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When civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson in November announced he’d been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, he joined a long list of famous people — and thousands of other Americans — who live with the neurological condition.
Dr. Gregg Shalan of Methodist Dallas Medical Center says people with Parkinson’s have "bradykinesia" or slowness of movement. They can also have tremors or rigidity, which is an increased muscle tone.
Symptoms will worsen over time. When that happens depends on the individual. But there are treatments to help manage Parkinson’s.
“Like any chronic disease, when you come to face it, it’s important to face it head on," Shalan said, "and start recognized treatments as early as possible, getting the care from someone who’s qualified to provide it.”
On Parkinson’s: Some symptoms are more difficult to manage than others. For example, the tremor that often brings Parkinson’s to the forefront is one of the easier symptoms to manage pharmacologically than the rigidity or slowness of movement. Toward the later stages of parkinsonism, we see something call postural instability, which means people can just fall over and that can be a very difficult sign to manage.
On what causes Parkinson’s: We don’t really know for sure. We know it’s a degenerative disease. We know there is a predisposition from genetics, although that’s a small number of people. Most of the time it’s called "sporadic," which means it just happens. There are a number of theories about environmental agents such as manganese and pesticides, but that hasn’t been super well proved.
On how Parkinson’s progresses over time: What we generally see are the symptoms becoming worse and worse. The tremor becomes more noticeable. It occurs more throughout the day. It can also become less responsive to medications. The same can be said for the slowness of movement and for the muscle tone.
On dying with Parkinson’s: It’s almost always from complications from the disease. One of the worst things about parkinsonism is mobility because it’s a disease of movement. So falls are very, very common and can lead to things like broken hips or head injuries.
On treatment of Parkinson’s: There’s no cure. There are medications of different classes that we will use in patients depending on their symptoms and also depending on their age. Parkinson’s disease is a shortage of a neurotransmitter called dopamine, and so we have medications that can stimulate the production of dopamine. We have medications that actually replace the dopamine — that’s probably the most effective medication. We generally tend to start that in older patients, usually 65 and older.
The number of Scots living with Parkinson's is expected to double within the next 50 years as the population grows and ages. New figures from Parkinson’s UK show that more than 12,000 Scots are now living with Parkinson’s, and that this number is expected to double within 50 years as the population grows and ages.
Previous estimates put the number of people in Scotland with the incurable condition at around 11,000. The charity warns that the rising numbers of people with Parkinson’s will have significant impacts on already stretched health and social care services. Parkinson’s UK is calling on Scottish Government and service providers to ensure that they are ready to meet the extra demands that the increase in Parkinson’s will bring. Tanith Muller, Parliamentary and Campaigns Manager at Parkinson’s UK in Scotland says: “Parkinson’s is a complex condition, that typically affects every area of a person’s life.
It has a huge impact on individuals, their families, carers, the NHS and the social care system. As people live longer and the number of people living with the condition increases, getting Parkinson’s care and support right is essential. .
“Around 1,500 people will be diagnosed with Parkinson’s in Scotland this year – that’s 30 people every week - and these numbers are set to increase. It’s vital that our health and care service providers act now to ensure that services are in place to meet people’s needs.”
Dr Carl Counsell, Honorary Consultant Neurologist at NHS Grampian and Clinical Reader at the University of Aberdeen, says: “My colleagues and I are studying what happens over time to people who were diagnosed with Parkinson’s in Aberdeen and the North East.
Our research demonstrates that Parkinson’s has a profound impact on health and wellbeing, particularly for those diagnosed at older ages. People with Parkinson’s are three times more likely to experience a major fracture than people of the same age without the condition. And there are increased complications with dementia too - people with Parkinson’s are six times more likely to develop dementia as people of the same age without the condition.
Five years after being diagnosed, half needed some support with basic day-to-day activities like washing and dressing – and after a decade almost everyone did.” “People with Parkinson’s have a very high risk of hospital admission. More often than not, these admissions are unplanned and lead to longer stays in hospital. In 2015-16 more than 4,000 people with Parkinson’s were admitted to hospital in Scotland. On average they stayed almost 18 days.
That’s more than 75,000 bed days that already have to be resourced, and as the prevalence of Parkinson’s increases, the demand for services is only going to increase. “Care and support from a team of health and social care professionals can help people with Parkinson’s to live well with the condition, and reduce emergencies – but health and social care services must be in place.”
Tanith Muller concluded: “Parkinson’s already has significant impacts on our health and social care system. People with Parkinson’s and their families want access to expert care and support to help them to manage their condition as well as possible for as long as possible These alarming figures demonstrate that Scottish Government, and health and social care providers must commit resources to support the growing numbers of people with Parkinson’s now, and plan for increasing needs in the future
A coach is somebody who leads, motivates and teaches. They lead by their actions, motivate with their words and teach through experience. When they step aside, it is usually because they no longer feel they’re effective. That wasn’t what sidelined Tim Touchberry, but he’s found a way to remain in the game, though every day is a battle.
Touchberry was a multiple-sport star at Stall High School in the late '60s and played basketball at Baptist College, now known as Charleston Southern University. In 1972, he entered coaching. He eventually became Fort Dorchester High School’s director of athletics. He ended a 35-year career in the Charleston County school system in 2006. He still loved his coaches and the students, but something called Parkinson’s Disease was starting to effect his ability to enjoy life.
It was while walking in the school hallway one day that another coach commented that Touchberry’s left arm was not swinging as it usually did. From that seemingly innocent observation, the disease progressively impeded different movements in Touchberry’s body. He and his wife, Debby, married for 47 years, decided to fight this new opponent with every ounce of courage and understanding they could muster. That fight continues.
Waiting for the bus
Initially, a cocktail of medicine dealt with the symptoms. The trick was trying to stay ahead of the next discomfort or inconvenience. Touchberry referred to the moments spent wondering when the medicine would kick in as "waitin’ for the bus."
On those days, when Debby would ask, “How do you feel, Tim?” his reply would be, “I’m just waitin’ for the bus.”
Some doctors at the Medical University of South Carolina talked to the Touchberrys about a new treatment called deep brain stimulation, or DBS. This involved planting an electrode into the subcortical regions of the brain. Parkinson’s is a progressive neurological disorder for which there is no cure, but DBS can make improvements, though every patient is different.
“It was a huge decision to have people drill holes in your head,” admits Debby Touchberry.
A wire about the width of a human hair is placed in the brain. The first surgery was in 2014. There are tweaks that are made during follow-up visits, and eventually a battery is added to periodically activate the electrode.
There were immediate improvements in Tim’s ability to move. He could go to the bathroom on his own. He was recertified to drive. He could turn over in bed. He was allowed to get back in his boat, but not by himself.
Some days are better than others. DBS affects the body’s movement, but not the cognitive areas.
“He’s still the best man I ever met,” says Debby Touchberry. “Even now, he never gets up from the table without thanking me for the meal.”
An empty bottle
Tim Touchberry’s greatest recreational passion is searching for old bottles. Though he now sometimes must carefully shuffle along the river beds, he still enjoys finding something of value that people long ago discarded. A couple of old coaching buddies accompany him on these ventures. The last time he tried to do it solo, “I fell so deep into some pluff mud that I thought I’d end up as crab bait.”
Parkinson’s disease has already claimed people Touchberry met after he was diagnosed. Unfortunately, some of those patients felt hopeless or possibly unwanted or empty — kind of like an old bottle.
“I didn’t know much about the disease until it hit me in the face,” says Touchberry. “I’m happy to still be here and I don’t know how much longer I’ve got, but I have too much to live for to give up.”
His doctors often ask him to speak with other patients who are afraid or concerned about the deep brain stimulation surgery. Touchberry spends time with those candidates, giving advice and telling them what to expect.
Sounds to me like the old coach is still coaching.
A mathematical algorithm that can reliably detect dyskinesia, the side effect from Parkinson's treatment that causes involuntary jerking movements and muscle spasms, could hold the key to improving treatment and for patients with the disease.
Scientists in Heriot-Watt's School of Mathematical and Computing Sciences have conducted clinical studies that prove their algorithm reliably detects dyskinesia, an unexplained side effect of Parkinson's disease. They are working to develop a new home monitoring device for patients that will help their clinician adapt and improve treatment.
The motor features of Parkinson's disease, such as tremor, postural instability, and a general slowing of movement, are caused by a lack of dopamine, and clinicians treat this through dopamine replacement drugs such as levodopa.
Dr. Michael Lones, leader of Heriot-Watt's Complex Systems Laboratory, said: "The problem is that, as Parkinson's disease worsens over time, the dose required to treat the motor features increases, which increases the risk of inducing dyskinesia or making it more prolonged and severe.
"Patients don't see their clinicians that frequently, and medication only changes at regular review periods. So it's very difficult for clinicians to know when dyskinesia is occuring.
"A better solution would be a portable device that identifies and monitors dyskinesia while patients are at home and going about day-to-day life, broadcasting data to their clinicians through simple mobile technology."
Dr. Lones and his team carried out two clinical studies, with 23 Parkinson's disease patients who had all displayed evidence of dyskinesia. Lightweight sensing modules were fitted to each patient's legs, arms, torso, head and trunk using adjustable bands, and patients had their movements measured each hour using the MDS Unified Parkinson's disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS). An infrared camera was used to film patients as they moved around and footage was later marked up by three trained clinicians who graded the intensity of dyskinesia exhibited by patients.
Dr. Lones said: "The clinical studies allowed us to capture and mine data about how patients move and used those to build models.
"We developed our algorithm to make as few assumptions as possible. With traditional analysis, you make assumptions about what a movement looks like. If it doesn't look like exactly that way, you won't detect it. Very little is known about dyskinesia, so we wanted the algorithm to be as 'open' as possible.
"The algorithm works by building a mathematical equation that describes patterns of acceleration which are characteristic of dyskinesia. The system then uses this equation to discriminate periods of dyskinesia from other movements, relaying this information to clinicians who can then adapt a patient's medication as necessary."
The motor features of Parkinson’s Disease, such as tremor, postural instability, and a general slowing of movement, are caused by a lack of dopamine, and clinicians treat this through dopamine replacement drugs such as levodopa. NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
More information: Michael A. Lones et al. A New Evolutionary Algorithm-Based Home Monitoring Device for Parkinson's Dyskinesia, Journal of Medical Systems (2017). DOI: 10.1007/s10916-017-0811-7
Early-onset Parkinson's occurs when a doctor diagnoses the disease in a person 21 to 50 years old, according to the American Parkinson Disease Association.
While a Parkinson's diagnosis can be devastating at any time of life, being diagnosed with the disease at an early age can significantly impact a young person's quality of life and that of their family. Currently, there is no cure for the disease.
Because doctors most often diagnose Parkinson's disease in people around 60 years old, it is likely that a much younger person with early-onset Parkinson's disease could remain undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for some time.
Early-onset Parkinson's may also progress differently to the more traditional form of the disease. Being aware of symptoms and risk factors may help a person get the treatments they need as early as possible.
Early-onset Parkinson's definition
According to the American Parkinson Disease Association, an estimated 10 to 20 percent of those with Parkinson's disease are diagnosed at an early age. This amounts to anywhere from 6,000 to 12,000 people under 50 years old in the United States.
Many people with early-onset Parkinson's will not experience some of the symptoms associated with the disease for many years. People diagnosed with Parkinson's at an older age tend to progress to these symptoms more quickly.
These symptoms include:
confusion
memory loss
problems with balance
However, people with early-onset Parkinson's are more likely to experience problems with involuntary movements — jerking or other tics that a person has no control over. These movements may be due to the disease itself or a result of the side effects of a medicine called levodopa, which is commonly prescribed to treat the disease.
For this reason, some doctors will prescribe different medications to treat early-onset Parkinson's.
In addition to differences in symptoms and treatments, those diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson's disease also face different challenges in living with the disease. For example, they may be parents of young children or just starting out in their careers without insurance or savings for medical costs.
Signs and symptoms
According to an article in the journal Translational Neurodegeneration, changes in the brain begin to occur an estimated 6 years before a person experiences symptoms of Parkinson's.
Parkinson's disease causes a reduction of dopamine in the brain, which may be responsible for movement-related symptoms. These symptoms are similar in people diagnosed with both early-onset Parkinson's disease and those diagnosed at a later age.
Examples of movement-related symptoms include:
tremors, or small, shaking movements of the hands, arms, legs, jaw, or face
stiffness or rigidity of the arms, legs, or trunk
slow, stiff movements
affected balance
affected coordination
Parkinson's disease can also cause other symptoms besides impaired movement. These include:
A brain MRI scan may be used to rule out other conditions.
Currently, no specific test exists to help a doctor diagnose Parkinson's disease. Diagnosis often involves ruling out other medical conditions that can cause similar effects. Doctors may also compare a person's symptoms with those of a younger person already diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.
Sometimes, a doctor may ask a person to keep a diary of their symptoms. Tracking these symptoms over time may help a doctor to identify a Parkinson's-like pattern of symptoms.
Examples of diagnostic testing to rule out other conditions include:
imaging scans of the brain to test for brain abnormalities, such as tumors
blood testing to identify the presence of bacterial or viral illnesses, or cancers
Sometimes, a doctor might prescribe medications that are typically used to treat Parkinson's disease to see if a person's symptoms improve. If a person's symptoms do improve, this might suggest that a person has Parkinson's disease.
Treatment options
Traditionally, the treatment approach to early-onset Parkinson's has been to delay prescribing medications until a person's symptoms start to affect their daily life significantly.
However, the Parkinson's medication levodopa and its variants, such as Carbidopa-levodopa, are known to cause increased symptoms in a younger person with Parkinson's disease. As a result, doctors may prescribe different medications, such as:
MAO-B inhibitors, such as selegiline (Eldepryl)
dopamine agonists, such as ropinirole (Requip)
These drugs are associated with fewer side effects in young people than levodopa.
Another therapy that has been shown to help people with early-onset Parkinson's is deep brain stimulation.
This treatment involves implanting a small electrical device similar to a pacemaker into an area of the brain involved in movement. A special programmer will adjust the electrical stimulation levels to help a person have better motor control related to their Parkinson's disease.
Living with early-onset Parkinson's
Early-onset Parkinson's disease can affect how a person moves and thinks. These effects can be understandably life-changing.
When a person is first diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson's, they might want to try some of the following steps to help them live better with Parkinson's disease:
Educating themselves about the disease, its symptoms, and treatments.
Identifying a medical team to help care for them. This could include a primary care physician, neurologist, psychiatrist, and physical therapist.
Discussing the diagnosis with their boss or colleagues and creating a plan to keep them working for as long as they desire.
Finding support groups, both in person and online, to support them.
Identifying caregivers and loved ones who can offer encouragement and a helping hand.
While doctors do not know exactly what causes Parkinson's and early-onset Parkinson's, they do believe that there is a genetic component to the disease. This is especially true for those with early-onset Parkinson's disease.
As a result, a person living with early onset Parkinson's may wish to see a genetic counselor if they are thinking of having children.
If recommended, a counselor may test for the presence of genes linked to early-onset Parkinson's disease, such as SNCA, PARK2, PINK1, and LRRK2.
Tips for caregivers
Caregiving for a loved one with early-onset Parkinson's can be difficult because the person is young and often unaccustomed to the idea of needing extra help.
As the disease progresses more slowly in a person with early-onset Parkinson's, it is possible that a loved one may not need much assistance with medical appointments, medication management, or other disease-related tasks for some time.
However, a person with early-onset Parkinson's will often need moral and personal support. Some of the ways a caregiver can do this include:
Educating themselves about Parkinson's disease, and specifically early-onset Parkinson's disease. Learning about symptoms, available treatments, and how Parkinson's disease could impact a loved one's daily life.
Asking their loved one what they can do, and making themselves available when possible to help.
Providing encouragement and support. This can just mean talking about topics other than the person's illness and engaging in stress-relieving activities.
Joining a support group for caregivers, specifically, caregivers for family members with Parkinson's.
In addition to these activities, caregivers may wish to discuss important care decisions with a person with early-onset Parkinson's.
While these issues can be difficult to discuss, having the conversations before a person's disease has progressed significantly can ensure that a person's wishes are fulfilled. This can include:
Defining how an individual wants their family to participate in their caregiving.
Engaging with community resources to prepare an advanced directive or power of attorney for healthcare should a person need assistance in making healthcare decisions.
Making a list of a person's physicians, insurance policies, or medications.
Having this information available and updated regularly can help a caregiver have all the required information to hand should a loved one require more intensive medical attention.
Outlook
Every day, researchers around the globe are working to find treatments to help slow the progression and effects of early-onset Parkinson's and Parkinson's disease in general.
While no cure currently exists, there are some medications that can reduce symptoms and help a person maintain their mobility.
By Blake Ursch / World-Herald staff writer/ January 7, 2018
Kevin Luke looks out the window while following flight instruction from flight instructor Gregory Love at Silverhawk Aviation in Lincoln March 10, 2017. Luke said that he feels blessed to fly planes despite his diagnosis with Parkinson's disease 10 years ago.
LINCOLN — The skies blaze blue through the cockpit windows. The air outside is chilly, but mostly still. A fine day to fly.
The pilot settles in, his headset on, eyes scanning the instrument panel of the Cessna 182. He checks the dials, listens carefully to the staccato messages from air traffic control sputtering through the radio in his ear.
He’s done this before, many times. He knows how to handle this plane and others like it. But these days, each flight is a gift. One he doesn’t take for granted.
“Lincoln tower, this is Cessna 756 Mike. Ready for taxi,” he says into the headset. This is the part that gives him trouble these days. The radio. So many scraps of information to keep straight. To repeat quickly, clearly into the microphone. The man sitting next to him — his co-pilot, the reason he’s able to fly today — handles most of it for him.
The plane speeds down the runway. The pilot grips the throttle, a plunger protruding from the panel just to his right, and pushes it forward. This, he will say later, is what Cessna pilots call going “balls to the wall,” pushing the “ball” end of the throttle in, generating maximum power for takeoff.
Sure enough, the sky takes hold, hoisting the plane higher and higher and higher above Lincoln’s Silverhawk Aviation.
And for the next hour or so, the pilot, Kevin Luke, will be free.
About 15 years ago, Luke was working on an instrument panel in the C-119G “Flying Boxcar” when he noticed his hands were shaking.
Months later, at his full-time job as division manager in the Allstate insurance company’s marketing department, his phone rang. It was his doctor’s office.
The voice on the line delivered the news bluntly: Luke had Parkinson’s disease. He had probably had it for at least 10 years already. It was a degenerative disease that would affect his day-to-day life. He could plan on working for another five years — maybe longer, if he gave up his management job.
Luke wasn’t sitting in a private room when the call came. The disease hadn’t waited until he had a moment to himself. It had crashed into his life like a meteor. And soon it began to seep into every part of it, threatening to rob him of the things he loved most.
Parkinson’s didn’t care that ever since he was a boy growing up in Salt Lake City, Luke has loved airplanes. That he once dreamed of becoming a Navy pilot, and would have if his hearing had been better. That he earned his pilot’s license when he was in college and flew whenever he had the chance until marriage, a career and family made it difficult.
Parkinson’s didn’t care that Luke spent nearly every Saturday at the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum near Ashland, taking apart and putting together retired military aircraft, just because he liked being close to the old beasts.
The disease has tried to take these pieces of his life from him. But he hasn’t let it.
Kevin Luke leaves a flying lesson in a Cessna 182 at Silverhawk Aviation in Lincoln March 10, 2017. Luke first learned how to fly a plane in college in 1970.
Today, Luke, 65, flies every other month, accompanied by a professional flight instructor. He still pulls himself out of bed early every Saturday morning at his Lincoln home and heads to the SAC museum where, bit by bit, he’s refurbishing an old B-36 bomber, a project that’s taken him at least a decade.
He bowls every morning to exercise and strengthen his balance. He volunteers as the executive secretary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Beatrice. He travels with his wife, Janet, around the country, visiting children and grandchildren.
It’s not always easy. Parkinson’s affects the brain as well as the body. He takes medications five times a day — 5, 8 and 11 a.m., 2 and 5 p.m. — that sometimes cause involuntary muscle movements, making him appear restless. When they wear off, he crashes immediately, breaking out in a cold sweat, his limbs turning sluggish and stiff until he takes his next dose. The disease slurs his speech and causes short-term memory loss. He sleeps only four to five hours a night. Most days, he wakes up about 1 a.m.
He tries to schedule his life around his medication, planning the things he likes to do when he knows he’ll be at his most spry. But sometimes it’s hard to forget that he has a probe implanted in his head, which sends electrical pulses to his brain cells to stop his tremors. It’s hard not to worry that at any moment the medication could wear off and he would be stuck fighting his own body.
“Not a day goes by that you don’t think about it,” Luke said.
Coping with Parkinson’s, like any chronic disease, is about addressing emotional health as well as physical, experts say. Depression and anxiety are common among patients.
And there are a lot of patients.
Parkinson’s is the second-most-common neurodegenerative disorder in the world, after Alzheimer’s disease. About 7 million to 10 million people worldwide have Parkinson’s, 1 million of them in the United States. Nebraska has one of the highest rates of Parkinson’s per capita in the country.
Last year marked the 200th anniversary of the discovery of the disease by English surgeon Dr. James Parkinson, who observed what he called a “shaking palsy” in some of his patients.
It emerges when cells that control our “automatic pilot,” located in the middle part of the brain, begin to die off, said Dr. John Bertoni, professor and co-director of the Parkinson’s disease clinic at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
This affects many of the movements we learn early in life: how to stand up, how to walk, how to roll over in bed.
A person with Parkinson’s can be walking toward a doorway and stop suddenly, unable to take another step. The muscles are capable, but the signal isn’t making it from the brain to the legs.
“It’s like you have a clicker on your TV but the batteries are low. You can push that clicker as hard as you want, but it won’t change the channel,” Bertoni said.
As the disease progresses, problems with thinking and memory may arise. In later stages, dementia is common.
Researchers are still trying to determine what causes Parkinson’s, Bertoni said. Evidence suggests there are genetic as well as environmental factors that could contribute to the disease.
For the past 20 years, Nebraska has maintained a Parkinson’s registry to track cases within the state and identify potential risk factors. To mark the 20th anniversary of the registry, Gov. Pete Ricketts declared last Oct. 30 Parkinson’s Disease Awareness Day.
Parkinson’s itself isn’t fatal, Bertoni said. But as symptoms worsen, they can lead to accidents and injuries that prove to be. There’s the risk of choking, or pneumonia associated with trouble swallowing. Limited movement can lead to dangerous falls.
But in addressing a patient showing signs of Parkinson’s, Bertoni is careful to emphasize the positive. A definitive diagnosis, after all, is never 100 percent certain, he tells them. Doctors can’t be sure until they’re able to dissect a patient’s brain.
Bertoni tells patients of treatments that can dramatically improve their quality of life, like medicine that boosts dopamine in the brain and improves movement. He tells them to eat right — Parkinson’s can affect smell and taste, meaning patients often grab for sweet, salty junk food.
He tells them to exercise regularly: It can help with depression, and in some cases improves mobility and balance.
And he tells them to keep doing the things that make them happy.
“I’ll say ‘OK, you may have 20 to 30 more years,’ ” he said. “ ‘What are you going to do to make sure you have 20 or 30 good years?’ ”
On Saturdays, Luke rises early and makes the 30-mile journey north from Lincoln to Ashland. Since the SAC museum opened in its current location in 1998, Luke has spent weekends there as a volunteer in the museum’s Durham Restoration Gallery, readying the old aircraft for public display.
He can do it all, said Dan Kirwan, Saturday supervisor at the museum. In total, Luke estimates he’s worked on seven or eight planes over his years as a volunteer; he’s tracked the progression of his disease by remembering what plane he was working on when certain symptoms emerged.
But there’s one plane the weekend volunteers know is Luke’s territory: the B-36 Peacemaker, a massive aircraft built to carry nuclear payloads after World War II. Luke’s been working on it for 10 years.
“It’s kind of nice they do that,” he said. “It shows they have some faith in my skills.”
Piece by piece he’s made the plane look like new. Luke has meticulously documented the interior in an album filled with hundreds of photos that help him remember where everything goes.
No detail goes overlooked. When he goes home, he designs and prints historically accurate decals for instruments in the plane. When the Parkinson’s caused a tremor in his right hand, he taught himself to use the computer mouse with his left.
“Kevin’s one of those guys who gets his teeth into a project, and he will see it through to the end,” Kirwan said. “He’ll find ways to get the job done. Innovate whatever he has to. The results he gets are just incredible.”
These days, Luke is measuring the work he has left on the B-36 in months rather than years. Finishing will give him more time to focus on his other great aeronautical pursuit.
Luke earned his private pilot’s license during his first year of college in Utah. He spent two years in the Army, got married and had eight children, all of which left little time to fly. The family moved to Lincoln more than 20 years ago, when Luke’s job with Allstate transferred him there. Then came his diagnosis.
“When I found out I had Parkinson’s, I thought I needed to go back and (fly). I didn’t want to leave that behind,” Luke said.
Though his pilot’s license is still valid, the Parkinson’s means Luke can no longer pass the medical certification required for active pilots. To fly, he needs a co-pilot who is medically cleared.
So about three years ago he reached out to Greg Love, a certified flight instructor based in Lincoln, and explained his situation. Since then, about once every other month, Luke pays Love for an hour to an hour and a half in the air.
“I’ve flown with a couple of guys who had medical issues, but it was maybe once or twice over a long period. Nothing consistent like Kevin,” Love said.
The two men have had frank conversations about how Luke’s disease affects his flying. Love can take over operation of the plane if he thinks he needs to. And Luke has asked Love to say if Love ever feels Luke’s not healthy enough to work the controls. If that day comes, Love said, he won’t be shy about making the point. But so far, Luke hasn’t done anything to worry him.
The only real problem Luke has right now is speaking on the radio. Love can tell it frustrates him. In the busy airspace above Lincoln, he said responses need to be quick and clear. The Parkinson’s has damaged Luke’s short-term memory, so Love handles most of the radio calls once the plane is in the air.
Luke knows that eventually — who knows when? — his symptoms will prevent him from flying. He doesn’t feel like he’s close to that point yet. But when it comes, it will be painful.
Once you’ve touched the sky, it’s hard to stay on the ground.
Pfizer has announced that it has decided to halt its neuroscience early development programs mostly concentrated on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
The pharmaceutical company said in a statement Saturday that it will redirect funds "to those areas where we have strong scientific leadership and that will allow us to provide the greatest impact for patients."
Pfizer said it anticipates reducing 300 positions in coming months, mostly in Cambridge and Andover, Mass., and in Groton, with about 100 expected at each site.
The company says it routinely reviews its research and development operations to ensure that it is "in the strongest possible position to support scientific discovery and development to bring new therapies to patients who need them."
"Any decision impacting colleagues is difficult; however, we believe this will best position the company to bring meaningful new therapies to market, and will bring the most value for shareholders and patients," the company said in the statement. "We are thankful for the contributions of our colleagues who have supported our neuroscience portfolio and are committed to supporting them during this transition."
The Wall Street Journal first reported on Saturday the news of Pfizer's ending of research for new treatments for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and the expected staff reductions. The Journal reported that Pfizer, along with others in the pharmaceutical industry, had spent significant money on efforts in recent years to advance ways to treat Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, but the efforts were unsuccessful.
"We will continue to fully support our late-stage development programs for tanezumab and Lyrica, and our Rare Disease programs in the neuromuscular or neurology area, all of which are an integral part of our current R&D portfolio," the company said in the statement to The Day. The company said that its total spending on Research and Development is not changing.
"We recognize that neuroscience is an area of tremendous unmet need for patients and we plan to create a dedicated neuroscience venture fund to support continued efforts to advance the field," the company added.
The company said it would release more details on the fund later this year.
Background : The L-dopa inhaler CVT-301 is presently being assessed for its use in
Parkinson’s Disease. It is designed to deliver a precise dose of a dry powder formulation of
L-dopa. Inhaled L-dopa enters the body through the lungs and then reaches the brain far more
quickly by bypassing the digestive system.
For more information go to :http://www.acorda.com/products/research-development/cvt-301
Methods : Patients used the L-dopa inhaler CVT-301 up to 3
times per day for OFF episodes. After 2 weeks, the
study-drug dose was increased from 35mg to 50 mg. The
patients were assessed after 10, 20, 30, and 60 minutes.
Results: The L-dopa inhaler was used at an average of 2.1
times per day. The UPDRS Part III score (Parkinson’s
Disease symptoms) clearly improved. A treatment effect was
already evident after only 10 minutes.
Adverse effects : The most frequently reported adverse events in those using CVT-301 were
dizziness, cough, and nausea, each in 7% of patients.
Conclusion : As the effect was already seen after 10 minutes, which is the shortest time
assessed, the effect could be even quicker. Consequently, CVT-301 could become of
widespread use in Parkinson’s Disease for when a quick effect is needed.
