Category Archives: Parkinson’s Treatment

The Parkinsons Disease Support Group met Wednesday, May 14, at the Faulkner County Library. A large group attended this informative meeting with one new person in attendance. Special guest speaker was Dr. Katie Hendley, movement disorder specialist with the Lubbock Diagnostic Clinic in Lubbock, Texas. She specializes in the treatment of Parkinsons disease patients. She gave a lengthy, easy-to-understand presentation about the different aspects of PD and made suggestions during her presentation. The cause of Parkinsons disease is unknown, but it is a movement disorder where a vital chemical in the brain called dopamine is reduced. Without the right amount of dopamine, movement can be impaired. Researchers think that both genes and environment may play a role in the cause of Parkinsons disease. Dr. Hendley discussed the motor and non-motor symptoms of PD. Examples of motor symptoms are tremors, shuffling feet, stiff limbs, stooping, and balance problems. Non-motor skills may include pain, sleep disturbance, slowed thinking, and depression. The physician will make a diagnosis based on a persons symptoms and his/her neurological examination since there are no laboratory tests or brain scan that can be used to diagnose PD. A person should act early on to get help, as patients … Continue reading →

HEALTH MATTERS: Parkinson's Treatment undefined. By: WSYX Columbus … Continue reading →

Published: Tuesday, May 20, 2014 at 8:51 p.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, May 20, 2014 at 8:51 p.m. The illness, which surfaced in his early 40s, had forced him to leave his job as a telephone lineman. He was increasingly unable to hunt, fish or work in the multiacre yard outside his home north of Lakeland. He was desperate for additional treatment in 2002, the year the Food and Drug Administration approved deep-brain stimulation for advanced Parkinson's. Kendrick had surgery in July 2004 at Tampa General Hospital to install the system needed for the electrical treatment. "If it weren't for deep-brain stimulation therapy, Roland would not be moving around today," said Joyce Kendrick, his wife of 15 years. That treatment is now standard now for advanced Parkinson's, a disorder of the nervous system that affects movement. "Patients have improvement for long periods of time," said Dr. Theresa A. Zesiewicz, neurologist and director of The Frances J. Zesiewicz Center and Foundation for Parkinson's Disease at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Close to 100,000 people have gotten deep-brain stimulation by now. Hundreds of her patients have, Zesiewicz said. There were far fewer when Kendrick got it in 2004, although it was … Continue reading →

April was Parkinson's Awarness Month, but here at ThirdAge we want to promote PD awarness all year long. To that end, here's a fascintating and encouraging new study about PD. In Parkinson's disease, dopamine-producing nerve cells that control movements waste away. Current treatments for PD aim at restoring dopamine contents in the brain. Now researchers at Lund University in Sweden are attacking the problem from a different angle. Ther are experimenting with early activation of a protein that improves the brain's capacity to cope with a host of harmful processes. Stimulating the protein that is called Sigma-1 receptor sets off a battery of defense mechanisms and restores lost motor function. The results were obtained in mice, but clinical trials in patients may not be far away. A release from the university notes that by activating the Sigma-1 receptor, , levels of several molecules that help nerve cells build new connections were increased, inflammation was decreased, and dopamine levels also rose. The results, published in May 2014 the journal Brain, show a marked improvement of motor symptoms in mice with a Parkinson-like condition that had been treated with a Sigma-1-stimulating drug for 5 weeks. This treatment has never before been studied … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 16-May-2014 Contact: M. Angela Cenci Nilsson Angela.Cenci_Nilsson@med.lu.se 46-462-221-431 Lund University In Parkinson's disease (PD), dopamine-producing nerve cells that control our movements waste away. Current treatments for PD therefore aim at restoring dopamine contents in the brain. In a new study from Lund University, researchers are attacking the problem from a different angle, through early activation of a protein that improves the brain's capacity to cope with a host of harmful processes. Stimulating the protein, called Sigma-1 receptor, sets off a battery of defence mechanisms and restores lost motor function. The results were obtained in mice, but clinical trials in patients may not be far away. By activating the Sigma-1 receptor, a versatile protein involved in many cellular functions, levels of several molecules that help nerve cells build new connections increased, inflammation decreased, while dopamine levels also rose. The results, published in the journal Brain, show a marked improvement of motor symptoms in mice with a Parkinson-like condition that had been treated with a Sigma-1-stimulating drug for 5 weeks. This treatment has never before been studied in connection with Parkinson's disease. However, various publications linked to stroke and motor neurone disease have reported positive results with drugs that … Continue reading →

A neurosurgeon from Des Moines spoke to a local support group Tuesday about a non-medical treatment option for Parkinson's Disease. Esmiralda Henderson, of Mercy Medical Center, spoke to about a dozen people in the Parkinson's Support Group at the Marshalltown Public Library about deep brain stimulation. Henderson, the only deep brain stimulation fellowship trained in central Iowa, told the group the two stage surgery first starts with a thin electrode being implanted in a specific region of the brain using precise equipment. The patient is generally kept awake for portions of the procedure in order to provide important information and feedback regarding the lead placement, Henderson said. T-R PHOTO BY STEPHANIE IVANKOVICH Esmiralda Henderson, a neurosurgeon from Des Moines, talks to the Parkinsons Disease Support Group, Tuesday at the Marshalltown Public Library. Henderson told the group about deep brain stimulation, a treatment for Parkinsons Disease. During second procedure the patient would be put to sleep to have the neurostimulator implanted under the patient's collar bone or in the abdominal area. The neurostimulator is essentially a brain pacemaker, Henderson said. "It treats symptoms of Parkinson's Disease just like medications would," Henderson said. "It's important for someone with Parkinson's Disease to come … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 15-May-2014 Contact: David Garner david.garner@york.ac.uk 44-019-043-22153 University of York A biologist and a psychologist at the University of York have joined forces with a drug discovery group at Lundbeck in Denmark to develop a potential route to new therapies for the treatment of Parkinson's Disease (PD). Dr Chris Elliott, of the Department of Biology, and Dr Alex Wade, of the Department of Psychology, have devised a technique that could both provide an early warning of the disease and result in therapies to mitigate its symptoms. In research reported in Human Molecular Genetics, they created a more sensitive test which detected neurological changes before degeneration of the nervous system became apparent. In laboratory tests using fruit flies, the researchers discovered that a human genetic mutation that causes Parkinson's amplified visual signals in young flies dramatically. This resulted in loss of vision in later life. Working with researchers from the Danish pharmaceutical company, H.Lundbeck A/S, they tested a new drug that targets the Parkinson's mutation in flies. This drug prevented the abnormal changes in the flies' visual function. It is the first time that the compound has been used in vivo and its effectiveness was analysed using the new, … Continue reading →

Dr. Vinnette Little, Baptist Health MAGNUS LINDQVIST Herald-Leader Buy Photo Osteoporosis is low bone mass coupled with an increased risk of fracture. It's often confused with osteoarthritis, which is a condition of the joints that causes pain, stiffness and sometimes swelling. Unlike osteoarthritis, osteoporosis does not cause pain until there are bone fractures. Most commonly, osteoporosis affects older women who fall and fracture a hip or a wrist or suffer from compression fractures of the spine. While thin, elderly Caucasian women are at the highest risk, there are many other people of all ages who might be at risk for osteoporosis. There are several things that can affect your bone mass. Loss of estrogen in women is the most common reason for bone loss. This is due to menopause, both natural and surgical, where either the ovaries no longer produce estrogen or the functioning ovaries are removed for one reason or another. Also, breast cancer patients who have been treated with aromatase inhibitors, medicines that block the effects of estrogen in the body, can lose bone mass. Also, men and women of any age who have taken steroids such as prednisone for extended periods will lose bone mass due to … Continue reading →

A follow-up study of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) who participated in an earlier "proof of concept" clinical trial using exenatide showed that improvements persisted twelve months after discontinuing exenatide therapy. These data provide strong encouragement for the further study of this drug in patients with PD, report researchers in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease. Several recent discoveries have highlighted common cellular pathways that potentially relate neurodegenerative processes with abnormal mitochondrial function and abnormal glucose metabolism. Exenatide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist (GLP-1 agonist) medication marketed as Byetta and Bydureon and used in the treatment of insulin resistance in patients with Type 2 diabetes, has been proposed as a disease modifying drug in PD. Earlier studies had shown that exenatide is neuroprotective and promotes functionally beneficial neuroplasticity in animal models of neurodegeneration. Furthermore, exenatide has a favorable safety profile, with only relatively mild gastrointestinal side effects (including nausea and weight loss) as frequent adverse events. In an earlier "proof of concept" randomized controlled trial published in May 2013, participants were randomized to either self-administer exenatide in addition to their regular PD medications or to act as controls, i.e., receive their conventional PD treatment only. All of the participants had moderate severity … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 5-May-2014 Contact: Daphne Watrin d.watrin@iospress.nl 31-206-883-355 IOS Press Amsterdam, NL, 5 May 2014 A follow-up study of patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) who participated in an earlier "proof of concept" clinical trial using exenatide showed that improvements persisted twelve months after discontinuing exenatide therapy. These data provide strong encouragement for the further study of this drug in patients with PD, report researchers in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease. Several recent discoveries have highlighted common cellular pathways that potentially relate neurodegenerative processes with abnormal mitochondrial function and abnormal glucose metabolism. Exenatide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 agonist (GLP-1 agonist) medication marketed as Byetta and Bydureon and used in the treatment of insulin resistance in patients with Type 2 diabetes, has been proposed as a disease modifying drug in PD. Earlier studies had shown that exenatide is neuroprotective and promotes functionally beneficial neuroplasticity in animal models of neurodegeneration. Furthermore, exenatide has a favorable safety profile, with only relatively mild gastrointestinal side effects (including nausea and weight loss) as frequent adverse events. In an earlier "proof of concept" randomized controlled trial published in May 2013, participants were randomized to either self-administer exenatide in addition to their regular PD medications or to act … Continue reading →