Eat your way out of narcolepsy

 

Gina Dennis, INHC, a.k.a. Madcap Miss, was the keynote speaker at the 2017 Suddenly Sleepy Saturday annual event. Gina, who came all the way from Texas has narcolepsy, her mother has it and her son also. Six years ago she set out on a journey to find a diet that could help her family mitigate their narcolepsy symptoms. She trained to be a Certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach and began to research narcolepsy and what is actually happening to your body. In particular, she looked at our sleep/wake cycles and what if the food we eat is a contributing factor to our narcolepsy symptoms.

In the years since her family have changed their diet and gained a level of wakefulness, they hadn’t experienced before, and she has worked with hundreds of other people with narcolepsy, helping them find a way OUT of narcolepsy and INTO life.

In 2016 she launched the Madcap Narcolepsy website and through the website she shares how her family’s lives changed, by eating a high fat, low carbohydrate diet. In July 2017, she is planning to launch Madcap Diet for Narcolepsy: A Beginner’s Roadmap as an online, self-paced, training program. But what if that isn’t enough for you?

Her visit to Ireland and her talk at the 2017 event was inspirational. Since being diagnosed ten years ago, I believed that my body lacked the ability to produce the neurotransmitter called hypocretin (in US referred to as Orexin). I believed that it was for life and only medication could help alleviate the symptoms. And it did and starting with 200mg of Modifinl, I have on the recommendation of my consultant and some of the other people with narcolepsy, reduced completely foods containing gluten and now 100mg of Modifinl works just as well. But gluten, it seems, may be just part of the story, and Julie’s approach contains some very important information.

  1. What we eat causes our blood glucose levels to go up and down.

  2. High glucose levels turn hypocretin (orexin) OFF.

  3. Lowering blood glucose levels turns hypocretin (orexin) ON.

Can a diet help alleviate the symptoms of PWN? Read Gina’s Booklet and find out more and find YOUR way out of narcolepsy and INTO life.

 
 
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Life is an exciting journey and I can’t wait to see what I can achieve.
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Like many others, I was in choir, school band, played hockey every week and socialised with my friends at every opportunity.

Then one day at the end of first year, a teacher put on “James May on the Moon” as a Friday afternoon treat. No sooner had it begun than I woke up with all my class staring and giggling because I had fallen asleep on the desk. To say that 12-year old me was mortified would be an under-statement. I put this inability to stay awake down to exhaustion at the end of an exam week, but I now know that this was to be the first of many inappropriate naps.

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I'm like a bicycle, it's only when I stop that I fall over!!

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My name is Alice Cullen. I have recently been diagnosed with narcolepsy.
It hasn’t been an easy process and it’s so very important to share as every one has a different experience so here goes.

So I have just turned 41 years old. I was diagnosed with narcolepsy with cataplexy in early December 2018.
All through my childhood I was an excellent sleeper but had no problem with daytime sleepiness.  I didn’t experience any problems at school, college or with study and was involved in many sports and extracurricular activities.

Narcolepsy Ireland