Other Treatments For Parkinsons
The primary goals in treating PD are to alleviate symptoms and improve quality of life. Treatment may also prevent disease progression.
If taking marijuana isnt feasible, there are other options available. Numerous types and combinations of conventional medications may also be used. Examples include:
- amantadine , which is used in early stages
What Is So Special About Marijuana
Magic smoke, weeds, hashish, hot stick, airplane, or ganja; whatever you call it in your language, scientifically it is known as cannabis. This is because of the plant Cannabis Sativa, also known as the Hemp plant, the dried flowers of which can shape into what we normally called marijuana.
A marijuana plant was originally used for medicinal purposes. Later on, people noticed that its flower also has a psychoactive effect, it makes you high when consumed in high amount. The psychoactive effect comes from delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol , which is one of the 100 compounds exist in the plant . It can be consumed in the form of smoking, inhaling or mixing with food. Its effect reaches to peak after 30 min of consuming and can last for a couple of hours.
It is due to this brain-altering property of THC compound, the growing of marijuana plant and its use as a recreational drug is not allowed under the international law. However, its use has been increasingly allowed for medical and scientific purposes. It is already been legalized in Canada, and in the 32 states of the USA.
Sugar Promotes Alzheimers Disease
Studies have shown that excess sugar consumption increases the risk of developing Alzheimers disease. A 2013 study showed that insulin resistance and high blood sugar values both of which are common in diabetes are associated with a higher risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers.
Bitter truth about sugar
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Whether Marijuana Should Be Allowed To Use As A Drug To Treat Parkinsons Disease What Do Researchers Think
There is a difference of opinion among researchers in this regard. One group of researchers support its use as a drug for treating Parkinsons disease. Based on promising results they have obtained from human and animal studies, they believe that marijuana has a strong neuroprotective property and has the potential to treat the brain motor and non-motor disabilities in people with Parkinsons disease or other neurological disorders.
Whereas the other group of researchers oppose this fact. According to them, they havent seen any improvement in patients symptoms after taking marijuana. Even if it did show some effects, the relief was for a short period of time. They think that its consumption may further deteriorate the patient condition. For example, it can severely affect the executive function of the brain and can prompt hallucination, dizziness, changes in the behavior of the patient. Its excessive use can also cause lung cancer.
Animal Experiments And Transgenic Mice
All procedures were performed according to guidelines and under supervision of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Cornell University. For all tests, we used both male and female 3-month-old mice. All transgenic animals were compared to corresponding wild-type littermates. Based on variability of prior collected data, necessary sample sizes were estimated using power analysis. No animals were excluded from the analysis; assignment to treatment groups was done at random using animal ear-tag numbers and done separately for males and females. All mice were handled daily for two weeks prior to the behavioral tests to eliminate the influence of stress and anxiety on their behavior due to human handling.
Conditional SIRT6 mice
The SIRT6 conditional deletion allele has been described previously . To obtain brain-specific SIRT6 knockout animals , we crossed these mice, which have exons 2 and 3 of SIRT6 flanked by loxP sites , to a nestin-cre line of mice .
RNA sequencing and overrepresentation analysis
MPTP
In vivo MPTP and nicotine mouse experiments: MPTP was delivered by intraperitoneal injection at 10;mg/kg four times a day for four days a week . Mice were scarified for immunohistochemistry 1;month after the completion of MPTP administration. Mice were 3;months of age at the start of treatment.
Nicotine
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Smoking Associated With Lower Parkinson’s Disease Risk
- Date:
- JAMA and Archives Journals
- Summary:
- A pooled analysis of data from previous studies suggests that cigarette smoking appears to be associated with a reduced risk for developing Parkinson’s disease, with long-term and current smokers at the lowest risk, according to a recent report.
A pooled analysis of data from previous studies suggests that cigarette smoking appears to be associated with a reduced risk for developing Parkinson’s disease, with long-term and current smokers at the lowest risk, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Neurology.
Several studies have suggested that patients with Parkinson’s disease are less likely to be smokers, according to background information in the article. “Recent studies also suggested that Parkinson’s disease risk is particularly low in active smokers with a long history of intense smoking; some even suggested dose-related risk reductions with increasing pack-years of smoking,” the authors write. “This prompted speculation as to whether and how these observations might inform Parkinson’s disease treatment and prevention.” However, the number of participants in most Parkinson’s disease studies is too small to answer important questions about the role of smoking.
Beate Ritz, M.D., Ph.D., of the UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, and colleagues pooled data from 11,809 individuals involved in 11 studies conducted between 1960 and 2004.
Reference: Arch Neurol. 2007;64:990-997.
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Sugar Weakens The Immune System
Excessive sugar consumption makes it harder for the immune system to ward off disease. After consuming sugar, the immune systems ability to kill germs is reduced by up to 40 percent. Sugar also saps the bodys store of vitamin C, which white blood cells need to fight off viruses and bacteria. Sugar also promotes the inflammatory response, and even minor inflammation can trigger numerous diseases.
Bitter truth about sugar
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In Vitro Cell Culture Experiments
Immortalized fibroblasts
Mouse embryonic fibroblasts were cultured in DMEM supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum and penicillin/streptomycin antibiotics. The immortalized WT and SIRT6 null fibroblasts were previously generated in the laboratory of and are a generous gift from Dr. Raul Mostoslvasky.
Primary neuronal cultures
Primary neurons were isolated from P0 mouse pups by a standard protocol modified for our study. Briefly, after dissection of neonatal brains, cortices were minced and digested in papain for 30;min at 30Co temperature. After that the solution was filtered through a 100;m filter and then fractionated in a sucrose gradient. The gradient fractions containing neurons were collected and re-suspended in Neurobasal Media, and cells were counted and plated on poly-D-lysine coated plates. The neurons were cultured in Neurobasal Media with physiological concentrations of glucose at physiological concentrations of oxygen and supplemented with bFGF and B27. Cultures were treated and analyzed 7;days after plating. Histochemical analysis performed on every batch of cells confirmed that cells were comprised of 75% neurons and 25% astrocytes. Proportions were identified by flow cytometry with the markers- NeuN and GFAP respectively . The neuron population included tyrosine hydroxylase expressing cells confirmed by SDS-PAGE analysis. Proportion of neural cell types were not changed between WT, SIRT6 KO, and OX cultures.
Flow cytometry & apoptosis analysis
Nicotine
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Pesticide And Herbicide Exposure
A strong link has been shown between PD and exposure to pesticides and herbicides. We need more Parkinsons-specific research to better understand what causes PD and to work to prevent it and help eliminate the risk of getting the disease, when it comes to all environmental risk factors and whether genetics can cause an increased risk in developing Parkinsons.
One herbicide that has been linked to Parkinsons is paraquat, a widely used commercial herbicide in the U.S. that is banned in 32 countries, including the European Union and China. The Parkinsons Foundation, along with the Unified Parkinsons Advocacy Council, signed two letters to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency encouraging them to cancel the registration of paraquat based on strong scientific research linking the herbicide to Parkinsons disease. In October 2020, the EPA re-approved paraquat for use in the U.S. Without additional action, paraquat will remain legal for sale and use in the U.S. for the next 15 years.
Case Ascertainment And Sample Size
A total of 881 PD cases was ascertained in the participating EPIC centres. The present analysis has been conducted on a total sample of 214533 subjects after removing 147 prevalent PD cases, 5359 subjects with missing information on smoking status at recruitment. Moreover, 221 subjects with PD-like conditions were also removed from the analysis. The sample resulted in a total of 2666206 person/years. Procedures for PD case ascertainment in the EPIC cohort have been described elsewhere. In brief, in each centre, potential cases were identified through record linkage and validated through clinical record review by a neurologist expert in movement disorder who collected additional clinical data, including age of onset and clinical subtype at onset .
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How Does Environment Come Into It
Your environment is a hard one to pin down. Partly, that’s because it covers a lot of ground. It’s everything that’s not your genes, which could mean where you live, what you eat, chemicals you’ve come into contact with, and more.
Not only that, but it could take years for the effects from something in your environment to show up. So far, doctors have a lot of clues but no smoking gun. So you could have people who live or work in an area around chemicals tied to Parkinson’s, but many of them don’t get it.
Some research shows links between Parkinson’s and:
- Agent Orange, a chemical used to destroy trees and crops in the Vietnam War.
- Certain chemicals used in farming, such as insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides.
- Some metals and chemicals used in factories, such as manganese, lead, and trichlorethylene .
These can come into play based on where you live, what you do for work, or if you served in the military. Sometimes, these chemicals seep into well water, so that’s one more way they can affect you.
The Gut And Its Microbiota In Pd
In recent years, one important focus of PD research has been on gut related pathology, pathophysiology, and symptoms. Gastrointestinal dysfunction, in particular constipation, affects up to 80% of PD-patients and idiopathic constipation is one of the strongest risk-factors for PD . In PD, prolonged intestinal transit time and constipation are associated with -synuclein accumulation and neurodegenerative changes in the enteric nervous system . Furthermore, there are signs of local inflammation, oxidative stress, and increased mucosal permeability . These changes can be found in earliest stages of PD, sometimes years before the appearance of motor symptoms, lending support to the hypothesis that environmental factors relevant for PD pathogenesis might act primarily via the gut . One proposed pathophysiological pathway in this context is the induction of intestinal mucosal inflammation leading to accumulation of misfolded -synuclein in enteric nerves which thereafter could act in a prion-like fashion leading to propagation of the neuropathological changes via autonomic connections to the central nervous system .
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Sugar Makes You Aggressive
People who consume excess sugar are more likely to engage in aggressive behavior. Children with ADHD are also affected by sugar. For these children, too much sugar affects concentration and promotes hyperactivity. Thats why its a good idea for children to avoid eating sugar during school hours.
Bitter truth about sugar
Marijuana Should Be Studied For Pd Pain Relief
The researchers from this latest study say recent research has indicated that the endocannabinoid system plays an important role in PD. In detail, components of this system are highly expressed in the neural circuit of basal ganglia, which is part of a complex neuronal system, they say.
The neuronal system they mention organizes activities from certain cortical regions that are active in movement control.
When we started doing this review, says Prof. Loewy, the therapies out there were basically for motor symptoms, but Parkinsons also has non-motor symptoms that greatly impact the quality of a persons life.
To dig deeper, he and his team conducted a thorough literature review on studies of marijuana.
The most compelling finding was that chemical components of marijuana yield benefits in the wake of different PD symptoms.
For example, Prof. Loewy notes that marijuana has been found to relieve pain in other diseases, adding that it should be studied for pain relief in people with PD. Pain affects nearly 50 percent of people with the condition, the researchers note.
But why is marijuana specifically promising for PD? According to the team, the cannabinoid compounds in marijuana bind to dopamine receptors to reduce the effects of reduced dopamine in the brain.
Essentially, the compounds replace the normal compounds that are adversely affected by Parkinsons, Prof. Loewy says.
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Delaying Effect Of Smoking
The fact that proportional assumption hypothesis is verified demonstrates that the risk does not vary over the follow-up period, and this argues against a delaying effect of smoking on PD onset . Moreover, at odds with some previous reports,, our findings of an inverse relationship between smoking variables and risk of PD are not weakened when the analysis is restricted to old-age onset PD . Taken together, these results are not supportive of the hypothesis that smoking might delay, rather than prevent, PD onset, as previously suggested., However, despite this piece of evidence being important and informative per se, the distinction between delaying and preventing any disease onset is somewhat artificial, as these mechanisms might coincide from both a clinical and a biological point of view.
Does Nicotine Prevent Sleep
While youre smoking: Nicotine disrupts sleep and smoking can also raise the risk of developing sleep conditions, such as sleep apnea. But since nicotine is a stimulant, smoking can mask your exhaustion. After all, if youre feeling sleepy, a hit of nicotine can wake you up and make you feel alert the next day.
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Standard Protocol Approvals Registrations And Patient Consents
No relevant research ethics committees existed in 1951, when the British Doctors Study was designed and baseline questionnaires were sent. Doctors who chose to answer the first questionnaire were informed by investigators of the implications and methods of the study. Participants could choose to withdraw at any stage during follow-up, and all data were kept confidential.
Does Smoking Protect From Parkinsons Disease
In addition to the numerous studies that demonstrate that PD rates are lower in cigarette smokers than the general population, there are studies that show that the inverse relationship between smoking and PD is dose-dependent. That is, the more a person smokes, the less of a chance that he or she will develop PD. Another study investigated identical twin pairs in which one had PD and the other did not. ;The twin without PD tended to smoke more than the twin with PD. Since identical twins share the same DNA and often the same environment, many of the variables normally associated with a difference in risk of PD were removed except for smoking. The study is therefore cited as evidence that smoking is protective against PD.
Even if this theory is correct, and smoking does protect people from Parkinsons disease, all physicians and researchers agree, that this does not mean that increasing the rates of smoking among the general population is a desirable strategy to prevent PD. That is because epidemiologic studies have also consistently found that cigarette smoking is a risk factor for a variety of deadly diseases including lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease and stroke. Researchers have therefore tried to harness the possibly protective nature of cigarette smoke in other ways.
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Years Of Smoking Associated With Lower Parkinson’s Risk Not Number Of Cigarettes Per Day
- Date:
- American Academy of Neurology
- Summary:
- Researchers have new insight into the relationship between Parkinson’s disease and smoking. Several studies have shown that smokers have a lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. A new study shows that smoking for a greater number of years may reduce the risk of the disease, but smoking a larger number of cigarettes per day may not reduce the risk.
Researchers have new insight into the relationship between Parkinson’s disease and smoking. Several studies have shown that smokers have a lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. A new study published in the March 10, 2010, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, shows that smoking for a greater number of years may reduce the risk of the disease, but smoking a larger number of cigarettes per day may not reduce the risk.
“These results could guide the development of studies on various tobacco components with animal models to help understand the relationship between smoking and Parkinson’s disease,” said study author Honglei Chen, MD, PhD, of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C. “Research to reveal the underlying chemicals and mechanisms is warranted; such studies may lead to a better understanding of the causes of Parkinson’s disease. However, given the many adverse consequences of smoking, no one would suggest smoking in order to prevent Parkinson’s disease.”
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