Parkinson's disease information

Unravelling How Locomotion Starts Scientists at the University of Bristol have shed new light on one of the great unanswered questions of neuroscience: how the brain initiates rhythmic movements like walking, running and swimming...

Potential To Predict Parkinson's Disease Via Colonoscopy Or Flexible Sigmoidoscopy Two studies by neurological researchers at Rush University Medical Center suggest that, in the future, colonic tissue obtained during either colonoscopy or flexible sigmoidoscopy may be used to predict who will develop Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder of aging that that leads to progressive deterioration of motor function due to loss of neurons in the brain tha...

Gene Variants Identified That Speed Progression Of Parkinson's Disease UCLA researchers may have found a key to determining which Parkinson's disease patients will experience a more rapid decline in motor function, sparking hopes for the development of new therapies and helping identify those who could benefit most from early intervention...

Vitamin K2 Potentially Offers Hope For A New Treatment For Parkinson's Disease Neuroscientist Patrik Verstreken, associated with VIB and KU Leuven, succeeded in undoing the effect of one of the genetic defects that leads to Parkinson's using vitamin K2. His discovery gives hope to Parkinson's patients...

Researchers Discover A New Family Of Key Mitochondrial Proteins For The Function And Viability Of The Brain This family comprises a cluster of six genes that may be altered in neurological conditions, such as Parkinson's and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease...

Damaged Stem Cells Commit Suicide For The Good Of The Embryo Embryonic stem cells - those revered cells that give rise to every cell type in the body - just got another badge of honor. If they suffer damage that makes them a threat to the developing embryo, they swiftly fall on their swords for the greater good, according to a study published online in the journal Molecular Cell...

Researcher Developing Therapy To Halt Symptoms In Parkinson's Patients Parkinson's disease, a disorder which affects movement and cognition, affects over a million Americans, including actor Michael J. Fox, who first brought it to the attention of many TV-watching Americans. It's characterized by a gradual loss of neurons that produce dopamine...

Once-Marginalized Parkinson's Disease Theory May Be Valid The March issue of the FEBS Journal reports that scientists from the Californian University in San Diego have discovered new evidence for a theory that was once marginalized with regard to the underlying causes of Parkinson's disease, which conflicts with an older theory that Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases are caused by insoluble intracellular fibrils called amyloids...

Scientists Identify Brain Circuitry Associated With Addictive, Depressive Behaviors Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have determined how specific circuitry in the brain controls not only body movement but also motivation and learning, providing new insight into neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease - and psychiatric disorders such as addiction and depression...

Parkinson's Disease Neuropsychiatric Features And Fatigue Respond To Transdermal Rotigotine At the 64th American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting in New Orleans USA, UCB presented results from their post-hoc analyses of Neupro (rotigotine), which suggests that the drug improves common non-motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson's disease...

Strong Support Uncovered For Once-Marginalized Theory On Parkinson's Disease University of California, San Diego scientists have used powerful computational tools and laboratory tests to discover new support for a once-marginalized theory about the underlying cause of Parkinson's disease. The new results conflict with an older theory that insoluble intracellular fibrils called amyloids cause Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases...

Parkinson's Patients Might Respond To 19th Century Vibration-Chair Therapy To relieve symptoms of Parkinson's disease, Jean-Martin Charcot, a famous neurologist in the 19th century developed a "vibration chair" that showed improvements in his patients. However, Charcot died soon afterwards, before being able to conduct a more comprehensive evaluation of his therapy...

Vibration Therapy From The 19th Century May Help Today's Parkinson's Patients In the 19th century, Jean-Martin Charcot, the celebrated neurologist, developed a "vibration chair," to relieve symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Charcot reported improvements in his patients, but he died shortly thereafter and a more complete evaluation of the therapy was never conducted...

Parkinson's Protein Causes Disease Spread In Animal Model Last year, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that small amounts of a misfolded brain protein can be taken up by healthy neurons, replicating within them to cause neurodegeneration...

In Patients With Parkinson's Disease Dementia, New Findings, Imaging May Aid Diagnosis Of Concomitant AD Dementia is a frequent complication of Parkinson's disease (PD), but it is clinically impossible to distinguish PD dementia (PDD), which develops from the progression of the Lewy body pathology that underlies PD, from PD with coexistent Alzheimer's disease (PDAD). Both have similar characteristics...

The Risk Of Parkinson's Disease In Diabetes Can Be Substantially Reduced By Metformin A major 12-year study based on a Taiwanese population cohort has demonstrated that not only does diabetes increase the risk of developing Parkinson's disease more than 2-fold, the use of sulfonylureas, commonly used as treatment for diabetes, increases the risk further by about 57%...

Understanding How Parkinson's Disease Starts And Spreads Injection of a small amount of clumped protein triggers a cascade of events leading to a Parkinson's-like disease in mice, according to an article published online this week in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Progressive accumulation of clumps of the protein alpha-synuclein in the brains of patients with Parkinson's disease coincides with the onset of motor dysfunction...

Easing Depression In Parkinson's Patients Without Worsening Other Symptoms Today's anti-depressant medications can ease depression in Parkinson's patients without worsening other symptoms of the disease, according to a study published online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "Depression is the number-one factor negatively affecting the quality of life for people with Parkinson's disease," said Irene Hegeman Richard, M.D...

Ocular Tremors Parkinson's Disease Link A study, published Online First by Archives of Neurology, reveals that persistent eye tremors seem to be common in individuals suffering from Parkinson's disease (PD). Ocular tremors can prevent eye stability during fixation and results from the study indicate that precise oculomotor testing could provide an early physiological biomarker for diagnosing Parkinson's disease. George T...

Men May Be Protected Against Parkinson's Disease By Consumption Of Flavonoids Men who eat flavonoid-rich foods such as berries, tea, apples and red wine significantly reduce their risk of developing Parkinson's disease, according to new research by Harvard University and the University of East Anglia (UEA)...

Eating Berries May Lower Men's Parkinson's Risk Men who regularly consume foods rich in flavonoids, such as berries, apples, certain vegetables, tea and red wine, may significantly reduce their risk for developing Parkinson's disease, according to a study published in the journal Neurology this week that saw no such effect among women...

Stroke Rehab And More: Stimulating The Brain To Improve Speech, Memory, Numerical Abilities One of the most frustrating challenges for some stroke patients can be the inability to find and speak words even if they know what they want to say. Speech therapy is laborious and can take months. New research is seeking to cut that time significantly, with the help of non-invasive brain stimulation...

Potential Strategy To Restore Motor And Cognitive Function In Parkinson's Disease An agent under consideration for use in PET imaging combats neuronal death to relieve Parkinsonian symptoms in animal models, according to a study published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. The movement-related symptoms of Parkinson's disease, including muscle rigidity and tremors, are caused by the loss of dopamine-secreting neurons in the brain...

Key Enzyme Involved In Protecting Nerves From Degeneration Identified A new animal model of nerve injury has brought to light a critical role of an enzyme called Nmnat in nerve fiber maintenance and neuroprotection...