First the Bad News…

A research review in this week’s online News Medical makes me realize that all may not be hunky-dory with my current, seemingly successful attempts at holding Parkinson’s disease at bay.  According to the article, while my medications and frequent physical exercising may work together to lessen the symptoms of PD, the fact remains that PD is still ravaging sections of my brain.

The study looked at the brains of healthy adults (the control) and people with PD.  There were two brain scans for each participant, spread out over a year.  During the brain scan, the volunteer was also tested on a grip strengthening gizmo.  (BTW, I use a grip strengthener frequently.  It’s great!)

The researchers found that there wasn’t any change in the brains of the control group, but the Parkies’ brains did deteriorate in certain precise regions (the putamen and the primary motor cortex).

The article points out that until now, most therapies for PD work at controlling or lessening PD’s symptoms, while the brain degenerates unabated.  The good news is that now that the researchers have identified the exact locations where the brains of Parkies are fizzling, future research can work out how to keep those parts of the brain up to snuff.

Key quote from the article:

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that destroys neurons in the brain that are essential for controlling movement.  While many medications exist that lessen the consequences of this neuronal loss, none can prevent the destruction of those cells.  Clinical trials for Parkinson’s disease have long relied on observing whether a therapy improves patients’ symptoms, but such studies reveal little about how the treatment affects the underlying progressive neurodegeneration.  As a result, while there are treatments that improve symptoms, they become less effective as the neurodegeneration advances.  The new study could remedy this issue by providing researchers with measurable targets, called biomarkers, to assess whether a drug slows or even stops the progression of the disease in the brain.