levodopa

Medications for PD fall into three categories. The first category includes drugs that increase the level of dopamine in the brain. The second category of PD drugs affects other neurotransmitters in the body in order to ease some of the symptoms of the disease. The third category of drugs prescribed for PD includes medications that help control the non-motor symptoms of the disease, that is, the symptoms that don't affect movement. The most common drugs for PD are in the first category, dopamine precursors—substances such as levodopa that cross the blood-brain barrier and are then changed into dopamine.  Other drugs ...

I know what you're thinking, there must be a sucker born every minute. That is a reasonable hypothesis, and by my calculation, probably a gross underestimate. The CIA estimates 2018 global population to be 7,503,828,180, with a birth rate of 18.2 births per 1,000 population. This translates to approximately 259 births per minute. In order to reach our target of one sucker born of every minute, we need 1 out of 259, or 0.38% of those born to be suckers. (Source: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html) In the USA alone, there are approximately 3.8 million births per year, or 7.23 per minute. In order ...

The dog ate my homework, and gut bacteria ate my Parkinson’s meds. I'm glad it wasn't the other way around. In spite of my poor attempt at humor, this is one of the most interesting scientific discoveries related to Parkinson’s Disease so far this year. No, it does not bring us any closer to a cure, but it is of practical significance because it identifies a naturally occurring scenario that can severely limit the effectiveness of levodopa ...

Weekly Update Highlights: Parkinson's Disease and the nagging spouse; Parkinson's Si Buko (the must-read inspiring effort in Uganda to educate that PD is not witchcraft); Generic Carbidopa/Levodopa Extended Release; Gut Bacteria Interferes with Parkinson's Disease Medication; PD research updates; diet and nutrition for Parkinson's; PD exercise programs in the news; and more ...

Weekly Update - Highlights include: Looking ahead to World Parkinson Congress 2019 and back at WPC2016; a vacuum cleaner analogy that sucks; Help Wanted (for this website); dyskinesias Dancing; Losing your grip (and where to look for it); don't take CBD Oil to Disney; pick your PD therapy - hockey or karate; research study says strength training makes you breathe hard; Kirk Gibson; Olympic dreams for PD skier; reducing dementia risk; and more ...

This is a recap of the most interesting news and discussions relating to Parkinson’s Disease this past week. Researchers delivered a sobering statistic that if you can survive more than 10 years with Parkinson's, there is a greater than 50% chance of developing dementia...and reminded us that regular exercise is the best intervention to avoid becoming a statistic. Fee-fi-fo-fum, this woman can smell the musky smell of Parkinson's...the fascinating story of a wife who nagged her husband about his hygiene for years before his PD diagnosis...20+ years later researchers are using her to sniff out biomarkers that can be used ...

For those who are either new to, or unfamiliar with Parkinson's Disease, one of the things that seems to surprise most people is that the prescription drugs have no effect one the disease itself. The drugs provide only symptomatic control. Whether you take the drugs or not, the disease progresses (gets worse), and the drugs have less ability to control the symptoms...requiring larger or more frequent doses...and/or becoming less effective. At a certain level, this seems highly suspicious. You need more and more of a drug...are we sure the drugs are not making it worse? Then, there's another issue. The ...

Hardly a week goes by where there isn't another study exploring the connection between gut bacteria and Parkinson's Disease. While research continues to try to understand exactly how different strains of gut bacteria are involved in the development and/or progression of PD, a recent study highlights the obvious impact that differences between our unique individual microbiomes can have on how we experience PD in our daily lives. Side note: If you are curious about this research, one of the more useful updates that I recently added to this website is the ability to search recent news items related to Parkinson's ...