Article posted: 2/27/2012 6:00 AM

The ancient Chinese exercise tai chi, shown here at the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene, Ore., improved balance and lowered the risk of falls in a study of people with Parkinson?s disease.

Courtesy of the Oregon Research Institute

NEW YORK — The ancient Chinese exercise of tai chi improved balance and lowered the risk of falls in a study of people with Parkinson?s disease.

Symptoms of the brain disorder include tremors and stiff, jerky movements that can affect walking and other activities. Medications and surgery can help, and doctors often recommend exercise or physical therapy.

Tai chi, with its slow, graceful movements, has been shown to improve strength and aid stability in older people, and has been studied for a number of ailments. In the latest study, led by Fuzhong Li of the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene, tai chi was tested in 195 people with mild-to-moderate Parkinson?s.

The participants attended twice-weekly group classes of either tai chi or two other kinds of exercise — stretching and resistance training, which included steps and lunges with ankle weights and a weighted vest.

The tai chi routine was tailored for the Parkinson?s patients, with a focus on ?swing and sway? motions and weight-shifting, said Li, who practices tai chi and teaches instructors.

After six months of classes, the tai chi group did significantly better than the stretching group in tests of balance, control, walking and other measures. Compared with resistance training, the tai chi group did better in balance, control and stride, and about the same in other tests.

Tai chi training was better than stretching in reducing falls, and as effective as resistance training, the researchers reported. The improvements in the tai chi group continued during three months of follow-up.

Li said the study showed tai chi was safe. It?s easy to learn, and there?s no special equipment, he added.

?People are looking for alternative programs, and this could be one of them,? he said.

Estimates vary, but at least 500,000 people in the United States have Parkinson?s.

The findings appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study was paid for by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

Dr. Chenchen Wang, who is studying tai chi for arthritis and fibromyalgia, said the results of the Parkinson?s research were ?dramatic and impressive.? She heads the Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine at Tufts Medical Center in Boston.

One of the study?s strengths: Researchers could measure the results directly instead of relying on the patients? own reports, she said. But a placebo effect can?t be totally discounted, she said, since the participants knew which exercise program they were assigned and that could have influenced results.

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Tai chi may help ease Parkinson's symptoms

By Michelle Clement | February 24, 2012 |  

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23andMe are offering free lifetime access to their personal genome service to people who have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease for their participation in their Parkinson’s disease research initiative.

Below is a promotional video for the project that highlights Muhammad Ali’s struggle with Parkinson’s disease and his participation in 23andMe’s research program. If you or someone you know has Parkinson’s disease, watch the video, check out the website, and explore your options for participation.

About the Author: Michelle Clement has a B.Sc. in zoology and a M.Sc. in organismal biology, both from The Ohio State University. Her thesis research was on the ecophysiology of epidermal lipids and water homeostasis in house sparrows. She now works as a technical editor for The American Chemical Society. Like this blog on Facebook. Follow on Twitter @physilology.

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The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.

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Parkinson's disease patients get free lifetime access to 23andMe personal genome service.

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on February 24, 2012

New research suggests administration of dopamine can uncover latent creative talents among some individuals with Parkinson’s disease.

European scientists discovered Parkinson’s disease patients can suddenly become creative when they take dopamine therapy, producing pictures, sculptures, novels and poetry. However, the extreme focus on the new interests may limit performance of normal daily tasks and social activities.

In the study, Italian researchers studied 36 patients with Parkinson’s disease — 18 with increased artistic production and 18 without — and compared them with 36 healthy controls without Parkinson’s. None of the patients had engaged in artistic hobbies before they took dopamine.

“Patients were included in the artistic group if they started working on creative projects for two or more hours a day after starting taking dopamine” explains lead author Dr Margherita Canesi.

“Our findings suggest that the patients’ newly acquired artistic skills were probably there all along, but did not start to emerge until they took the dopamine therapy.

“They did not appear to be connected with abnormal repetitive behaviors, such as impulse control disorders or punding – stereotyped behavior characterized by an intense fascination with a complex, excessive, non-goal oriented, repetitive activity.

“Other researchers have noted that altered creative drive has been observed in patients who have neurodegenerative diseases or have had a stroke. However the anatomical and physiological understanding of creativity is difficult to establish and quantify.”

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers. It helps to regulate movement and emotional responses and enables people to see rewards and work towards them.
A deficiency in dopamine is the critical factor influencing Parkinson’s disease. Physicians often prescribe dopamine therapy to increase dopamine levels in the brain.

Key findings of the study included:

The artwork presented by the patients was mainly drawings/paintings (83%), poetry/novels (50%) and sculpture (28%). In 78% of cases, the patients showed more than one skill, normally writing plus painting or drawing. Some of the patients produced art that was sold and books that were published, but, at the other end of the scale, some of the creative work was of a very poor quality. By using the Torrence Test of Creative Thinking to compare the three groups, the researchers showed that the artistic Parkinson’s Disease patients had similar overall and individual scores to the healthy controls. However the non-artistic patients had significantly lower overall scores than the healthy controls and significantly lower scores than the artistic patients when it came to the elaboration sub-score. There was no correlation between the Torrence Test of Creative Thinking scores and the scores obtained using the Barratt Impulsivity Scale, one of the oldest and most widely used measures of impulsive personality traits. The researchers also used the Minnesota Impulsive Disorders Interview. This showed that one creative patient was positive for compulsive sexual behaviour, one creative patient for compulsive buying and two creative and three non-creative patients for pathological gambling. However, there was little difference in the Torrence scores for patients who tested positive or negative on the Minnesota scale. None of the patients or healthy controls displayed the stereotyped behaviour measured by the Punding Rating Scale.

“In conclusion, we found that newly acquired creative drive in patients with Parkinson’s Disease, after the introduction of dopaminergic therapy, is not related to impulsivity or impulse control disorders as measured by the Barratt Impulsivity Scale or the Minnesota Impulsive Disorders Interview” says Dr Canesi.

“We believe that their desire to be creative could represent emerging innate skills, possibly linked to repetitive and reward-seeking behaviours. Further studies are needed to support our preliminary observations.”

Source: Wiley-Blackwell

Elderly man holding paint brushes photo by shutterstock.

APA Reference
Nauert PhD, R. (2012). Dopamine Improves Creativity in Parkinson’s. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 25, 2012, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/02/24/dopamine-improves-creativity-in-parkinson%e2%80%99s/35229.html

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Dopamine Improves Creativity in Parkinson’s

Andrew Richardson - Parkinsons Disease Competition Entry

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Andrew Richardson - Parkinsons Disease Competition Entry.mov - Video

TMJ patient treated by Dr.

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Parkinson's Disease Symptoms: Tremor, Posture, Gait and Balance Improve with TMJ Treatment - Video

LOS ANGELES — A six-month program of tai chi exercises helped people with various stages of Parkinson's disease improve stability, their ability to walk and reduced the frequency of falls.

A study released this month in the New England Journal of Medicine compared a six-month tailored tai chi program to resistance training and stretching to see which was most effective at improving functional movement, walking and balance for Parkinson's patients.

Researchers randomly assigned 195 men and women ages 40 to 85 who were in stages one to four of Parkinson's disease (on a scale of one to five). Parkinson's is a neurological disorder caused by a loss of neurons that produce dopamine, a chemical involved with muscle function and movement coordination. It can result in tremors, stiffness, poor coordination and more difficulty doing daily activities. It also can lead to a higher risk of falls, which can cause serious injuries.

Tai chi, a discipline that incorporates slow, deliberate movements, plus breathing, has health benefits that include reducing stress and improving balance and posture.

The study participants were randomly assigned to hourlong, twice-weekly sessions of tai chi, resistance training or stretching, for six months. Researchers assessed their status at the beginning of the study, at three and six months, and three months after the study ended.

The tai chi participants did better than the stretching group on a few measures: leaning without losing balance, having better directional control of their body and walking skills. They outperformed the resistance-training group on balance and stride length. Those in the tai chi group also reduced their frequency of falls more than the stretching group, and they were on a par with the resistance group.

Three months after the study ended, those in the tai chi group were able to maintain the benefits they had gained.

"Since many training features in the program are functionally oriented," Oregon Research Institute scientist Fuzhong Li said, "the improvements in the balance and gait measures that we demonstrated highlight the potential of Tai Chi-based movements in rehabilitating patients with these types of problems and, consequently, easing cardinal symptoms of Parkinson's disease and improving mobility, flexibility, balance and range of motion." Li was the lead author of the study.

He added that tai chi has several advantages: "It is a low-cost activity that does not require equipment, it can be done anywhere, at any time, and the movements can be easily learned. It can also be incorporated into a rehabilitation setting as part of existing treatment. Similarly, because of its simplicity, certain aspects of this Tai Chi program can also be prescribed to patients as a self-care/home activity."

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Tai chi may help Parkinson's patients, study concludes

Patients with symptoms of Parkinson's disease have often been misdiagnosed and told they're merely feeling the physical affects of the aging process. A new guideline developed for Canadian doctors by Parkinson's specialists hopes to reduce the number of misdiagnoses. (iStock)

A specialist with the Ottawa Hospital has helped to develop the first ever national guidelines for diagnosing Parkinson's, an often-misdiagnosed disease with subtle symptoms.

Accurately diagnosing the degenerative disorder of the central nervous system is confusing for some physicians because many of the symptoms such as tremors or a general slowing down can be brushed off as gradual physical wear-and-tear from old age, said Dr. David Grimes, director of Ottawa Hospital's Parkinson's Disease and Movements Disorders Clinic.

"It's not like having a stroke, where something dramatic happens all of a sudden, and so it's one of those conditions where symptoms creep into the picture and go on for many months, or sometimes years," Grimes said. "They're seeing their family doctor, and they're saying their sore shoulder is from this, or the hand's not moving because they have just a little bit of Arthritis, and so it can take quite a while before they're able to come up with the right diagnosis."

In a bid to help patients get the timely treatment and therapies they need, Grimes worked with other specialists for five years to create a tool for doctors across Canada that would help them more accurately diagnose Parkinson's patients in the early stages, before the disease progresses.

Paul Wing and Nick Kaethler count themselves among those who feel they may have lost time as far as being able to manage the disease due to delayed diagnosis.

Wing, whose doctor told him he was likely suffering from anxiety, didn't find out he actually had Parkinson's for eight months.

"It's really disconcerting. You're thinking, do I have AHLS, do I have MS, am I depressed? Is it cancer? It could be anything," Wing said. "It's hard to fight the good fight. It's hard when you don't have an enemy to fight."

Kaethler said he was told by his doctor, "You're just getting old. Live with it."

It took Kaethler five years to discover his enemy was Parkinson's.

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Parkinson's diagnosis guide created for Canadian MDs

Lad has been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and was brought to Florida Detox

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Parkinson's Disease Treatment - Patient Testimony "Lad" - Video

IRVINE Dozens gathered at Mason Regional Park on Saturday to paint pieces of what will be an art installment to raise awareness for Parkinson's disease.

The second annual Unity Barbecue featured artist Jack Knight, who will take the pieces of tubing, tiles and canvas and create a piece to hang on the walls of Aliso Viejo-based Parkinson's in Balance.

Visitors are shown a tile to be painted at the 2nd Annual Painting for Parkinson's and Parkinson's Unity BBQ event held at Mason Regional Park in Irvine on Saturday.

STUART PALLEY, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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The event drew those affected by the disease and offered an afternoon of escape.

"I try to pick something that is therapeutic," said Allison Conway, founder of Parkinson's in Balance. "I find it so calming to be able to sit here and create something."

Her painted tile read, "I make Parkinson's look good."

This is the second year Conway, 35, has held the Unity Barbecue in an effort to raise awareness for an illness she knows well.

Conway was diagnosed with an auto-immune disease at age 13, colon cancer at age 24 and young onset Parkinson's at age 32.

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Painting in park raises Parkinson's awareness

NIH-funded study shows cells from different patients have unique drug responses

Researchers have taken a step toward personalized medicine for Parkinson's disease, by investigating signs of the disease in patient-derived cells and testing how the cells respond to drug treatments. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

The researchers collected skin cells from patients with genetically inherited forms of Parkinsons and reprogrammed those cells into neurons. They found that neurons derived from individuals with distinct types of Parkinson's showed common signs of distress and vulnerability in particular, abnormalities in the cellular energy factories known as mitochondria. At the same time, the cells' responses to different treatments depended on the type of Parkinson's each patient had.

The results were published in Science Translational Medicine.

"These findings suggest new opportunities for clinical trials of Parkinsons disease, in which cell reprogramming technology could be used to identify the patients most likely to respond to a particular intervention," said Margaret Sutherland, Ph.D., a program director at NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS).

A consortium of researchers conducted the study with primary funding from NINDS. The consortium is led by Ole Isacson, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of neurology at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

The NINDS consortium's first goal was to transform the patients' skin cells into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are adult cells that have been reprogrammed to behave like embryonic stem cells. The consortium researchers then used a combination of growth conditions and growth-stimulating molecules to coax these iPS cells into becoming neurons, including the type that die in Parkinson's disease.

Parkinson's disease affects a number of brain regions, including a motor control area of the brain called the substantia nigra. There, it destroys neurons that produce the chemical dopamine. Loss of these neurons leads to involuntary shaking, slowed movements, muscle stiffness and other symptoms. Medications can help manage the symptoms, but there is no treatment to slow or stop the disease.

Most cases of Parkinson's are sporadic, meaning that the cause is unknown. However, genetics plays a strong role. There are 17 regions of the genome with common variations that affect the risk of developing Parkinson's disease. Researchers have also identified nine genes that, when mutated, can cause the disease.

Dr. Isacson and his collaborators derived iPS cells from five people with genetic forms of Parkinson's disease. By focusing on genetic cases, rather than sporadic cases, they hoped they would have a better chance of seeing patterns in the disease process and in treatment responses. Three of the individuals had mutations in a gene called LRRK2, and two others were siblings who had mutations in the gene PINK1. The researchers also derived iPS cells from two of the siblings' family members who did not have Parkinson's or any known mutations linked to it.

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Patient-Derived Stem Cells Could Improve Drug Research For Parkinson's

July 6, 2012 How Parkinsons Disease starts and spreads

Anonymous Science Daily The Daily Item Fri Jul 06, 2012, 02:00 PM EDT

PHILADELPHIA

Injection of a small amount of clumped protein triggers a cascade of events leading to a Parkinsons-like disease in mice, according to an article published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine and reported by Science Daily.

Progressive accumulation of clumps of the protein alpha-synuclein in the brains of patients with Parkinsons disease coincides with the onset of motor dysfunction. However, whether these clumps are sufficient to trigger neurodegeneration, and how these clumps spread throughout the brain, remained unclear.

To answer these questions, a team led by Virginia M.Y. Lee at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine studied mice expressing a mutated form of alpha-synuclein found in patients with Parkinsons disease. These mice show symptoms of disease around one year of age but not earlier.

Lee and colleagues found that injecting preformed clumps of human alpha-synuclein into the brains of young mice accelerated disease onset and severity. These clumps seemed to act as seeds that recruited even the mouse version of alpha-synuclein into new clumps, which then spread throughout the brain. The pattern of spreading from neuron to neuron suggests that the clumps may hijack the highway traveled by normal brain signals.

These findings suggest that Parkinsons disease, like other neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimers, may start and progress due to abnormal aggregation and accumulation of proteins within the brain. What gets these clumps going in the first place remains unclear.

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How Parkinson’s Disease starts and spreads

Dr. Ralph Dittman

Steamboat Springs A part-time Steamboat Springs resident who has lived with Parkinsons disease for 14 years is seeking people who would be interested in participating in a support group.

What were doing is taking a head count to see how many people are interested, Dr. Ralph Dittman said. If they are interested, they need to raise their hands now.

Dittman, who splits his time between Steamboat and Houston, was a surgeon before Parkinsons came into his life at age 51.

The disease causes certain cells in the brain to become inactive, causing loss of motor functions and some neurologic functions. Notable Parkinsons sufferers include Muhammad Ali and Michael J. Fox.

The disease did not allow Dittman to be a surgeon anymore, so for the past eight years, he has been working in the laboratory and has become a renowned stem cell researcher and has published several novels.

Dittman thinks there are people in the community who could benefit greatly from a Parkinsons support group, especially those who take care of people suffering from the disease.

Theyre the people that take the real brunt of this thing, Dittman said. Theyre the ones that really need the help.

He said that to form the group, he needs to find at least 20 people who want to participate.

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Interest being gauged for Parkinson's support group in Steamboat

Steve Ludzik woke up one day and realized he'd traveled this road before.

When I was in grade six, there was a kid who would wait for me after school and slap me around, Ludzik recalls. I was just a skinny, little kid, and one night I came home with a black eye after he beat me up.

In today's America, there are protocols for handling bullies. In 1960s Canada, there was only one way to solve the problem.

My mom was an angel, and when she found out what was going on, she got right on the phone and said she would straighten it out, Ludzik said. My dad said, 'Put that phone down!'

My dad told me that when I get out of school tomorrow, get the drop on this kid and hit him, and then keep hitting him.

Like all bullies, the guy was a coward. I grabbed him the next day and throttled him. I never had another problem, and that kid never bothered anyone after that.

That's how we were raised. Take care of it yourself and don't get pushed around.

The 51-year-old Ludzik had been thinking about that time in his life early this year. It was eating away at his conscience. He felt what he was doing was wrong.

I looked at my own kids and I knew what I had to do, Ludzik said by phone from Niagara Falls a couple of days ago. I said, 'I'm not going to get kicked around by Parkinson's disease.' Not anymore.

That's when Ludzik announced to the world that he was ill.

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Ludzik won't be bullied by Parkinson's disease

Public release date: 23-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mike Morrison mdmorrison@partners.org 617-724-6425 Massachusetts General Hospital

Use of the antioxidant urate to protect against the neurodegeneration caused by Parkinson's disease appears to rely on more than urate's ability to protect against oxidative damage. In the May issue of the open-access journal PLoS One, researchers from the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (MGH-MIND) describe experiments suggesting the involvement of a novel mechanism in urate's protection of cultured brain cells against Parkinson's-like damage.

"Our experiments showed, unexpectedly, that urate's ability to protect neurons requires the presence of neighboring cells called astrocytes," says Michael Schwarzschild, MD, PhD, of MGH-MIND, the study's senior author. "The results suggest there may be multiple ways that raising urate could help protect against neurodegeneration in diseases like Parkinson's and further support the development of treatments designed to elevate urate in the brain." Schwarzschild and colleagues in the Parkinson's Study Group currently are conducting a clinical trial investigating one approach to that strategy.

Characterized by tremors, rigidity, difficulty walking and other symptoms, Parkinson's disease is caused by destruction of brain cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. Several epidemiological studies suggested that healthy people with elevated levels of urate, a normal component of the blood, may have a reduced risk of developing Parkinson's disease, and investigations by Schwarzschild's team found that Parkinson's patients with higher naturally occuring urate levels had slower progression of their symptoms.

The current study was designed to investigate whether both added urate and urate already present within the cells protect cultured dopamine-producing neurons against Parkinson-like degeneration. In addition, since previous studies suggested that urate's protective effects depended on the presence of astrocytes star-shaped cells of the central nervous system that provide both structural and metabolic support to neurons the MGH-MIND team explored how the presence of astrocytes affects the ability of urate to protect against damage induced by MPP+, a toxic molecule that produces the same kind of neurodegeneration seen in Parkinson's and is widely used in research studies.

The experiments showed that, while added urate reduced MPP+-induced cell death by about 50 percent in cultured dopamine-producing mouse neurons, urate treatment virtually eliminated neuronal death in cultures containing both neurons and astrocytes. They also showed that reducing intracellular urate levels by induced expression of the enzyme that breaks it down increased neuronal vulnerability to MPP+ toxicity significantly in cultures that included astrocytes but only slightly in neuron-rich cultures. The fact that the presence of astrocytes greatly increases the protection of both externally applied urate and urate produced within cells indicates that the effect depends on more than urate's ability to directly protect neurons against oxidative stress.

"A valuable next step will be determining whether endogenous urate is protective in live animal models of Parkinson's disease," says Schwarzschild. "It also will be important to determine whether we can selectively increase urate levels in brain cells by targeting urate transporter molecules. The approach now in early clinical trials examines whether treatment with the urate precursor inosine, which increases urate levels throughout the body, can slow the progression of the disease. If we could raise urate levels in brain cells without changing them in the rest of the body, we could avoid the risks of of excessive urate, which when accumulated in joints can cause gout."

###

Schwarzschild is an associate professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School. Sara Cipriani, MD, of MGH-MIND is the lead and corresponding author of the PLoS One report. The study was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense and the American Parkinson's Disease Association.

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Study supports urate protection against Parkinson's disease, hints at novel mechanism

MERIDIAN When the Meridian Parkinson's Disease Support Group first met a few months ago there were only four people in attendance who suffer from the debilitating condition.

The last meeting of the group saw 50 people show up looking for mutual support, information and peace of mind. Needless to say, Jimmy Gossett, one of the founding members of the group, was both astonished and pleased at the response.

"It is so nice to meet so many people who have the same condition as you," said Gossett, explaining he doesn't wish the disease on anyone. "But when you have this kind of problem, having friends and meeting new ones who through sheer numbers can build you back up, that is a nice thing."

With each new group meeting, Gossett said more and more health professionals work to assist in any way they can. Gossett said in the upcoming meeting, set forTuesday, June 12 at 10 a.m.at the Fifteenth Avenue Baptist Church in Meridian, three health professionals will be on hand to lend their expertise in the realm of Parkinson's Disease (PD).

"We will have physical therapists and speech pathologists on hand to help with information on what we face as PD sufferers," Gossett said. "But we will have fun, laugh, and fellowship. That is the best therapy we can have."

Gossett said the therapists will bring with them years of experience in dealing with PD sufferers. He said the health professionals will address such issues as speech deficits including reduced volume in their voices, decreased intelligibility, poor breath support and swallowing. Speech pathologists Angela Ramsey and Lesley Smith will be speaking to the group about oral motor exercises, respiratory exercises, and patterning techniques. The subject of neuromuscular e-stim to improve speech and swallowing will be covered.

Also, Amanda Sayers, a physical therapist, will be on hand to discuss some exercise techniques and different treatment approaches for the group as related to gait patterns, how to deal with "freezing" and tremors, and safety precautions.

"Each of these presentations will be followed by question and answer sessions so each person there can get the answers unique to their conditions," said Gossett.

Gossett said everyone is invited. He said he hopes that all PD suffers, not only in Meridian and Lauderdale County, but also throughout the East Mississippi area, will come and discover this group so they can seek the help and support so many sufferers need.

"It is all up to us, the PD sufferer, to increase our knowledge and understanding of this condition so that we can better cope with it," Gossett said. "We encourage those family members who have a person suffering from PD to come as well so they can get a firm grip on what their loved one is going through."

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Parkinson's group to meet

Editor's Choice Main Category: Parkinson's Disease Article Date: 16 Jun 2012 - 0:00 PDT

Current ratings for: 'Parkinson's Disease - Smelling Test For Early Detection'

5 (1 votes)

Researchers have now discovered that the sense of smell provides valuable indications. Hyposmia, i.e. losing the ability to smell for no known cause could be a markers for the non-motor signs of Parkinson's disease. Dr Ulrich Liebetrau, chief physician for Parkinson's consultations at the Neurological Department of Kliniken der Stadt Kln, declared at the 22nd Meeting of the European Neurological Society (ENS) in Prague: "Smelling tests in doctors' offices are suitable for detecting hyposmia but so too are tests conducted in public places such as pedestrian zones."

Parkinson's is a very common neurological slowly progressive disease that usually affects individuals aged between 50 and 60 years. In Germany alone there are about 300,000 people diagnosed with Parkinson's. Scientists still remain uncertain for the reasons of cell death occurring in the substantia nigra in the basal ganglia of the brain of Parkinson's patients, but suspect that genetic factors may be involved. The cell death causes a shortage of dopamine, a neurotransmitter, which leads to loss of control over voluntary and involuntary movements. German neurologists from Cologne have now tested a new early detection method for subtle signs of Parkinson's which focuses on the partial loss of the sense of smell, which they based on previous studies that demonstrated that one in ten people with hyposmia develop Parkinson's in later years.

Dr Liebetrau explained: "Our objective was to reach as many people with hyposmia as we possibly could."

The team used an unusual method for their trial. They performed a public smelling test on a Saturday in a banqueting hall in Cologne's pedestrian district that is well known. Liebetrau described the requirements the venue needed to fulfill, saying:

They asked 187 participants to smell vanilla, lemon, cloves and lavender to smell. Overall, 46 participants were identified as having hyposmia, who were all offered a follow-up at the City of Cologne Clinics (Kliniken der Stadt Kln). Dr Liebetrau explained: "The test was to be followed up by a professional examination done by neurologists and ENT specialists at a separate time and place. After all, hyposmia can be a sign of any number of diseases."

The result revealed that three of the 46 individuals with hyposmia were diagnosed with Parkinson's, even though they had no former knowledge prior to the test that they were affected by the disease.

One of the key advantages of low-threshold tests is that diseases that would otherwise go undetected are identified early, which also prevents these diseases from becoming chronic. Early diagnosis is advantageous, even if they involve severe neurological disorders like Parkinson's.

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Parkinson's Disease - Smelling Test For Early Detection

Public release date: 11-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Patrik Verstreken 32-497-422-165 VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology)

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. This research was done in collaboration with colleagues from Northern Illinois University (US) and will be published this evening on the website of the authorative journal Science.

"It appears from our research that administering vitamin K2 could possibly help patients with Parkinson's. However, more work needs to be done to understand this better," says Patrik Verstreken.

Malfunctioning power plants are at the basis of Parkinson's.

If we looked at cells as small factories, then mitochondria would be the power plants responsible for supplying the energy for their operation. They generate this energy by transporting electrons. In Parkinson's patients, the activity of mitochondria and the transport of electrons have been disrupted, resulting in the mitochondria no longer producing sufficient energy for the cell. This has major consequences as the cells in certain parts of the brain will start dying off, disrupting communication between neurons. The results are the typical symptoms of Parkinson's: lack of movement (akinesia), tremors and muscle stiffness.

The exact cause of this neurodegenerative disease is not known. In recent years, however, scientists have been able to describe several genetic defects (mutations) found in Parkinson's patients, including the so-called PINK1 and Parkin mutations, which both lead to reduced mitochondrial activity. By studying these mutations, scientists hope to unravel the mechanisms underlying the disease process.

Paralyzed fruit flies

Fruit flies (Drosophila) are frequently used in lab experiments because of their short life spans and breeding cycles, among other things. Within two weeks of her emergence, every female is able to produce hundreds of offspring. By genetically modifying fruitflies, scientists can study the function of certain genes and proteins. Patrik Verstreken and his team used fruitflies with a genetic defect in PINK1 or Parkin that is similar to the one associated with Parkinson's. They found that the flies with a PINK1 or Parkin mutation lost their ability to fly.

Upon closer examination, they discovered that the mitochondria in these flies were defective, just as in Parkinson's patients. Because of this they generated less intracellular energy energy the insects needed to fly. When the flies were given vitamin K2, the energy production in their mitochondria was restored and the insects' ability to fly improved. The researchers were also able to determine that the energy production was restored because the vitamin K2 had improved electron transport in the mitochondria. This in turn led to improved energy production.

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Vitamin K2: New hope for Parkinson's patients?

by Sylvia Perez and Christine Tressel

May 24, 2012 (CHICAGO) -- Colonoscopies are known for detecting early signs of cancer in the colon. Now Chicago researchers say this common test may help reveal who might be at risk of developing Parkinson's disease. They have discovered a clue in the gut that could be a game changer for early diagnosis and even treating the disease.

Richard Fiske Bailey says even he had a hard time realizing something was happening with his body. It was the way he was driving his sports car that caught the attention of friends.

"When I went to shift gears I would reach down with my left hand and shift I would shift with my left hand instead of my right hand, I never noticed it. And people would start to say, what is wrong," Fiske said.

It took a long time but eventually he had a diagnosis: Parkinson's disease.

"I was formally diagnosed in 2003 by my fifth neurologist," Fiske said.

A slight tremor in a hand, tense muscles and slow movements are some of the more distinctive signs suggesting Parkinson's disease. But even these can be confused with other conditions. That means thousands of cases are not diagnosed until a lot of brain cells are gone.

Parkinson's disease occurs when the nerve cells in the brain that make a chemical called dopamine are slowly destroyed. No one is sure why that happens.

Now researchers are turning to what would seem an unlikely source of a brain disorder: the gut.

"This area of research is really hot right now, and we think it's really important," said Dr. Kathleen Shannon, neurologist, Rush University Medical Center

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Healthbeat Report: Predicting Parkinson's

Australia's nursing homes will be swamped by a tidal wave of Parkinson's sufferers unless governments act now, an expert warns.

A Sydney-based Parkinson's disease expert says rates are expected to jump 80 per cent over the next 20 years because of Australia's aging population.

Currently 64,000 people have the progressive brain disease that causes uncontrollable tremors, loss of movement and bowel and bladder problems.

Associate Professor Simon Lewis from the University of Sydney is expected to present new research on the benefits of community-based Parkinson's nurses at a nursing conference on the Gold Coast on Friday.

Professor Lewis says Australia must adopt the UK approach of employing the specialist nurses or pay the price in nursing home care costs.

'You have to have a way of addressing this tidal wave of patients who are coming over the next 20 years,' he told AAP.

His research indicates that access to specialist nurses in the community can stave off the need for nursing home accommodation.

He compared the health of Parkinson's sufferers and their carers in Shoalhaven, NSW, before and six months after they were placed in the care of a specialist nurse.

'Very clearly what we saw is that during the time they had been seeing the nurse the patient's health had improved,' he said.

'More importantly, the carers themselves reported that their own health had improved.'

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Parkinson's patients to swamp homes