Holt residents play moonlight tennis to raise over £2,000 for Parkinson's

July 6, 2019     By John Baker

MORE than 50 villagers, including pensioners and children, have raised funds for Parkinson's UK by playing tennis through the night.

The 24-hour Holt Moon Tennis matches were held on Friday and Saturday, June28 and 29 from 12 noon to 12 noon. So far they have raised £2,234.75 towards their £3,000 target for the charity.

Gilly Andrew, spokeswoman for Holt Moon Tennis, said: "It was a successful event with over 50 people from the community taking part including the school children and retired. It was enormous fun with people playing throughout the night.

A huge thank you to Joyce Alcock for organising the players and schedule, thank you to everyone who took part and of course all the supporters and their kind donations.

"It has been a wonderful event to do and great to be raising money for such a great cause and a charity which needs funds for research to find a cure for Parkinson's Disease."

The players included the Sky 1 youth group from St Katherine's Church led by Bea Lilley and a group from Walk in Holt led by Jayne Gibbons playing in memory of their dear friend Lucinda who recently died from Parkinson's.

They also included a group of vets from Harris, Hill & Gibbons in Trowbridge led by Jayne Gibbons.

Mrs Andrew added: "Donations are still coming in and it looks hopeful we will achieve our target."

To donate to their cause, go to: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Team/MoonTennis2019

https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/17753562.holt-residents-play-moonlight-tennis-raise-2-000-parkinson-39-s/

Researchers Study Parkinson’s Bacteria Journey In Mice

Andrew Barnes     07 Jul 2019     Researchers Study Parkinson’s Bacteria Journey In Mice

The earlier finding that the Parkinson’s disease starts in the gut has received further approval after a recent study conducted in mice. Scientists think that the toxic protein might be produced in the gut. They tracked its movement thoroughly to the brain through the vagus nerve. This new model has copied several early and late signs of Parkinson’s disease; some of those are not related to movement at all. The team realized that they could make the mice build up those characteristics by injecting “performed fibrils” of alpha-synuclein in their guts. It is the protein that creates toxic lump in brains of patients suffering from Parkinson’s.

Ted M. Dawson, Professor of Neurology from johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said that since the disease initiates in the guy, this way the entire journey and movement of pathogenesis of Parkinson’s could be observed. He also said that this might help doctors to find out ways to stop Parkinson’s in various stage before the disease fully takes over.

In Parkinson’s, the brain tissues are destroyed. It ruptures the brain cells which create a chemical messenger named dopamine which helps in movement control and motor function. A clear symptom of Parkinson’s is the formation of lump of roughly folded versions of alpha-synuclein protein in portions of the brain where it has affected. Pathologists have noticed these lumps during post-mortem of patients with Parkinson’s disease.

The team said it took 1 month for the toxic protein to reach the brain. In 2 months, the protein had been widespread beyond the region that gets affected by Parkinson’s to hypothalamus, prefrontal cortex, amygdala etc. In 7 months, the spread had reached olfactory bulb, hippocampus etc. The team noticed how dopamine cells reduced in number in striatum and substantia nigra pars compacta. However, when the same procedure was repeated with mice that had severed vagus nerve, none of the symptoms for Parkinson’s developed.

https://www.medicaldevicenews.us/4654/researchers-study-parkinsons-bacteria-journey-in-mice/

Gut Health Keeps Parkinson’s Disease Away

 07.06.2019,     by Ruxandra Grecu

There is more and more scientific evidence that suggests a connection between gut health and the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. 

New research shows that some protein key in the development of the disease can spread to the gastrointestinal tract all the way up to the brain, according to The Guardian. Our bodies naturally form this protein that can be found in the nerve endings in the brain. But there are versions of this protein that are misfolded and can clump together, hurting nerve cells in the process. Also, they can lead to deteriorating of the dopamine system and developing speech and moving problems. All of these are hallmarks of Parkinson’s.

How does gut health affect Parkinson’s? 

Lately, everything is about the healthy gut. There are many studies in that direction that point to plenty of health issues. To all of that research, we add these recent studies that look at the connection between gut health and brain health. Some studies done on lab mice confirm an older theory about this protein, which says that the misfolding occurs for the first time in the gut. Then they spread to the brain through the vagus nerve. This nerve is a cluster of fibers that begins in the brainstem and which transport signals to and from many of our organs, including the gut and the stomach.

“It supports and really provides the first experimental evidence that Parkinson’s disease can start in the gut and go up the vagus nerve,” said Ted Dawson, professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University school of medicine. He is a co-author of the research.

“We have what we think is a really accurate [animal] model that can be used to work out mechanisms – but also to test therapies,” said Dawson. He believes that scientists can interfere with the misfolding of the protein and effectively stop Parkinson’s from developing.

So what can you do to make sure you have a healthy gut? Try eating plenty of probiotics, because they help balance the gut microbiome.

https://sodelicious.recipes/news/gut-health/

Major donation to accelerate neurodegenerative disease research at Imperial

by Daniel Mapp     05 July 2019

The £1.63M gift from Lily Safra and the Edmond J. Safra Foundation will support fellowships for rising stars in Parkinson's Disease research

The Edmond and Lily Safra Fellowship will offer four exceptional early-career scientists researching Parkinson’s disease and related neurodegenerative disorders the opportunity to join Imperial’s Department of Brain Sciences and to establish themselves as independent researchers. This represents a substantial increase in research capacity and leadership for research in Parkinson’s disease and related areas, enabling significant new research projects to be initiated.

As well as providing a competitive salary to the Edmond and Lily Safra Fellows, the donation will also provide a start-up grant to enable each Fellow to begin laboratory work immediately, to quickly establish a research group and to acquire the preliminary data to make their ideas competitive for external research funding. Fellows will also be able to access funding for specialist equipment and be assigned a mentor, who will support their development as early career academics.

The gift comes at an important moment in the development of Parkinson’s disease research at Imperial. The Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London and the Imperial College Healthcare Trust have a long-standing interest in clinical and basic research for Parkinson’s disease. There are immediate opportunities for growth in this area through the creation in 2018 of the UK Dementia Research Institute (UK DRI) Centre, which brings together an interdisciplinary group of researchers investigating the interaction between lifestyle, environment and brain in the development and progression of dementia, and in 2019 the creation of the UK DRI Care Research & Technology Centre, which will develop new technologies to enable people with neurodegenerative conditions to live safely and independently in their own homes. Two Edmond and Lily Safra Fellows will be associated with each UK DRI Centre, an injection of research expertise that will support each centre in realising its potential.

Each Edmond and Lily Safra Fellow will develop their own research programme. Potential research themes with benefits for patients could include non-invasive, targetable deep brain stimulation for tremor suppression, utilising advances in molecular neuroimaging to better understand the early stages of Parkinson’s disease, and the role of neuroinflammation in late life neurodegenerative disease.

Parkinson's disease affects 1% of the population over the age of 65. The key symptoms are tremor, stiffness and slowness of movement. It can also be associated with a number of other "non-motor" symptoms, including depression, sleep disturbance, fatigue and cognitive impairment. Around 145,000 people in the UK have been diagnosed with Parkinson’s and globally an estimated 6.1 million people globally are living with the disease.

Professor Paul Matthews, Edmond and Lily Safra Chair, Head of the Department of Brain Sciences and UK DRI Associate Director, said: “These new fellowships give us a unique opportunity to attract and develop the careers of outstanding younger researchers. Imperial is ideally placed to bring the application of new techniques in molecular, systems and computational neuroscience to bear on the global burden of these major challenges to later life health and wellbeing.”

"This new fellowship initiative allows us to attract scientists and technologists working at the leading edge."Professor David SharpProfessor of Neurology and Associate Director of the UK DRI Care Research & Technology Centre at Imperial

Professor David Sharp, Professor of Neurology at Imperial and Associate Director for the UK DRI Care Research & Technology Centre, said: “This new fellowship initiative allows us to attract scientists and technologists working at the leading edge to develop the tools that will allow people affected by Parkinson’s disease and dementia to retain independence by staying in their own homes for longer.”

Angela Bowen, Director of Development for the Faculty of Medicine, said: “Mrs Safra and the Edmond J. Safra Foundation are longstanding supporters of medical research at Imperial. This latest gift will help to deliver improved diagnosis, monitoring and treatment for people living with Parkinson’s disease. We are sincerely grateful for their wonderful partnership and philanthropic vision.”

Mrs Lily Safra said: "I am proud to support positions for the most promising young scientists studying Parkinson’s. I know first-hand the suffering that this disease causes to patients and families. The researchers who will be selected under this programme at Imperial College London will without doubt contribute to breakthroughs in our understanding of the human brain, and I wish them great success."

The Edmond J. Safra Foundation was established by the accomplished banker and devoted philanthropist Edmond J. Safra, and since his passing in 1999 it has continued to support good causes under the leadership of his wife, Lily Safra. The Foundation has generously supported a number of prestigious research projects at Imperial including the Edmond J. Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology; the Edmond and Lily Safra Professor of Translational Neuroscience and Therapeutics; and the Edmond and Lily Safra Scholarship programme, which has supported three outstanding early-career investigators to establish themselves in the field of neurodegenerative disease research.

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/191888/major-donation-accelerate-neurodegenerative-disease-research/ 

Kiwis team up with Michael J Fox to slow onset of Parkinson's disease

6 Jul, 2019   By: Amy Wiggins

Michael J Fox is funding New Zealand research which hopes to slow the onset of Parkinson's disease. Photo / AP

Stopping Parkinson's disease in its tracks may not be as far off as it seems thanks to a group of Kiwi researchers with some help from movie star Michael J Fox.

A team at Auckland University's Centre for Brain Research have received a $221,000 grant from the Michael J Fox Foundation to help fund a two year study which aims to slow the progression of the debilitating disease.

There is no cure for the neurodegenerative disorder which progressively erodes a person's mobility and affects about 10,000 people in New Zealand and six million people worldwide.

Co-leader of the research team Dr Victor Dieriks said the study would focus on the early effects of Parkinson's in the hope they could significantly slow progression of the disease which ended with uncontrollable movements including tremors.

"One of the problems with Parkinson's disease is we see people in their 60s, 70s, 80s having these sever motor symptoms so they can't move properly but that is already the end stage of the disease.

"Something happened 10, 15, even up to 50 years beforehand that made something go wrong in their brain or some part of their body and over time it reached the brain and it caused so much damage that you start to see the shaking symptoms," he said.

"What we are seeking is treatment that would delay or even prevent degeneration by targeting the earliest disease processes."

The problem was that by the time a person began to notice issues with their motor skills, it was often too late.

Earlier symptoms, which could pop up five to 10 years before the severe motor symptoms, included loss of smell and constipation and Dieriks hoped the disease could be treated as soon as they were noticed.

One of the earliest changes in the body is neuroinflammation, the inflammation of brain cells.

When something goes wrong in your body the immune system is activated to fight it but with neuroinflammation the immune system remains active and starts turning against your own body, Dieriks explained.

Professor Mike Dragunow, left, and Dr Victor Dieriks have received funding for their Parkinson's disease study thanks to the Michael j Fox Foundation. Photo / Supplied

The research team would first look at cells called pericytes to find out whether a protein called alpha synuclein, which formed clumps and killed brain cells in people with Parkinson's, caused them to become inflamed.

Pericytes, which line the blood vessels through the brain, played a part in regulating inflammation by sending signals to the other cells in the brain.

If the protein did cause the pericytes to become inflamed, two anti-inflammatory drugs would be tested in the hope they could treat the pericytes which would then send signals to the other brain cells to let them know the immune system could be de-activated and stop them attacking the body.

"So far it's not clear what happens in the early stages of Parkinson's disease but there's some evidence that points to the fact that if we stop that early prolonged inflammation, that if we can halt that, then we can eventually delay the disease," Dieriks said.

Thanks to the Brain Research Centre, the scientists could skip the usual first step of trials on mice or rats and use brain tissue straight away.

Pericyte cells isolated from a selection of brains held at the centre's Hugh Green Biobank in Auckland and tissue from the same people held in the centre's Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank would be used to conduct the trial.

Parkinson's sufferer Michael J Fox is putting money behind a New Zealand study which hopes to slow the onset of the disease. Photo / Wikimedia

Probably we're the only lab in the world that has a selection of pericytes from human brains and that's something the reviewers from the Michael J Fox foundation highlighted several times," Dieriks said.

Dieriks said getting funding from the Michael J Fox Foundation was a "big deal" because not many other New Zealand groups had received it. The foundation was also open to providing further funding for studies which showed promising results, he said.

The foundation is the world's largest non-profit funder of Parkinson's research, and is dedicated to accelerating a cure for Parkinson's disease and improved therapies for those living with the condition. Diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1991, Fox, who is 58, kept the health issue a secret from the public until 1998. He's become an advocate for finding a cure to the disease, and founded the foundation in 2000.

Other funding for the project has come from the Hugh Green Foundation, the Health Research Council of New Zealand, Neurological Foundation, Neuro Research Charitable Trust, and Ian and Sue Parton.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=12246689&ref=rss

Parkinson’s Disease Facts Your Doctor Is Not Telling You

Jul 5, 2019   By Darwin Malicdem 

Up to 60,000 people are being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease every year in the U.S., according to the Parkinson’s Foundation. If the rate continues in the coming years, at least nearly one million Americans are expected to have the condition by 2020.

To date, there are more than 10 million people living with Parkinson's across the world. The disease affects neurons in the brain and causes problems with movement and control. 

Symptoms commonly take years to develop and affect the body. However, patients experiencethe effects of Parkinson's disease differently. 

This article explores important facts about the disease to help you understand its development, treatment and progression. Check out the interesting facts below.

No Two People Experience Similar Symptoms

The diversity of the disease makes the progression of symptoms different from one person to another. People may feel tremor, slowness of movements, limb rigidity, gait or balance problems. 

Small Handwriting Is A Sign of Parkinson’s

Early signs of the disease is sudden changes in handwriting. A person may start writing letters smaller than before and making words crowded. 

No Cure Is Available & Its Cause Remains Unknown

The scientific community has yet to determine the real cause of Parkinson’s disease. It has been a mystery for scientists since the disease shows small genetic links and occurs occasionally in people. 

No cure is also available but medications are available to delay the development of the disease. 

Non-Movement Symptoms

The people developing Parkinson’s disease experience not just movement symptoms but also non-movement changes, which can be more disabling. Non-movement symptoms include mood disorders, cognitive changes, hallucinations, delusions, fatigue, sexual problems and sleep disorders.

Parkinson’s Patients Can Still Live Good Quality Life

Lifestyle modifications, including exercise, can help manage the effects of the disease. Patients can still enjoy life by identifying activities they are comfortable doing and avoiding those that may lead to stress. 

Parkinson’s affects the body slowly and commonly takes years to develop. Diagnosis does not mean you already have major movement problems, you can still go shopping and play with your kids or grandchildren. 

https://www.medicaldaily.com/parkinsons-disease-facts-your-doctor-not-telling-you-438292

Voice, sound production talk planned for Monday Parkinson’s Support Group meeting

July 5, 2019

KEARNEY Nebraska. — The Parkinson’s Support Group will meet 2-3 p.m. Monday at First United Methodist Church, 4500 Linden Drive. Meetings are open to anyone with movement disorders and their caregivers.

Following a short session of exercise, Autumn Dugan, a speech therapist at Kearney Physical Therapy, will address issues concerning Parkinson’s and voice and sound production, swallowing and memory.

 Theresa Harris at 308-224-9908 with questions.

https://www.theindependent.com/news/regional/kearney/voice-sound-production-talk-planned-for-monday-parkinson-s-support/article_b68b1122-bbd4-567e-80c8-d1d08d3fedbd.html

Parkinson’s disease symptoms: Three tell-tale signs in the eyes that can signal condition

July 4, 2019        By KATRINA TURRILL

PARKINSON’S disease has three main symptoms, all of which affect a person’s physical movement. But not all symptoms of the condition are related to movement. Here are three signs that can appear in the eyes.

Parkinson’s disease is a condition which damages the brain over many years. The most recognised symptom is involuntary shaking of particular parts of the body (known as a tremor). Slow movement and having stiff and inflexible muscles are also common signs. But now all symptoms are related to a person’s movement.

People with Parkinson’s often experience problems with their eyes and eyesight, according to Parkinson’s UK.

Three signs to watch out for are difficulty moving the eyes, having problems with low light levels, and double vision.

Difficulty moving the eyes

Parkinson’s can affect your ability to move parts of the body, including your eyes, says the charity.

It explains: “You may have difficulties when starting to move your eyes or when trying to move them quickly.

“It may be more noticeable when looking at a fast-moving object, such as when watching moving cars or a tennis match. Sometimes, instead of a smooth movement, your eyes may move in a slow and jerky way.

“This can make certain activities, such as driving, more difficult. If this happens talk to your GP, specialist or Parkinson’s nurse because Parkinson’s medication may help.

Double vision

Double vision is seeing two images when you look at a single object. This can happen either some or all of the time. This can occur if someone has problems moving the eyes.

It adds: “Some people with Parkinson’s experience ‘tracking’.

“This is when the eyes do not move smoothly across a line or from one object to another, for example moving across a page when reading, or up and down. Poor co-ordination and fatigue of the muscles that move the eyeballs can also mean that the eyes do not quite move together. This can cause double vision.

“There are also causes of double vision (a common and usually minor eye condition) that are nothing to do with having Parkinson’s, such as thyroid problems, diabetes, or an astigmatism in one eye.

“If the problem continues, see your optometrist for advice. or ask your GP or specialist if you can be referred to an ophthalmologist for further tests.”

Problems with low light levels

Someone with Parkinson’s may find it difficult to see in low light levels.

The charity says: “You may also be unable to make out the shape of things clearly, such as a light-coloured object on a light background.

“This may also affect your ability to read fine print.”

Parkinson’s disease symptoms: Double vision can be another sign (Image: GETTY)

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1149360/parkinsons-disease-symptoms-signs-eyes-movement-double-vision-light-levels

Researchers controlled the behavior in a mouse's brain with single-cell precision

July 3, 2019         Data Science Institute at Columbia

For the first time, a team of neuroscientists from Columbia University have controlled a visual behavior of a mouse by activating a few neurons in its visual cortex.

In their study, published in Cell, the researchers demonstrated that specific groups of neurons, known as neuronal ensembles, have a causal role in behavior. The researchers used new optical and analytical tools to identify cortical ensembles in mice while they performed a visual task. They also used high-resolution optogenetics to simultaneously target selected neurons with single-cell precision, taking control of the mice's behavior. While the precise activation of neurons related to the task improved the performance of the animal, the activation of other neurons, not related to the task, degraded the behavior.

"This is the most exciting work to come out of my laboratory in decades since we are proving that cortical ensembles are key for behavior and that we can play the piano with them and alter at will the behavioral performance of animals," said Rafael Yuste, the senior author of the study and professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia. "The data indicates, moreover, that neuronal ensembles are internal representations of a visual stimulus," added Yuste, who is also a member of the Data Science Institute at Columbia.

The research may have significant applications in medicine. Identifying physiologically relevant neuronal ensembles with single-cell precision could be used to reorganize the patterns of activity between targeted neurons and to reprogram faulty neural circuits. And reorganizing those neuronal patterns has the potential to treat pathological conditions caused by abnormal activity patterns in mental and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease or schizophrenia, said Luis Carrillo-Reid, a former researcher in the Yuste Lab and lead author of the paper, "Controlling Visually Guided Behavior by Holographic Recalling of Cortical Ensembles."

"We are still far from using these methods as treatments for patients," said Carrillo-Reid, "but this study could represent a road map toward precisely reprogramming the brain, bringing neuroscience a step closer to the clinic."

Working in the Yuste Lab, the researchers used two-photon calcium imaging of neural circuits and two-photon optogenetics, methods originally developed by the Yuste group to optically read and write neuronal activity. With calcium imaging, one can track which neurons are firing in a neural circuit, whereas with optogenetics, one can activate neurons at will. Using two-photon lasers, moreover, enabled the team to perform calcium imaging and optogenetics with single-cell precision in the brains of animals as they run on treadmills.

The researchers injected mice with viruses, which allowed them to observe the neuronal activity patterns in their brains. They were also able to precisely manipulate the activity of their neurons with light. Next, they attached the mice to a two-photon microscope and observed them while they ran on small treadmills. For two weeks, the researchers trained the mice to associate a visual stimulus -- drifting vertical bars presented to them on a video screen -- with water so that whenever the vertical bars appeared they would lick at a water spout. After the mice learned to associate the visual stimulus with licking, the researchers identified the group of neurons in the mice that responded to the vertical bars, and reactivated those neurons using a two-photon laser. This reactivation helped the mice to lick correctly more times than expected and even evoked licking in the absence of any visual stimuli, as if the mice were seeing the vertical bars as a hallucination. The researchers even triggered the licking behavior by stimulation only two neurons, as long as they were the specific group of neurons associated with the behavior.

Electrical stimulation of different areas of the brain has been used for decades to ameliorate symptoms of movement disorders such as Parkinson's, and more recently, to treat neuropsychiatric disorders as depression. This technique, known as Deep Brain Stimulation, is used to help tens of thousands of patients every year. The technique, however, involves the manipulation of a large volume of neurons whose spatial location and identity are unknown. In this study, the researchers showed the proof of principle that identifying and targeting very specific neurons can change a behavior, opening a pathway to using this technique to help correct the problems of brain diseases," said Carrillo-Reid, who now directs a laboratory at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

"In addition, the fact that one can supplant a sensory stimulus by activating a few neurons indicates that we may be starting to get closer to understanding what a perception is, or what is a thought," said Yuste. "And that could be an important step forward in understanding how our mind works."

---

Story Source:

Materials provided by Data Science Institute at Columbia. Original written by Robert Florida. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

1. Luis Carrillo-Reid, Shuting Han, Weijian Yang, Alejandro Akrouh, Rafael Yuste. Controlling Visually Guided Behavior by Holographic Recalling of Cortical Ensembles. Cell, 2019; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.05.045

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190703150458.htm

Here’s What I’ve Learned After Looking into Deep Brain Stimulation

JULY 3, 2019         BY MARY BETH SKYLIS

Dad’s dyskinesia is worsening at a startling pace. When he doesn’t take his medications, he’s nearly immobile. And when he does, dyskinesia wreaks havoc on him. At a loss for options, we’ve been searching for alternative solutions to assist in the management of his PD symptoms. A procedure called deep brain stimulation (DBS) currently is one of the more effective options for patients in the late stages of PD.

Anyone who struggles with a degenerative disease can attest to the accompanying feelings of desperation. Not knowing what function the disease will steal next is nerve-wracking. Parkinson’s disease is currently incurable, but some options can help manage the disease’s progression. While weighing your options, what thoughts rise to the surface? How might undergoing DBS affect your loved ones? Could the benefits affect quality of life enough to make it worthwhile? And what kind of risks are involved?

What does DBS do?

Used for the first time in 1986, DBS primarily helps with motor symptoms, specifically severe motor fluctuations or tremor in advanced stages, according to one study’s description.

During the procedure, a surgeon places electrodes in the brain. These electrodes transmit impulses that either interrupt or change abnormal brain activity. The wires can be placed in multiple areas of the brain, which impacts the potential effects of the pulse interruptions. For example, Dad struggles most with dyskinesia and hopes to alleviate those symptoms. But if tremors are inhibiting someone, a surgeon can adjust the placement of electrodes to benefit that person’s body optimally.

A surgeon places a device that’s similar to a pacemaker under the skin beneath the collarbone. This piece of hardware transmits signals to the electrodes, allowing them to moderate adverse brain activity. The procedure generally causes minimal or no tissue damage. Ultimately, DBS is not a cure, but it can significantly impact quality of life, according to various studies and anecdotal evidence.

Is everyone a candidate?

Newly diagnosed Parkinson’s patients can’t undergo DBS. One must be a patient for four years before consideration. Ideal candidates have few other options to assist in the management of Parkinson’s symptoms. DBS candidates take medications for PD that sometimes work, but often may involve complications like dyskinesia.

Doctors diagnosed Dad in 2013, so he isn’t a new patient. He’s cognitively, emotionally, and physically strong enough to undergo the procedure. His medication works, but it causes severe dyskinesia. However, when he doesn’t take his medication, he suffers from freezing and increased mobility issues. We’ve reached a point in which Dad’s Parkinson’s symptoms are greatly impacting his quality of life. After seeing many different doctors, they’ve determined that he’d make a good candidate for DBS.

Potential benefits of DBS

According to a 2011 study by the Mayo Clinic, DBS patients often see positive results, including sometimes regaining significant mobility. “Stimulation of the ventralis intermedius nucleus of the thalamus has clearly been shown to markedly improve tremor control in patients with essential tremor and tremor related to Parkinson disease,” the study said. “Symptoms of bradykinesia, tremor, gait disturbance, and rigidity can be significantly improved in patients with Parkinson disease.”

The procedure may decrease the use of medications, although patients should work with their doctors to adjust the device’s impulses to meet each person’s unique needs.

According to a 2019 study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery that addressed long-term outcomes for DBS patients, “Tremor responded best to DBS (72.5% of patients improved), while other motor symptoms remained stable. Ability to conduct activities of daily living (ADLs) remained stable (dressing, 78% of patients; running errands, 52.5% of patients) or worsened (preparing meals, 50% of patients). Patient satisfaction, however, remained high (92.5% happy with DBS, 95% would recommend DBS, and 75% felt it provided symptom control).”

The study also observes that more than half of the Parkinson’s patients who received DBS survived for 10 years or longer. Considering that many individuals undergo DBS when alternative solutions become scant and decline becomes startling, an additional 10 years seems encouraging.

Risks associated with DBS 

Anytime surgery is involved, risk is involved, too. Some serious side effects include brain bleed, stroke, infection, or impacted memory. Also, part of the reason doctors screen potential DBS candidates for dementia and Alzheimer’s disease is to avoid worsening underlying memory problems.

As the Mayo Clinic notes, DBS is a “potentially risky procedure,” and patients should “carefully weigh the risks and potential benefits of the procedure.” Read more about possible side effects here.

Current DBS research

Some researchers are attempting to expand DBS treatment to influence freezing and balance issues. Others want to develop a smart device that sends signals when the body is particularly reactive. Some researchers are determining where and when the placement of the device is most optimal. While the best way to use DBS is still under research, clinical trials are exploring the use of DBS to manage different neurological disorders, giving hope to those who struggle with tremors, gait disturbances, and other motor-related issues. Improving outcomes for those who undergo the procedure seems inevitable, given the current interest.

Should you consider DBS? 

Surgery is frightening, regardless of the positive outcome numbers. I’m terrified to think about Dad on the operating table. The decision to undergo surgery is never easy, and everyone’s situation is different. Knowledge is the best weapon against degenerative disease. Weigh the potential good and bad impacts it may have. Ultimately, only your medical team and you can determine whether DBS is a good option for you.

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Note: Parkinson’s News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Parkinson’s News Today or its parent company, BioNews Services, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to Parkinson’s disease.

https://parkinsonsnewstoday.com/2019/07/03/deep-brain-stimulation-background-what-is-it-research/