Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a progressive brain disorder that affects motor skills, which worsen as the disease advances. It is thought that in the early stages of the disease the brain begins to reduce the amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine. The reduced amount of dopamine results in trembling in the hands, arms, legs, and jaw. […] Read more

Traditionally, Parkinson disease patients receiving medication have been given levodopa for treatment. In recent years a newer class of drug called dopamine agonists has been used to disable muscle control problems often associated with the disease. Rebecca Stowe, University of Birmingham, reports in a study, that appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library […] Read more

A person who suffers from Parkinson’s disease has a depletion of dopaminergic neurons. As a result there is a lack of dopamine in the body, which causes chronic and progressive symptoms including tremors, stiff muscles, and slow movement. Dr. Anita Hall, Department of Live Sciences, Imperial College, London, and colleagues, used mouse models to examine […] Read more

A recent study found that Parkinson’s disease patients typically have low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels. What researchers could not establish was if the low LDL levels were the result of Parkinson’s or a possible precursor to the disease. Dr. Xuemei Huang, medical director of Movement Disorder Clinic, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, believes he […] Read more

Parkinson’s disease is thought to be caused by missing dopamine neurons. Stem cell research has sought a way to restore the missing dopamine neurons, but often the immune system rejects the transplanted cells. Lorenz Studer, MD, Head of Stem Cell and Tumor Biology Laboratory, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, feels that their latest study reduces the chances that […] Read more

Every year an estimated 60,000 new cases of the neurodegenerative disease, Parkinson’s, are diagnosed in the U.S. Currently, an estimated 1½ million Americans have Parkinson’s disease. Diagnosis of Parkinson’s is done solely based on the patient’s symptoms. Unfortunately, conditions such as multi-system atrophy or progressive suprancuclear palsy look a lot like Parkinson’s. As a result […] Read more

Each year 60,000 new cases of Parkinson’s disease is diagnosed in America. The exact cause of Parkinson’s is unknown. What is known is certain nerve cells die or are impaired in a part of the brain called the substantia nigra. When these cells die the body is deprived of dopamine–a neurotransmitter vital for body movement. Nicholas […] Read more

Patients with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and Huntinton’s diseases have been found to have deposits of iron in their brain. It is thought that these ‘iron’ deposits are caused by the collapse of the transport system that safely moves iron through our blood stream. Peter Sadler, Professor, University of Warwick, and Sandeep Verma, Professor, Indian Institute of […] Read more

Parkinson’s disease signature symptoms are tremors, rigidity, and impaired movement associated with the progressive loss of motor skills. Currently, L-DOPA is the only relief of the common symptoms experienced by Parkinson’s disease patients, but it can cause prominent side effects that counteract its effectiveness. Paul Greengard, Rockefeller University, and colleagues in Sweden, have found evidence […] Read more

Long-term use of calcium channel blockers appear to reduce the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, while no such association was seen for other high blood pressure medications. Christoph R. Meier, PhD, MSc, University Hospital Basel, Switzerland, studied 7,374 men and women over the age of 40. One-half of the group had Parkinson’s disease, the other half–the control group–had […] Read more