Month: April 2019

Weekly Update - Spine tingling implants help restore walking ability for housebound patients; young blood infusions aren’t just for vampires any more; brain implants decode and synthesize speech; a health insurer includes coverage for a Parkinson’s Boxing program; Deep Brain Stimulation info;  top Parkinson’s blogs; UK GDNF Trial Follow-up; Parkinson’s exercise programs in the news last week; and more ...

When it comes to running, no event is more prestigious than the Boston Marathon. This year's Boston Marathon finishers included at least two people with Parkinson's Disease (and one extremely supportive spouse), who are inspiring us to challenge the limitations of Parkinson's Disease. Michael Quaglia was diagnosed with PD 13 years ago, at the age of 42. This news report from NBC 10 News in Providence, Rhode Island tells his story: “You wake up every morning and you say, ‘Hopefully, today is going to be a good day,’ If it is, you take advantage of it. If not, you do ...

Major Tom to Ground Control ... this week’s report comes from  somewhere over the North Atlantic Ocean at an altitude of 36,000 feet, where we are currently testing air turbulence therapy for Parkinson’s Disease ... so apologies in advance for any and all typos. In an otherwise slow holiday week, University of Cambridge researchers are suggesting that an existing high blood pressure medication, felodipine, might be repurposed to treat Parkinson’s Disease. This study reminds me of another high blood pressure medication, isradipine, also a calcium channel blocker, which saw positive results in an animal model study 12 years ago. Since ...

In an otherwise slow holiday week, University of Cambridge researchers are suggesting that an existing high blood pressure medication might be repurposed to treat Parkinson’s Disease. Felodipine, at proportionally low doses was able to induce autophagy and clean out misfolded proteins in a mouse model of Parkinson’s. There is a lot more research needed as more PD research increasingly targets autophagy: https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-04/uoc-bpd041619.php This study reminds me of another high blood pressure medication, isradipine, which saw positive results in an animal model study 12 years ago. Researchers have recently completed a 3 year phase 3 study of isradipine, and these latest ...

Parkinson’s Disease features this week: World Parkinson’s Day awareness around the globe; boxing helps a husband get his wife back from Parkinson’s grip; bionic assistance for raising a middle finger as a PD salute; a young onset PD perspective on bucket lists; virtual reality training for balance; detecting early stage Parkinson’s with a selfie (and not just because the camera is shaking); people with Parkinson’s in the UK are tired of people thinking they are drunk; and more. Thursday, April 11 was World Parkinson’s Day 2019, a day on which various organizations try to draw public awareness to issues surrounding ...

A great story out of Rock Steady Boxing Wasatch Front in Utah... Brandi Ballantyne was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease 6 years ago. It’s hard not to get choked up when her husband Paul tells how thanks to boxing he got his wife back from Parkinson's grip. She is now a Rock Steady Boxing coach leading classes to help others ...

The late great master of the telecaster, Albert Collins, was well known for his rendition of “I Ain't Drunk, I’m Just Drinkin'”. But with Parkinson’s, the song could be reworked as “I Ain't Drunk, I’m Just Thinkin'”, as just about every media outlet in the UK featured an article about people with PD being misjudged as being drunk. Today is World Parkinson’s Day, an arbitrary day (Dr. James Parkinson's birthday) on which various organizations try to draw public awareness to issues surrounding Parkinson’s Disease. And it is interesting to note the themes coming from different parts of the world. Globally, ...

This intriguing new device could inspire a new World Parkinson’s Day tradition. In addition to helping diagnose Parkinson’s, the BiRD (Bionics Institute Rigidity Device) offers a therapeutic benefit to patients by bionically assisting them in defiantly raising their middle finger at Parkinson’s Disease. Researchers from Bionics Institute in Melbourne Australia have developed a small, palm-worn device to help diagnose Parkinson’s disease—a condition which is otherwise difficult to identify. The BiRD attaches to the patient's hand via Velcro straps and employs a motor to repeatedly bend the patient’s middle finger for 30 seconds. Integrated sensors measure the force required to bend ...

Could Parkinson's Disease be detected by a selfie? This seems like a rather cruel trick to me, as it can be quite a challenge to take a selfie when you have Parkinson's! Wired Health is an annual conference at The Francis Crick Institute in London which focuses on innovation in healthcare technology. The startup pitch winner at this year's conference was Erin Smith, founder of FacePrint, an automated screening and monitoring tool that claims to be able to detect Parkinson’s Disease using early-stage facial expression indicators. Requiring only a camera equipped smartphone, FacePrint can detect early stages of Parkinson’s Disease ...

This is a recap of the most interesting news and discussions related to Parkinson’s Disease this past week. We start by trying to make sense of the latest news reports about Vitamin B-12 and hereditary Parkinson's. The research is very preliminary, but quite interesting when considered in conjunction with other recent studies. Next we ponder why researchers are giving fruit flies jet lag; see how PD progression can be measured with standard MRI equipment; learn why yelling at clouds may be a sign of a particular non-motor symptom of PD; watch local TV news stations participate in Parkinson's Disease Awareness ...

A recent study concluded that one of the active forms of Vitamin B-12 offers neuroprotection and significantly prevents neurotoxicity in animal models of Parkinson's which are influenced by a hereditary genetic variation in the LRRK2 gene. What exactly does that mean? Well, I'm not a scientist, and if you are reading this, you probably aren't either...so let's try to break this down so the rest of us can understand. (If by chance, you are a scientist, then I would suggest skipping this article, and reading this article instead: https://scienceofparkinsons.com/2019/03/22/b12/. As usual, the Science of Parkinson's website offers excellent detailed analysis, ...

The University of Florida department of Advancement published an interesting article on Parkinson’s Disease at the University of Florida. The article focuses on researcher David Vaillancourt, and study participant Gary Keating, brought together by a common goal to cure Parkinson’s, and a love for the game of basketball. Both have stories to tell that involve Parkinson’s. The article “Two Jocks, One Goal: Cure Parkinson’s” is published at https://www.uff.ufl.edu/your-impact/two-jocks-one-goal-cure-parkinsons/ Vaillancourt’s story highlights: In 2014, Vaillancourt and his UF lab made history when they identified the first noninvasive imaging biomarker of PD: structural changes in the substantia nigra, a nucleus in the ...

What will scientists think of next? And why am I not surprised that they waited until the day after April Fool's Day to release this study. The Daily Mail reports that "A jet lag 'brain switch' that controls the body clock may hold the key to a cure for Alzheimer's disease, according to new research." And you've got to love the headline: "Could jet lag make your brain more resilient? Scientists stunned to find fruit flies with constantly changing schedules were LESS likely to get Alzheimer's, Huntington's and Parkinson's" Study leader Professor Ravi Allada, a circadian rhythms expert at Northwestern ...