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How To Stop Parkinson’s From Progressing

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Experts Explore Which Of The Existing Strategies To Slow Down Or Stop The Processes Of Parkinsons Disease Are Most Likely To Be Successful Over The Next 20 Years

Taking the Pulse of Parkinson

Understanding of the processes involved in Parkinson’s disease degeneration has vastly improved over the last 20 years. Published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease, authors Tom Foltynie, MBBS, PhD, Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Institute of Neurology & The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, UK, and J. William Langston, MD, Associate Director, Stanford Udall Center, Department of Pathology, Stanford University, USA, explain the progress of research.

Chasing Protection In Parkinsons Disease: Does Exercise Reduce Risk And Progression

Michael A. Schwarzschild

  • Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States

Exercise may be the most commonly offered yet least consistently followed therapeutic advice for people with Parkinson’s disease . Epidemiological studies of prospectively followed cohorts have shown a lower risk for later developing PD in healthy people who report moderate to high levels of physical activity, and slower rates of motor and non-motor symptom progression in people with PD who report higher baseline physical activity. In animal models of PD, exercise can reduce inflammation, decrease ?-synuclein expression, reduce mitochondrial dysfunction, and increase neurotrophic growth factor expression. Randomized controlled trials of exercise in PD have provided clear evidence for short-term benefits on many PD measurements scales, ranging from disease severity to quality of life. In this review, we present these convergent epidemiological and laboratory data with particular attention to translationally relevant features of exercise . In the context of these findings we will discuss clinical trial experience, design challenges, and emerging opportunities for determining whether exercise can prevent PD or slow its long-term progression.

Parkinson’s Disease Progression Can Be Slowed With Vigorous Exercise Study Shows

His friends noticed the tremor before he did. It started in his left hand, Geoffrey Rogers said, but before long the trembling affected his right too.

The cause, doctors found, was Parkinson’s disease.

At Rush University Medical Center, where Rogers, then 64, received a second opinion, the father of three learned he could join a new clinical trial for those with the neurodegenerative condition.

A team of researchers at Northwestern Medicine and the University of Colorado School of Medicine wanted to find out whether high- or moderate-intensity exercise was safe for patients with Parkinson’s disease. Would it help with the disease’s symptoms, the progressive loss of muscle control, tremors, stiffness?

Five years later, those scientists have an answer: Yes. Increasing disease severity in early-stage Parkinson’s disease patients can be slowed with a few days of exercise weekly. The results of their trial, published Monday in JAMA Neurology, found vigorous exercise is a safe way to potentially delay the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

“The real question is: Is there any disease or any disorder for which exercise is not good?” said Daniel Corcos, one of the lead authors of the study and a professor of physical therapy and human movement sciences at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “I haven’t found any.”

The onset of symptoms can be distressing for families, especially because the causes of Parkinson’s disease are not fully understood.

eolumhense@chicagotribune.com

Exercise Helps Prevent Fight Parkinson’s Disease From The Harvard Health Letter

Parkinson’s is a brain disease that affects the body and how it moves. Early symptoms include tremors, a shuffling gait, and an overall slowing of physical movement. Yet exercise may be one of the best — and most underutilized — ways of combating the condition, according to the March 2012 Harvard Health Letter.

Several prospective studies that followed tens of thousands of people for many years have shown a correlation between exercise earlier in life and a reduced chance of developing Parkinson’s later on. Exercising in your 30s and 40s — decades before Parkinson’s typically occurs — may reduce the risk of getting Parkinson’s disease by about 30%, notes the Health Letter. Some experts believe the exercise must be vigorous to make a difference. However, because this kind of research can’t prove cause and effect, there is the possibility of “reverse causation”: that is, exercise may not prevent Parkinson’s disease, but instead a very early “preclinical” form of the disease, without clear symptoms, may make people less willing or able to exercise in the first place.

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Spotlight On Parkinsons Disease: Searching For Ways To Stop Disease Progression

Stopping Parkinson

Parkinson’s disease affects the person diagnosed and everyone who is close to that person: family members, friends and co-workers. We invite you to view our latest webcast in the “Spotlight” series, Spotlight on Parkinson’s Disease: Searching For Ways to Stop Disease Progression. While this webcast provides expert perspectives on promising therapies in development to address disease progression in PD, it is designed to help all people impacted by PD.

This webcast is an archive of the live web education program that was held on March 22, 2021. Please share this invitation with anyone in your support network whom you feel will benefit from participating.

Speaker:

New Treatment May Have The Potential To Slow Stop Or Reverse Parkinson Disease

Wallace Stephens

Results from a recent study suggest that a revolutionary treatment may have the potential to slow, stop, or even reverse the progression of Parkinson disease.

Results from a February study of a revolutionary treatment suggest that it may be possible to slow, stop, or even reverse the progression of Parkinson disease, according to findings in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.

The 3-part, experimental study investigated whether using a novel delivery system to increase levels of glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor can regenerate dying dopamine brain cells in patients with Parkinson disease and even reverse their condition. GDNF is a naturally occurring protein that promotes the survival of many types of neurons.

“I believe that this approach could be the first neuro-restorative treatment for people living with Parkinson’s, which is, of course, an extremely exciting prospect,” Steven Gill, MB, MS, FRCS, who designed the infusion device used in the study, said in a statement.

Initially, 6 patients enrolled in a pilot study which evaluated the safety of the treatment approach. After the pilot study, 35 additional individuals participated in a subsequent 9-month double-blind trial. Half of the participants were randomly assigned to receive monthly infusions of GDNF while the other half received placebos.

Reference

Mayo Clinic Q And A: Rate Of Progression Of Parkinsons Disease Hard To Predict

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: My father is 64 and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s last year. So far his symptoms are very mild, but I’m wondering what the typical progression of the disease is like. I have read that deep brain stimulation is sometimes recommended. When is this type of treatment usually considered? Is it safe?

ANSWER: The symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, or PD, tend to begin very gradually and then become progressively more severe. The rate of progression is hard to predict and is different from one person to another. Treatment for PD includes a variety of options, such as exercise, medication and surgery. Deep brain stimulation is one surgical possibility for treating PD, but it’s usually only considered in advanced cases when other treatments don’t effectively control symptoms.

Parkinson’s disease is a syndrome which typically has no known cause. The diagnosis is based on symptoms. Neurologists who specialize in movement disorders typically have the most experience with PD diagnosis and treatment. There are many symptoms of parkinsonism. The most common include excessive slowness and lack of movement, as well as shaking or tremor.

As in your father’s situation, symptoms are often mild at the outset. How quickly they get worse varies substantially, perhaps because there may be multiple underlying causes of the disease. In most cases, symptoms change slowly, with substantive progression taking place over the space of many months or years.

Discovery Could Help Slow Down Progression Of Parkinson’s Disease

Rutgers collaborates with Scripps Research hoping to develop new drug treatment

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Rutgers University

A collaboration between scientists at Rutgers University and Scripps Research led to the discovery of a small molecule that may slow down or stop the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s, which affects 1 million people in the United States and over 10 million worldwide according to the Parkinson’s Foundation, is a neurodegenerative disorder with no cure. Symptoms develop slowly over time and can be debilitating to patients, who most recognizably develop tremor, slow movements and a shuffling gait.

A key feature of Parkinson’s disease is a protein named ?-synuclein, which accumulates in an abnormal form in brain cells causing them to degenerate and die. However, it has been difficult to target ?-synuclein because it does not have a fixed structure and keeps changing its shape, making it very difficult for drugs to target. Because higher levels of the protein in the brain speed the degeneration of brain cells, scientists have been looking for ways to decrease the protein production as a form of treatment.

“We found the molecule to be very selective at both the RNA level and the protein level,” Disney says.

“The reach of our study could go beyond people with Parkinson’s disease to many other neurodegenerative diseases. It is a classic example of how interdisciplinary research leads to significant change,” she shares.

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Discovery Could Help Slow Down Progression Of Parkinsons Disease

Rutgers collaborates with Scripps Research hoping to develop new drug treatment

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Rutgers University

A collaboration between scientists at Rutgers University and Scripps Research led to the discovery of a small molecule that may slow down or stop the progression of Parkinson’s disease.

Parkinson’s, which affects 1 million people in the United States and over 10 million worldwide according to the Parkinson’s Foundation, is a neurodegenerative disorder with no cure. Symptoms develop slowly over time and can be debilitating to patients, who most recognizably develop tremor, slow movements and a shuffling gait.

A key feature of Parkinson’s disease is a protein named ?-synuclein, which accumulates in an abnormal form in brain cells causing them to degenerate and die. However, it has been difficult to target ?-synuclein because it does not have a fixed structure and keeps changing its shape, making it very difficult for drugs to target. Because higher levels of the protein in the brain speed the degeneration of brain cells, scientists have been looking for ways to decrease the protein production as a form of treatment.

“We found the molecule to be very selective at both the RNA level and the protein level,” Disney says.

“The reach of our study could go beyond people with Parkinson’s disease to many other neurodegenerative diseases. It is a classic example of how interdisciplinary research leads to significant change,” she shares.

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  • liver

Exercise Can Stop Accumulation Of A Harmful Protein In The Brain

Date:
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Summary:
While vigorous exercise on a treadmill has been shown to slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease in patients, the molecular reasons behind it have remained a mystery.

While vigorous exercise on a treadmill has been shown to slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease in patients, the molecular reasons behind it have remained a mystery.

But now scientists at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus may have an answer.

For the first time in a progressive, age-related mouse model of Parkinson’s, researchers have shown that exercise on a running wheel can stop the accumulation of the neuronal protein alpha-synuclein in brain cells.

The work, published Friday in the journal PLOS ONE, was done by Wenbo Zhou, PhD, research associate professor of medicine and Curt Freed, MD, professor of medicine and division head of the Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology at the CU School of Medicine.

The researchers said clumps of alpha-synuclein are believed to play a central role in the brain cell death associated with Parkinson’s disease. The mice in the study, like humans, started to get Parkinson’s symptoms in mid-life. At 12 months of age, running wheels were put in their cages.

“After three months,” Zhou said, “the running animals showed much better movement and cognitive function compared to control transgenic animals which had locked running wheels.”

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Basic Science Supporting Exercise As A Disease Modifier In Pd

In animal models of PD, exercise has shown to be neuroprotective against the neurotoxins, 6-OHDA and MPTP. Several protective mechanisms have been implicated, including neurotrophic growth factors release, anti-oxidation, and anti-inflammation . Tillerson et al. demonstrated in both 6-OHDA and MPTP rodent models that fixed-speed treadmill exercise twice a day for 10 days post-lesioning resulted in recovery of behavioral deficits and attenuated the loss of striatal dopamine, DOPAC, homovanillic acid, dopamine transporter, tyrosine hydroxylase, and vesicular monoamine transporter compared to those rodents who were not exposed to exercise. A prior study by Tillerson et al. also showed that forcing unilaterally 6-OHDA-lesioned mice to use their contralateral, impaired forelimb for the first 7 days post-intrastriatal 6-OHDA infusion could also attenuate both the resulting neurochemical as well as behavioral deficits. They postulated that this neuroprotection was due to the release of neurotrophic growth factors, and then provided evidence for glia cell-derived neurotrophic factor as a candidate mediator .

Why Exercise Can Help Delay The Onset Of Parkinsons Disease

Parkinson’s disease affects more than a million people in the United States alone, and it is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder in the country. It is also the most common of movement disorders, which also include neurological disorders like Dystonia, Huntington’s disease, Tourette’s syndrome, and others. In fact, there are 60,000 new patients diagnosed with PD each year, and men are one and a half times more likely to develop the disease than women.

PD affects both motor and non-motor related faculties and could include symptoms such as tremors, limb rigidity, gait and balance difficulties, slowness of movement, depression, constipation, sleep issues, and cognitive impairment. Though these symptoms may not be readily apparent, they develop and progress as the disease spreads.

Experts remain unsure exactly what causes Parkinson’s — a combination of environmental and genetic factors seems to be at play — but the good news is that there are ways to slow its onset and protect against its development. One helpful method is to maintain good health through a balanced diet high in fiber and antioxidant-rich foods . Other preventative measures include getting proper sleep, minimizing stress, limiting exposure to toxins, and avoiding head injuries.

Research shows that something else is also promising in preventing and delaying the onset of PD: regular exercise.

Parkinsons Disease Natural Treatment & Remedies In 5 Steps

April 17, 2018

Foods containing iron

Foods Containing Nutrients That People May Be Deficient In

Parkinson

Some research suggests that people with Parkinson’s often have certain nutrient deficiencies, including deficiencies in iron, vitamin B1, vitamin C, zinc, and vitamin D.

The above study points out that some of these deficiencies may be associated with neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration, which are key factors in Parkinson’s.

Therefore, people with Parkinson’s may wish to consume more of the following foods.

Foods containing iron

The following foods are good sources of iron:

  • liver
  • certain fortified foods

Scientifically Backed Ways To Prevent Parkinsons Disease

Dopamine plays a major role in a variety of mental and physical functions, including:

  • Voluntary movement
  • Memory
  • General behavior

Parkinson’s now afflicts roughly 1.5 million people in the United States alone, with primary symptoms being body tremors, slow movement, rigid limbs, reduced memory, a shuffling gait and speech impairment. So we have to ask:

1.) What causes it?

2.) How do we prevent it?

Currently there isn’t a known cure, and it’s not fully understood what causes the dip in dopamine; however, we know that aging is the single most important risk factor for PD, with inflammation and stress contributing to cell damage. And we now know enough about the disease to understand the preventative measures that counter the aging and death of the neurons under attack.

Because there is no known cure, it’s critical that we prevent the disease before symptoms arise. Granted, thanks to recent advancements in modern surgical procedures, there are some safe surgeries that can mitigate some of the more severe symptoms associated with PD. The most common one now is deep brain stimulation, in which they implant an electrode into the brain that can stop some of the more severe symptoms of Parkinson’s.

But this article will try to keep it from getting to that point. The less drugs and surgery we can have in our lives, the better.

How Patients Are Using Cycling To Slow Down Parkinson’s

Parkinson’s symptoms include tremor, rigid muscles and problems with movement. While early treatment can delay the worst symptoms, people almost always get worse. About 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease each year and about a million Americans have Parkinson’s now.

No medical therapy can cure Parkinson’s and while exercise was always shown to help people feel better, it was not generally accepted as a true therapy until recently.

Now teams are trying to find out how much exercise helps and just which symptoms it affects. Doctors say they’d be thrilled just to slow the inevitable worsening of the disease and if they can freeze progression or reverse symptoms, that would be a home run.

Corcos and colleagues say the most intense exercise appears to have at least temporarily frozen symptoms in many of their volunteers.

“The earlier in the disease you intervene, the more likely it is you can prevent the progression of the disease,” Corcos said in a statement.

“We delayed worsening of symptoms for six months,” he added. “Whether we can prevent progression any longer than six months will require further study.”

Related: Walking Helps Parkinson’s

They worked with 128 patients with early stage Parkinson’s. They randomly assigned them to either moderate exercise four days a week, intense exercise four days a week, or no additional exercise.

“This is not mild stretching. This is high intensity,” Corcos said.

Related: Gut germs affect Parkinson’s

Eat Plenty Of Protein But Not With Levodopa Medications

If you’re taking a levodopa medication, your doctor may tell you to avoid protein when taking your meds. Both animal and plant protein can interfere with the absorption of levodopa medications.

But you should still eat plenty of protein. Just be strategic with the timing. “Don’t take levodopa medications with meals,” Dr. Gostkowski says. “It’s best to take it on an empty stomach — either 30 minutes before your meal or an hour after eating.”

If you get nauseous from the medication, eat a small amount of starchy food with it, such as crackers. Make sure whatever you eat with your medicine doesn’t have protein. “It’s a misunderstanding that people with Parkinson’s should avoid protein,” Dr. Gostkowski says. “You definitely need protein in your diet. Just don’t eat it when you’re taking your levodopa medication.”

Eat Plenty Of Protein But Not With Levodopa Medications

If you’re taking a levodopa medication, your doctor may tell you to avoid protein when taking your meds. Both animal and plant protein can interfere with the absorption of levodopa medications.

But you should still eat plenty of protein. Just be strategic with the timing. “Don’t take levodopa medications with meals,” Dr. Gostkowski says. “It’s best to take it on an empty stomach — either 30 minutes before your meal or an hour after eating.”

Scientifically Backed Ways To Prevent Parkinsons Disease

Dopamine plays a major role in a variety of mental and physical functions, including:

1.) What causes it?

What Is The Outlook For Persons With Parkinsons Disease

Although there is no cure or absolute evidence of ways to prevent Parkinson’s disease, scientists are working hard to learn more about the disease and find innovative ways to better manage it, prevent it from progressing and ultimately curing it.

Currently, you and your healthcare team’s efforts are focused on medical management of your symptoms along with general health and lifestyle improvement recommendations . By identifying individual symptoms and adjusting the course of action based on changes in symptoms, most people with Parkinson’s disease can live fulfilling lives.

The future is hopeful. Some of the research underway includes:

  • Using stem cells to produce new neurons, which would produce dopamine.
  • Producing a dopamine-producing enzyme that is delivered to a gene in the brain that controls movement.
  • Using a naturally occurring human protein – glial cell-line derived neurotrophic factor, GDNF – to protect dopamine-releasing nerve cells.

Many other investigations are underway too. Much has been learned, much progress has been made and additional discoveries are likely to come.

How Patients Are Using Cycling To Slow Down Parkinson’s

Parkinson’s symptoms include tremor, rigid muscles and problems with movement. While early treatment can delay the worst symptoms, people almost always get worse. About 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease each year and about a million Americans have Parkinson’s now.

Related: Gut germs affect Parkinson’s

What Makes Exercise So Helpful In Preventing Parkinsons

Parkinson’s is characterized by a loss of dopamine neurons in the brain. A majority of PD research thus far has placed a focus on creating neuroprotective drugs to help combat this loss — yet exercise hasshown to be neuroprotective and enhances a participant’s neuroplasticity with few negative side effects.

Exercise offers numerous physical and psychological benefits for all people; but for PD patients, exercise helps maintain balance, improve mobility, enhance mood, and protect the brain. Exercise also remains a powerful long-term solution when compared to PD medications, which are considered short-term because they become less effective over time.

Exercise also functions as a type of targeted PD therapy to improve a patient’s gait, balance, flexibility, grip strength, and motor coordination. Walking exercises target gait issues, while dancing lessons improve balance and coordination. Participating in resistance training improves strength and helps maintain muscle mass, which decreases with age.

For many seniors, physical activity also offers opportunities to have fun and socialize, which may alleviate symptoms of depression caused by PD. Fitness programs are an easy way to meet new people and connect with a wider community.

Other studies have shown that exercise is similarly beneficial for Alzheimer’s and dementia, two other progressive neurodegenerative disorders.

What Are The Different Stages Of Parkinsons Disease

Each person with Parkinson’s disease experiences symptoms in in their own unique way. Not everyone experiences all symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. You may not experience symptoms in the same order as others. Some people may have mild symptoms; others may have intense symptoms. How quickly symptoms worsen also varies from individual to individual and is difficult to impossible to predict at the outset.

In general, the disease progresses from early stage to mid-stage to mid-late-stage to advanced stage. This is what typically occurs during each of these stages:

Early stage

Early symptoms of Parkinson’s disease are usually mild and typically occur slowly and do not interfere with daily activities. Sometimes early symptoms are not easy to detect or you may think early symptoms are simply normal signs of aging. You may have fatigue or a general sense of uneasiness. You may feel a slight tremor or have difficulty standing.

Often, a family member or friend notices some of the subtle signs before you do. They may notice things like body stiffness or lack of normal movement slow or small handwriting, lack of expression in your face, or difficulty getting out of a chair.

Mid stage

Mid-late stage

Standing and walking are becoming more difficult and may require assistance with a walker. You may need full time help to continue to live at home.

Advanced stage

Slowing Down The Progression Of Parkinsons Disease

How Often Do Patients Need To Exercise To Benefit

What Parkinsons Diagnosis Criteria Do Doctors Use

Until the 1980s, there was no formal diagnostic criteria for Parkinson’s disease. Beginning with James Parkinson’s 1817 article, “An Essay on the Shaking Palsy,” and Margaret Hoehn and Melvin Yahr’s description of the five stages of motor progression in 1967, scientists focused on the unique ways Parkinson’s disease affects movement. A few scientists also noted non-motor symptoms like issues with automatic body functions, such as heart rate and blood pressure.

With the discovery in the 1950s of levodopa, a drug that gets turned into dopamine in your brain and thus replaces some of the dopamine that is lost due to PD, and the discovery of how dramatically levodopa improves motor symptoms, the medical community continued to focus more of their efforts on defining and treating Parkinson’s as a motor condition.7

Other Challenges Of Diagnosing Parkinsons Disease

Parkinson’s disease progresses slowly, often with non-motor symptoms appearing months or years before motor symptoms. This can make it challenging for doctors to diagnose you in the early stages, especially since the diagnostic criteria is based mostly on motor symptoms. You may have to wait until your symptoms progress for you and your doctor to confirm your diagnosis.14

Remember that movement disorder specialists are extremely knowledgeable about Parkinson’s disease and can help put the pieces together where other more generalized doctors may not. Never hesitate to fight for the care you deserve.

How Often Do Patients Need To Exercise To Benefit

How to Prevent Parkinson

Patients need to engage in at least 150 minutes of exercise each week to see an impact. In a paper published in JAMA Neurology, researchers were able to delay the progression of PD for six months through exercise alone, splitting exercise into three sessions per week, with each session increasing the participant’s heart rate to a maximum of 80-85%.

Slowing The Spread Of Alpha Synuclein Pathology

There is a mantra that disease modifying treatments must be initiated early if they are to be of any use in preventing disease progression. This is because post mortem specimens suggest that>50% of SNc dopaminergic neurons are already lost by the time that patients present with the classical motor features of the disease . Given that there are many effective symptomatic treatments to help the motor, dopaminergic deficits in PD, it can be argued that the important unmet needs in PD relate to cognitive, speech, gait and balance difficulties and autonomic failure. In this case any treatment that prevented onset/worsening of these symptoms, would be highly relevant even in patients with established motor PD, and would be addressing the major challenges that patients face in its long-term management. From another perspective, since many of these “non-motor” features of PD may precede the onset of motor symptoms, we may have an even earlier window to start therapy, and have an opportunity to slow or stop the development of even the first motor symptoms of PD.

Beyond this, the companies will have to look carefully at the emerging data to decide whether a strategy of enrichment might be advantageous, and/or whether to risk extending trial eligibility to patients with more established disease than those currently being recruited.

Randomized Controlled Trials Of Exercise And Pd

There have been many clinical trials, systematic reviews and meta-analyses of exercise as a symptomatic therapy for PD motor and NMS . Nevertheless, the variability in study design, exercise mode and regimen, participant selection, and outcome measurement tool used in the RCTs makes comparison between the studies difficult, and results in the inability to define “exercise prescription”; i.e., the formulation , dose , route , frequency , and duration . While not intended to exhaustively cover all exercise RCTs in PD, this section summarizes some of the more recent and rigorous interventional study data, highlighting RCTs that addressed the important question of “exercise prescription” in their design. This section aims to lay the groundwork and underline the need for more rigorously designed exercise RCTs, as will be discussed in our final section “Designing clinical trials for exercise.”

Can Progression Of Parkinson Disease Be Slowed

Matthew Gavidia

Deep brain stimulation implanted in early-stage Parkinson disease was found to decrease the risk of disease progression. If findings are replicated in a larger trial recently approved by the FDA, DBS would be the first therapy proven to slow the progression of any element in PD.

Deep brain stimulation implanted in early stage Parkinson disease was found to decrease the risk of disease progression and lessen the need for multiple, simultaneous prescription drugs, according to study findings published in Neurology.

PD serves as the fastest growing neurological disorder worldwide, with as many as 60,000 US cases diagnosed each year. Innovations within the treatment of PD have led to better, noninvasive outcomes for common symptoms such as tremor and OFF periods. However, as the disease progresses, these therapies may not prove as effective and can contribute to significant economic burden for both patients and caregivers.

When it comes to managing PD, senior author David Charles, MD, professor and vice chair of neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center , noted the “relentless” nature of the disease, which currently has no therapies approved to slow its progression.

After the 5-year follow-up, the study found that those with early-stage PD who received early DBS with ODT had a more than 5 times lesser odds of of experiencing worsening of their rest tremor compared with those given only ODT .

Reference

Foods Containing Saturated Fat And Cholesterol

Some studies suggest that dietary fat intake may increase the risk of Parkinson’s.

Although having a higher intake of cholesterol can elevate a person’s Parkinson’s risk, having a higher intake of polyunsaturated fatty acids may reduce the risk.

Therefore, a person with Parkinson’s may wish to reduce their intake of cholesterol to help control the symptoms of the condition. They may also wish to reduce the amount of saturated fat in their diet.

However, further studies are required to explore the link between dietary fat and Parkinson’s.

Parkinson’s Disease Symptoms: Life Expectancy

Even though Parkinson’s disease is a serious, progressive condition, it is not considered a fatal illness. People who have Parkinson’s disease usually have the same average life expectancy as people without the disease.

But when the disease is in its advanced stages, Parkinson’s symptoms can lead to life-threatening complications, including:

  • Falls that lead to fractured bones
  • Pneumonia
  • Choking

Thinking about the progression of Parkinson’s disease can be frightening. But proper treatments can help you live a full, productive life for years to come. And researchers hope to one day find ways to halt the progression of Parkinson’s and restore lost functioning.


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