Hold On There Just a Minnit!
The excellent Parkinson’s disease website Viartis throws some cold water on the recent study that alleges heavy use of ibuprofen can prevent the development of PD.
Frequently, the results of medical research do not match the claims made for them. Ibuprofen is often taken for arthritis or pain. For more [...]

There’s some new info on the Parkinson’s disease research front this morning.
The Timed Up and Go (TUG) test has been used to assess balance and mobility in Parkinson’s Disease (PD). However, it is not known if this test is sensitive to subtle abnormalities present in early stages of the disease, when balance and [...]

I‘m always amused when I see the results of some new study that merely validates common sense.
This one, f’rinstance.
People with Parkinson’s disease suffer social difficulties simply because of the way they talk, a McGill University researcher has discovered. Marc Pell, at McGill’s School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, has learned that many [...]

I must admit that, being new to this later stage of Parkinsonism, almost every day brings a new surprise.  Like waking up in the morning with something hurting and having no idea what you did to hurt it.  Taking your shower and seeing a scratch on your leg and not remembering when or how you [...]

“I thought, ‘Oh, my God, that’s brain surgery,’ ” recalls Bill Schmalfeldt. He was considering participating in a clinical trial—the only one testing so-called deep brain stimulation in patients with early-stage Parkinson’s disease—that might result in electrodes being permanently implanted deep inside his head. Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at age 45, Schmalfeldt, now 54, found himself [...]

New research indicates that PET Scans (positron emission tomography) can tell whether you have regular (idiopathic — meaning they don’t know why you have it) PD, or some other variation — like supranuclear palsy or multiple systems atrophy.
Between 1998 and 2006, researchers scanned the brains of 167 patients who had signs of Parkinsonism but hadn’t [...]