​

1. Tremor or Shaking. Have you noticed a slight shaking or tremor in your finger, thumb, hand, chin or lip? Does your leg shake when you sit down or relax? Twitching or shaking of limbs is a common early sign of Parkinson's disease.
   
   
2. Small Handwriting. Has your handwriting suddenly gotten much smaller than in it was in the past? You may notice the way you write words on a page has changed, such as letter sizes are smaller and the words are crowded together. A sudden change in handwriting is often a sign of Parkinson's disease.
   
   
3. Loss of Smell. Have you noticed you no longer smell certain foods very well? If you seem to have more trouble smelling foods like bananas, dill pickles or licorice, you should ask your doctor about Parkinson's disease.
   
   
4. Trouble Sleeping. Do you thrash around in bed or kick and punch while you are deeply asleep? You might notice that you started falling out of bed while asleep. Sometimes, your spouse will notice, or will want to move to another bed. Sudden movements during sleep may be a sign of Parkinson's disease.
   
   
5. Trouble Moving or Walking. Do you feel stiff in your body, arms or legs? Sometimes stiffness goes away as you move. If it does not, it can be a sign of Parkinson's disease. You might notice that your arms don't swing when you walk, or maybe other people have said you look stiff. An early sign might be stiffness or pain in your shoulder or hips. People sometimes say their feet seem 'stuck to the floor.'
   ​

For the complete list of Parkinson’s warning signs & more information, visit the National Parkinson Website.
If your sleep habits have changed since being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, you may qualify for a new research study examining a study drug for patients with Parkinson's disease experiencing excessive sleepiness. Qualified participants receive compensation for time & travel.

You may qualify if you:

• are 35-80 years of age
• are experiencing excessive sleepiness while on stable treatment for your Parkinson’s disease
  
  

For more information on this study, call NeuroTrials now at 404-851-9934 or visit the study page.

Have you noticed as you age your quality of sleep declines? For many older adults, sleep problems just seem to come with the territory of aging. NeuroTrials Research is seeking to change that- we are currently enrolling for a research study for older adults with trouble sleeping. 

Dr. Russell Rosenberg recently sat down with Jennifer Leslie of 11Alive to share options available for adults looking for extra shut-eye. Jennifer also spoke with current NeuroTrials Research patient Debbie Kemsey about her experience in the clinical trial.

View the full 11Alive story.

For more information about this study, call 404-851-9934 or visit the study page.

The Hypersomnia Foundation Board of Directors and volunteers worked for more than two years with physicians and researchers to create a hypersomnia-specific registry. That of hypersomnia patients is now ready for YOU to join, and the Hypersomnia Foundation will donate $50 to research for every person who completes the Hypersomnia Foundation Patient Registry Questionnaire during the month of September!

Why are registries so important?
Registries provide critical information, particularly about rare diseases. Uncovering that information makes a rare disease easier to study, increasing the probability that a treatment can be developed.
Typically, people with rare disorders are not geographically in the same place, making it difficult for scientists and medical professionals to gather information or samples from enough patients to study a rare disorder. However, a central registry helps to overcome that geography hurdle
​
Why would I take the time and use my limited energy to enroll in the registry and complete the questionnaires?

• Your participation today will provide a brighter future for tomorrow. And don’t forget, it will help to fund research through the Hypersomnia Foundation Board of Director’s $50 contribution for every completed questionnaire. Your participation will also provide concrete help to researchers looking for answers.
• The information about the central disorders of hypersomnolence will be housed in one location, accessible to any researcher anywhere in the world whose project is valid and approved by the Sanford Institutional Review Board.
• One of the goals of a registry is to generate a hypothesis (a scientifically based idea) about which treatments might be effective. These hypotheses can assist the pharmaceutical industry (drug companies) to know which treatments to study in clinical trials.
• Researchers who are interested in studying new treatments for hypersomnia can contact CoRDS, and CoRDS will then contact people who have checked the box during registry enrollment that they are interested in participating in additional research.

Visit the new Hypersomnia Foundation Registry page to complete the form.

If you are in the Atlanta-area & are interested in participating in a currently enrolling Idiopathic Hypersomnia study, visit our study landing page.

Primary investigator Dr. Michael Lacey & current patient Patti Eilbacher sat down with Atlanta's 11Alive to talk about the study this week. 


"We are looking at a compound that works in a different way than anything that's on the market right now," Dr. Lacey said. "This medication, as opposed to just treating the symptoms, is the first real medication that's gotten this far that deals specifically with the compounds or the agents that cause the disease to progress itself, so that's very exciting for us."

For full article details, visit the 11Alive site.

For more information on the study, visit the study page.