This month's recommended book:
Lianna's Marie Book What you should do about Parkinson's disease...



Chosen quote: " This labor of love came out of my 16 years of personal research and experience of caring for my mother."
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Early Diagnosis and Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease
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What is Parkinson’s disease? And Beneficial Treatment

What is Parkinson’s disease?
Parkinson’s disease (PD) belongs to a group of conditions called motor system disorders, which are the result of the loss of dopamine-producing brain cells.
The four main symptoms of PD are tremor, or wobbly in hands, arms, legs, jaw, and face; rigidity, or rigidity of the limbs and trunk; bradykinesia, or sluggishness of movement; and postural unsteadiness, or impaired balance and coordination.
As these symptoms become more marked, patients may have complexity walking, talking, or implementation other simple tasks. PD usually affects populace over the age of 50.
Early symptoms of PD are fine and occur steadily.  In some populace the illness progress more quickly than in others.
Causes of Parkinson
We do not yet know what causes Parkinson’s disease (PD) to develop in most people.
Experts have identified aging as an important factor that contributes to Parkinson’s in some individuals. For example, people over age 60 have a two-to-four percent risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, compared with the one-to-two percent risk in the general population.
While there are certain families who share a gene that leads to Parkinson’s, this is a small percentage of the population with PD. Most Parkinson’s disease cases are sporadic — meaning that genetics and family history have not played a clear role in the onset and development of the disease.
Symptoms of Parkinson
Bradykinesia is slowness in voluntary movement. It produces complexity initiating movement, as well as complexity completing movement once it is in progress.
The belated transmission of signals from the brain to the very thin muscles, due to diminished dopamine, produces bradykinesia. Bradykinesia and rigidity that affects the facial muscles can result in an expressionless, “mask-like” appearance.
Tremors in the hand fingers, forearm, or foot be inclined to occur at what time the member is at rest, but not when the patient is performing tasks. Tremor may occur in the mouth and chin as well.
Rigidity, or stiff muscles, may create muscle pain and facial masking. Rigidity tends to increase during movement.
Poor balance is due to the injury or loss of the reflex that adjust posture in order to maintain balance. Falls are common in people with Parkinson’s disease.
Treatment of Parkinson
At present, there is no cure for PD, but a variety of medications provide dramatic relief from the symptoms.  Usually, patients are known levodopa joint with carbidopa.
Carbidopa delays the change of levodopa into dopamine until it reaches the brain.  Nerve cells can use levodopa to make dopamine and replenish the brain’s dwindling supply.
Although levodopa help at least three-quarters of parkinsonian cases, not all symptom respond equally to the drug. Bradykinesia and inflexibility respond best, while shake may be only slightly reduced. Problems with equilibrium and other symptoms may not be alleviated at all.
Herbal Remedies for Parkinson
Many different herbal remedies are used to treat Parkinson’s disease. Take 20 of Larkspur in 4 cups of sweltering water, but do not swallow more than 3 cups of Larkspur tea a day.
Lady’s slipper is often used to treat tremors. It can also be obliging in clearing up depression. Take 3 to 9 g of the herb or 10 to 30 drops. For Lady’s slipper to be more effective, take three to four times per day.
Ginkgo Biloba help with free radicals, which is good for reverse the signs of aging, cancer and all kind of illness and disease. It also help with circulation in the brain. Whatever manufactured goods is used to get Ginkgo Biloba be supposed to have at least 24 percent ginkgo heterosides. These are from time to time referred to as flavoglycosides. Take 40 mg three times a day. The amount can be regularly increased to 80 mg three times a day if the first dosage works well.

Treatments for Parkinson’s Disease

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Sangamo BioSciences Receives Michael J. Fox Foundation Funding To Develop Novel Drug For The Treatment Of Parkinson’s …
Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) announced today that it has been awarded a second round of funding by The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to support studies in non-human primates for the development of a ZFP Therapeutic™ to treat Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Read more on BioresearchOnline

Question by Addicted to Yahoo! Answers: What are cancer treatment options when the patient also has Parkinson’s Disease?
A dear friend of mine has Stage 3A lung cancer, but also has Parkinson’s Disease, and there appear to be limited treatment options. Can anyone provide some guidance on this issue?

Best answer:

Answer by peqli
the only definitive cure for lung cancer is through surgery, however it is not done on everyone, as not everyone is a suitable candidate

i would presume your friend is in the 60-70 age group, which is not a really the best age to have radical surgery (as it is a major surgery and may involve removing the whole affected lung) and taking additional chemotherapies or radiotherapies to increase the effectiveness of the surgery would make the experience much worse. and with the cancer already at an advanced stage, makes the doctor to tend to steer away from the surgical option.

even so, sometimes with radiotherapy or chemotherapy the tumor may shrink and downstage the tumor that the surgeons might consider surgery as an option later along the course

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Thorn Apple
parkinson treatment

Image by Elfleda
This plant is also widely known as Jimson Weed - this is due to the fact that in 1705 British soldiers in Jamestown (Jimson) Virginia were accidentally served the leaves in a salad. Strict military discipline collapsed while they spent the next 11 days hallucinating!!

The asthma drug Stamonium is extracted from Thorn Apples and it is also used in the treatment of Parkinsons disease.

Parkinson Disease Symptoms

Parkinson disease belongs to the group of degenerating diseases that injure the brain, the hub of the central nervous system. The primary symptoms of Parkinson’s disease stem from the deterioration of the part of the brain that controls motor functioning. The primary cause of Parkinson’s disease is still speculative, though most researches believe it’s a combination of genetics and environment. One theory hypothesizes that neuronal deterioration in the brain is caused by the accumulation of free radicals as a result of exposure to toxins possible from food and pesticides.

It’s hard to track when a person with this disease first experienced signs of the disease. Most patients mentioned that they first noticed that something is wrong when one of their limbs was trembling. However, a closer inquiry indicates the subtle signs appeared before. The early signs many patients recalled having before the tremor were lack of blinking, Failure to swing one arm when walking, painful shoulder, discomfort of the neck, and feeling of inner trembling.

In most cases the first symptoms that were impossible to ignore appeared in one side of the body, for example, tremble in one of the limbs. The disease progresses slowly and gradually for a decade or more and than strikes the other limb at the same side of the body. Because of the deterioration in motor functioning most patients use a wheel chair in later stages of the disease.

Other symptoms caused by the decreasing of dosage of dopamine in the brain are involuntary tremors when resting-usually involuntary tremors of the limbs, muscles stiffness (losing the ability to make fast and spontaneous movements), slow voluntary movement, difficulties maintaining balance and stable gait (Stooped posture, a tendency to lean forward) an increased production of saliva (drooling), difficulty swallowing, softness of the voice and slurred speech (caused by lack of muscles control), ansomia- reduced sense of smell(inability to sense certain odors), loss of facial expression or “masking”, depression, anxieties, insomnia-sleep problems, constipation, increased sweating and inability to control urine.

I am doing some research and am wondering what is the youngest known cases of Parkinson’s disease in humans. After viewing some brain scan images it would seem that it could be possible that Parkinson’s could be started much like for example spinal Meningitis is started, except I don’t think it’s a form of Spinal Meningitis..That would be up to Lab researchers to verify of corse. If so the a earlyer diagnosis and treatment can be started..
In that’ this virus is started in spinal fluid area and spread to the brain cells.The human brain cells are different from spinal area cells thus the Brunt of Damage.

My cat is a healthy 1 1/2 yr old. We’ve had him all his life. He was just fine yesterday, but he woke up early this morning and started going ballistic, running in circles and meowing.

Now, his eyes are twitching; his pupils are dilated, and his head’s tilted at an angle so that the right side is lower. His head keeps twitching down to the right when he tries to move.

We took him to the vet, but the only plausible diagnosis was the cat’s getting hit in the head, which doesn’t make sense, since he slept inside the house on a computer chair the whole night.

I’m doing a report on it for school and i have a lot of facts on it but im asking in case there is more i need to know. We have to write acting like were them so that we can see how it is in their shoes and then we have to the the diagnosis and treatments/coping with the disease.
Anyone have any help to give?

Now at age 60, I have a diagnosis of Parkinson’s. I read that they might be related. My parkinson’s symptom’s don’t seem typical. Thanks!

Current medical symptoms for past 6-9 months - Age 50/Male
1. Parkinson’s like tremors in hands and arms and progressively becoming worse as time continues.
2. Losing cognitive ability and memory and these are getting progressively worse as well. I frequently lose track of work or a though right in the middle of it and I have to stop and think for nearly a half a minute to get back on track.
3. Lethargic and lacking in motivation. Kind of depressed, nothing unmanageable.

Over 1 1/2 year ago I had severe tremors occuring in hands, arms and face and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. The neurologist pronounced his diagnosis when I had taken Mirapex for a week and the tremors had vanished in arms and face, and were nearly gone in my hands.

I’m still taking the same amount of Mirapex but now the original symptoms have returned along with the memory and cognitive loss symptoms as well.

Could I have Alzheimers rather than Parkinson’s? I need help.