Bruno V. Gallo, M.D.

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Epilepsy: Neurological Disorder

April 15, 2016 By Dr. Bruno V. Gallo Leave a Comment

Dr. Bruno Gallo - Epilepsy

Believe it or not, epilepsy is the fourth most common neurological disorder, causing seizures that vary in scale, severity, and in the age of the individuals that experience them. Dr. Bruno Gallo specializes in treating epilepsy along with numerous other neurological disorders.

Essentially known as a “seizure disorder,” epilepsy can develop in any person and at any age and any time. Caused by a wide range of factors that include, but are not limited to, health conditions, age, race, and genetic circumstances, approximately 48 cases out of 100,000 people will develop epilepsy each year.

This disorder, as mentioned above, causes seizures in those individuals that are diagnosed by experts such as Dr. Bruno Gallo. The seizure, which varies in size and scale from person to person, often occurs in three different stages. The first stage of the seizure is termed an aura. During this phase, epileptic individuals experience a change in feeling, sensation, behavior, or thought. Acting as a warning phase, the aura is often followed by the ictal phase. From the initial symptoms experienced during the aura, all of the other symptoms that are experienced until the end of the seizure activity are classified as being part of the ictal phase. The ictal phase is then commonly followed by the postictal phase. Considered the recovery period, the length and symptoms classifying this phase can differ from person to person. Sometimes lasting a few minutes, while other times lasting several hours, this is the period that an epileptic individual experiences before feeling like their usual self.

In addition to being explained by the different phases, epilepsy and the associated seizures can be understood by recognition of the symptoms involved throughout each phase as well as more generally speaking. Before a seizure begins, individuals can often recognize changes in awareness, sensory, emotional, or thought changes. This individual may sense and recognize unusual sounds, tastes, smells or even experience vision loss or vision blurring. In addition to this, a sense of Deja vu may overcome the individual as well as racing emotional feelings such as fear or panic. Physically speaking, the person that may soon experience a seizure may feel dizzy or lightheaded, or may suffer from feelings of nausea or headaches.

Once the second phase (often the more recognizable phase) begins, it is common for the epileptic individual to experience a complete loss of awareness or eventual loss of consciousness. Like with the phase before, the seizing individual may also sense unusual smells, tastes, sounds, or notice changes in vision. In addition to feelings of electric shock or body numbness, physical changes that include drooling, difficulty speaking, lack of movement or muscle tones, or tremors and jerking movements may take place. Dilated pupils, racing heart, convulsions, or automatisms may also take place.

In the recovery phase of the seizure, the epileptic will be slow to respond and may appear sleepy or confused, while displaying feelings that are emotional in nature, including feeling depressed, upset, scared, anxious, frustrated, or embarrassed.

Like stated before, each individual will display a unique set of symptoms depending on the extent of their disorder, as well as the uniqueness of them as an individual. In every circumstance, it is important to be supportive and attentive to these individuals before, during, and after their seizure takes place.

 

For more information about Epilepsy and other neurological disorders, check out Dr. Bruno Gallo on Crunchbase or follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrunoVGalloMD.

 

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Parkinson’s Disease: Neurological Disorder

March 11, 2016 By Dr. Bruno V. Gallo Leave a Comment

Dr. Bruno Gallo Parkinson's DiseaseParkinson’s disease is a well known neurological condition in which Dr. Bruno Gallo has a great deal of experience with. Dr. Gallo specializes in Parkinson’s disease along with other neurological disorders and procedures such as Deep Brain Stimulation, Essential Tremor, Dystonia, and Epilepsy.

Parkinson’s disease occurs when the nerve cells or neurons in an area of the brain (substantia nigra) become impaired or die. Substantia nigra is known to be involved in producing body movements by making an important brain chemical known as dopamine. Less dopamine is produced as the neurons and nerve cells in this area start dying. This meagreness of dopamine causes movement problems in people suffering with Parkinson’s disease.

Dopamine is a chemical neurotransmitter that is believed to transmit nerve signals from substantia nigra to different parts of the brain. Coupling of substantia nigra and corpus striatum, another area in the brain, is necessary in producing smooth bodily movements. Loss and scarcity of dopamine in this circuit causes abnormal nerve firing patterns leading the brain to carry out impaired movements.

In cases of Parkinson’s disease, severe pathological changes such as decrease of dendritic length, loss of dendritic spines and several types of dendritic varicosities were found only in the melanin-containing pars compacta neurons, an area in the brain.

Loss of Norepinephrine at nerve endings:

Studies and research completed by Dr. Bruno Gallo and other renowned neurologists have shown that people with Parkinson disease also have loss of nerve endings that are involved in production of Norepinephrine.  Norepinephrine is very much similar to dopamine and it is the potent chemical messenger of the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system steers many autonomic functions of the body, such as blood pressure and heart rate. So the non-movement features in Parkinson’s like fatigue and irregular blood pressure can be explained by taking into account the deficiency of Norepinephrine.

Accumulation of lewy bodies in brain cells:

The hallmark of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the appearance of fibrillar aggregates known as Lewy bodies (LBs). LB formation has been considered to be an important indication for neuronal degeneration, for this reasons neuronal loss is found in the predilection sites for LBs. up till now; more than 70 molecules have been probed in LBs, of which alpha-synuclein is a prime constituent of LB fibrils. Alpha-synuclein immunohistochemistry shows that diffuse cytoplasmic staining transforms into pale bodies through compaction, and LBs arise from the peripheral portion of pale bodies. This alpha-synuclein abnormality is found in 10% of pigmented neurons in the substantia nigra.

Researchers do not know why these Lewy bodies are formed and what their role is in Parkinson’s disease, yet it is known that these fibrillar bodies may prevent the neuronal cells from functioning normally or they may prove to be helpful by blocking the harmful proteins allowing the cells to function normally.

Harmful protein buildup:

There is other research which suggests that the cell’s protein disposal function gets impaired in people with Parkinson’s disease causing aggregation of proteins such as alpha-synuclein to harmful levels which may trigger pre-mature neuronal cell death. But still the exact role of proteins deposits remains a mystery to researchers.

For more information about Parkinson’s disease and other neurological disorders, check out Dr. Bruno Gallo on Social Career Builder or follow Dr. Gallo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrunoVGalloMD

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Dr. Bruno Gallo, Neurological Disorder, Neurologist, Neurology Disorder, Parkinsons Disease