various types of injections, oral preparations (pills, liquids) and inhalers. Available online (22 pp). Columns 10-23 cover key material.


Wireless Polysomnography

What every sleep center should offer...

  • DreamPort®: Reliable. Portable. Wireless! Polysomnography & MSLT diagnostics have come a long way. But until recently, they were still uncomfortable, expensive, in-patient processes. Until recently, they still required an overnight staff & cumbersome equipment. Soon, the discomfort will ease, equipment will shrink & the bill might drop. Enter wireless home polysomnography. At last, the tangle of wires is gone. At last, the patient can sleep in his own bed! The remote sleep center monitors the entire session. At a patient's Seattle home, the system debuted in 2009. Competitive units store the session in a digital memory. With these storage systems, even the hospital staff might rest easier.

  • Background. From Focus Journal, 2008. Wireless advantages: Patient can get up at night without disturbing equipment. Now polysomnograph can go to patient. Easy setup. Staff can run polysomnogram anywhere in hospital, even ICU. Home polysomnography is possible, too. Electrodes connect to wearable amplifier. Transmits through walls.


Research

Jet Lag, Medical Research About


Diet on Narcolepsy, Impact of

  • Diet research result: Duke diet (modified Atkins) helps narcolepsy sufferers. Proven by Husain study at Duke University. Same diet would undoubtedly also help hangover & jet-lag sufferers. What irritates narcolepsy also irritates circadian regulation in normal people. Citation: Husain, AM, WS Yancy, Jr., ST Carwile, PP Miller, EC Westman. 2004. Diet therapy for narcolepsy. Neurology 62. (June 22): 2300-2302.

  • La Trobe University study. Description of study. Bruck, D, S Armstrong, G Coleman. 1994. Sleepiness After Glucose in Narcolepsy. Journal of Sleep Research 3. (September): 171-179.

Hypocretin, Medical Research About

  • Orexin (hypocretin) research at University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas. Dr. Masashi Yanagisawa, professor of molecular genetics & his associates performed the research. The research subjects were mice who could not produce natural orexin. In the study, injected orexin reversed the symptoms of narcolepsy & cataplexy.

  • Orexin (hypocretin) nasal spray. Scientists devised Orexin A nasal spray & administered it to monkeys. Sleep-deprived monkeys who received spray performed as well as non-sleep-deprived monkeys. Orexin A isn't available for humans. Concerns about abuse potential.

Other Narcolepsy Topics, Medical Research About


Sweeteners

  • Stevia. News of the UCLA toxicology report.

  • Stevia vs. other artificial sweeteners, such as Aspartame® & Splenda®. Potential risk of Stevia, such as mutations. Suggested alternatives for artificial sweeteners, including refined sugar.

  • King Corn. Visit to your local library & check out this DVD! Some assertions from the DVD...

    • Drinking one can of soda pop per day doubles your chances of developing diabetes.

    • Corn is a major component in most US foods. We feed our livestock corn-based feeds. Processed foods contain corn-derived products. Examples of such processed foods are soda pop, cereal, bread, ice cream, fried foods & candy.

    • 70 percent of our annual US production of antibiotics goes into cattle. There, antibiotics prevent death from corn-based acidosis before the slaughter. A concerned consumer wonders about the antibiotic content of beef in retail markets.

    • Corn feeding reduces time to market & price per pound, satisfying the consumer's desire for economy.

    • The fat content of US hamburgers has risen to 65 percent. The transition from grass-fed to corn-fed beef led to this increase.

    • The majority of slaughtered cattle are obese.

    • Some familiar fast-food restaurants include corn in most of their top-selling dishes.

  • Alleged links between aspartame & narcolepsy. Also other diseases. Alleged metabolic chemistry of aspartame, including appearance of toxins, such as wood alcohol & formaldehyde. Article assets that Aspartame is a serotonin precursor.

  • Aspartame & Lupus. Is there a connection? Lupus can cause fatigue, reduce the number of blood platelets & damage major organs. This disease turns the immune system against the body. Coincidentally, narcolepsy results from an erroneous immune response. Some people with narcolepsy might be subject to other immune problems.


Caffeine

  • Caffeine & Health. Preview: Caffeine increases aging effects such as osteoporosis (in both sexes). Skin & kidney damage are two other common effects. With caffeine use, hardening of the arteries is more likely.

  • Preview: Caffeine causes anxiety. For alertness, we drink caffeinated beverages such as soda pop, coffee & tea. What we call "alertness," doctors call hypervigilance. The other name for this state is anxiety. Caffeine can cause interrupted sleep & excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS). A sensitive person who drinks one caffeine beverage can have sleep problems 12 hours later. Caffeine can aggravate Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS). Unaware of a patient's caffeine sensitivity, doctors might treat the EDS with stimulants. If the patient appears anxious, a doctor commonly prescribes a tranquilizer.


Supplements

  • L-tyrosine. An amino acid that you'll find in many delicious foods, including nuts, yogurt, bananas, and avocados. L-tyrosine is a precursor to epinephrine. Helpful in maintaining energy levels while relieving fatigue and stress. Since the body manufactures it, L-tyrosine is a non-essential amino acid. This site recommends against taking a daily L-tyrosine supplement.


Controversial Links

  • Before & after photos of amphetamine users. Beware: Very graphic. Not for the faint-hearted! Photos depict abusers. Yet some abusers probably don't use more methamphetamine than do users with legal prescriptions. In either case, the body sustains damage. The amount of damage seems to vary from individual to individual. In fact, predicting the amount might be difficult. Usually changes to the body adversely affect the skin, teeth, liver, circulatory system, brain & nervous system. Some of these changes outwardly resemble accelerated aging.

  • System-by-system. Artwork with image map allows you to click on a body part & read how amphetamine use damages that part. Beware! The page also includes dramatic photos of "meth mouth" (accelerated tooth erosion & decay). "Meth mouth" occurs due to the dental drying effects of amphetamine compounds.

  • Meth mouth photos. Amphetamines, including methamphetamine (Desoxyn and other names) reduce saliva flow. Bacteria can then increase by ten times. The drugs themselves are highly corrosive to the tissues of the mouth. Stimulant users also tend to grind their teeth, accelerating damage. Dexedrine, Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta and other narcolepsy prescriptions cause the same “dry mouth” effect. Click here to read about the topic: Meth mouth details.

  • The Meth Epidemic. PBS documentary on methamphetamine and its effects. The first section also includes information that applies equally well to other stimulants, including prescriptions that narcoleptics take.

  • Ueberman's sleep schedule induces "polyphasic sleep," more or less artificial narcolepsy. Alleged "advantages" of narcolepsy, such as intense, realistic dreams. Bucky Fuller & Thomas Edison also dispensed with normal sleep-wake cycles. WARNING: The person who concocted this "schedule" isn't aware of the importance of non-REM sleep. This author seems unconcerned that various body systems require circadian sync. Sleep-deprivation can weaken the immune system. Research has proven that sleep deprivation can be fatal.




Go to Page:   1   2   FAQ   Next

Contents




♦ WARNING. No medical body has reviewed, authorized, approved or disapproved the statements on this Web domain. This domain exists for information purposes only. The page solely represents my observations, opinions and discoveries. The Food and Drug Administration hasn't evaluated this domain. I don't intend this domain as a treatment, cure or means of prevention for any disease. I make no warranty for the processes that I discuss here. I make no guarantee as to accuracy or reliability of my observations, opinions or methods. I hope to serve and to help. Yet you must use this domain at your own risk. Your errors, failures and regrets are your own business. Your discoveries, successes and happiness are your own achievements. — The Webmaster

Copyright © 2009 by the webmaster. All rights reserved.

•URL: http://www.wakeupdiet.com/wud_links/wud_links_1 •Contact us
•Revision—February, 2012  •Page design tools: HTML, Notepad & Explorer