{"id":113876,"date":"2021-04-28T16:12:10","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T23:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=113876"},"modified":"2021-04-28T16:12:10","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T23:12:10","slug":"is-there-a-relief-for-parkinsons-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/04\/28\/is-there-a-relief-for-parkinsons-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Is there a relief for Parkinson&#8217;s Disease?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Dr. Harold Gunatillake<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Is there a relief for Parkinson&#039;s Disease?\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A3vDxzzNbhg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\n\nTranscript: After reading Tim Newman\u2019s article, in MNT Newsletter, I was inspired to \npresent this video, because Parkinson\u2019s disease seems to be on the increase among the \naging Sri Lankan population.\nParkinson\u2019s disease is a condition where the nerves of the brain and the other parts of the \nnervous system are affected. Symptoms about to be discussed are due to loss of nerve cells. \nWhat causes this to happen are not noticeably clear.\nParkinson\u2019s is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer\u2019s \ndisease.\nIn the United States, approximately 1.6% of the over 65 group is affected with Parkinson\u2019s \ndisease. In Germany, the standard prevalence was 1680 cases per 100,000 of population.\nIn 2016, an estimated 6.1 million people worldwide had Parkinson\u2019s Disease. The number \nhas doubled in the past 25 years.\nData is not available for the incidence in Sri Lanka, but Parkinson\u2019s disease is on the rise as \nmore people with PD are getting registered for follow up clinics.\nWhat is the cause or causes of this chronic disabling disease? Let us probe further into this \ncondition to find out how it starts.\nParkinson\u2019s disease is a movement disorder that affects the nervous system. Its symptoms \noccur because of low dopamine levels in the brain.\nWhat is known is that it is caused due to the death of dopamine secreting neurons in the \nbrain. These cells are found in a specific region of the brain called the substantia nigra.\nDopamine is a neuro-transmitter- meaning that it helps to send messages between nerve \ncells. It is also referred to as a chemical messenger.\nhttps:\/\/youtu.be\/A3vDxzzNbhg Click\nWebsite:\nwww.Doctorharold.comIt plays a role in how we feel pleasure. It is the opposite of pain, and the experience that \nmakes you feel good.\nIt makes us aspire a good lifestyle and takes part in our ability to think and plan.\nIt is made in the brain, by converting the amino acid tyrosine to a substance called dopa and \nthen into dopamine.\nThe body makes tyrosine from another amino acid called phenylalanine. Tyrosine is found in \ndairy products, meats, fish, eggs, nuts, beans, oats, legumes, and wheat.\nPork chops, salmon, turkey, and chicken are all rich in tyrosine.\nLoss of dopamine affect movement, both skeletal muscles and smooth muscles of the \ngastrointestinal tract.\nThis can result in slow shuffling gait, muscular stiffness or rigidity, resting tremor, slowness \nof movement, and slowed peristaltic movements of the bowel. Mostly, there is cognitive \nimpairment or dementia, depression and anxiety, sleep dysfunction, pain, apathy, sexual \ndysfunction, and bowel incontinence.\nThey have a high incidence of bone thinning and fractures. Also, the sense of smell and taste \nmay be diminished in the early stages.\nThey seem to have a high B vitamin deficiency, and especially when medications like \nlevodopa- carbidopa seem to increase vitamin B6, folate and vit B12.\nConstipation is quite common in PD or may be due to the treatment. Chronic constipation \ncan lead to fecal impaction and colon cancer.\nAmong farmers, there seems to be a high incidence of PD due to the usage of pesticides. It \nwas also revealed that the persons living in the cluster with vineyards had a higher incidence \nof PD.\nIn France, vineyards rank among the crops that require most intense pesticide use. Regions \nwith greater presence of vineyards are characterized by higher PD risk; non-professional \npesticides exposure is a possible explanation.\nA new study finds that the number of new cases per year of Parkinson\u2019s disease (PD), and \nrelated diseases known as parkinsonism, may have increased over a 30-year period. A \npossible explanation lies in the dramatic decline in cigarette smoking in recent decades. The \nresearch appears in the June 20 online edition of JAMA Neurology.\nA person with Parkinson\u2019s disease may have clumps of protein known as alpha synuclein, or \nLewy bodies, in their brains.\nThe accumulation of Lewy bodies can cause a loss of nerve cells, leading to changes in \nmovement, thinking, behavior, and mood. It can also lead to dementia.An earlier study suggested that smokers may have a reduced risk of PD and speculated that \nthe decrease in smoking could lead to a higher incidence of PD decades later.\nRecent studies conclude that diets high in animal fat or cholesterol are associated with an \nincrease in risk of Parkinson\u2019s disease, in contrast fat of plant origin does not appear to \nincrease risk.\nVegan diet may be protective against PD.\nWhen your doctor tells you that you have PD, cycling and golf seem to help.\nA person with PD can cycle quite steadily.\nGolf could be a good form of exercise therapy for Parkinson\u2019s, and it is a game that you will \nlike, and helps improve balance. Swinging a golf club demands a high level of balance.\nThe drugs that are given to alleviate symptoms are levodopa (Sinemet), which replenishes \ndopamine levels.\nOxidative Stress\nOne cause of cell loss in the substantia nigra is oxidative stress.\nSesame seed extract shows promise for Parkinson\u2019s, \nSesame seed husks, a waste product from the manufacture of sesame seed oil, are rich in \nthe antioxidant sesaminol.\nScientists have found that sesaminol protects nerve cells in laboratory cultures from \ndamage and prevents Parkinson\u2019s symptoms in an animal model of the disease and reduces \noxidative stress factor.\nClinical trials are necessary to determine whether the antioxidant can prevent Parkinson\u2019s or \nslow its progression in humans.\nThis led Dr. Kojima-Yuasa and colleagues to investigate whether sesaminol, a powerful \nantioxidant, could prevent nerve cell death in a model of Parkinson\u2019s.\nSesaminol, is found in abundance in sesame seed husks, which are a waste product from the \nindustrial extraction of sesame oil.\nThe protective effect of feeding with small amount of sesaminol, is suitable for use as \npreventive treatment for Parkinson\u2019s disease.\nSo, the bottom line is that, if you or a loved one shows early signs of Parkinson\u2019s Disease, in \naddition to taking medication prescribed by your doctor, it is advised to start playing golf, \ncycle, joining clubs to socialize, dance and be merry.\nThere is much ongoing research for Parkinson\u2019s disease, and I have not gone into that, \nbecause they are still in the experimental stages.\nHope you like this video talk.Take care Goodbye for now\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Harold Gunatillake Transcript: After reading Tim Newman\u2019s article, in MNT Newsletter, I was inspired to present this video, because Parkinson\u2019s disease seems to be on the increase among the aging Sri Lankan population. Parkinson\u2019s disease is a condition where the nerves of the brain and the other parts of the nervous system are affected. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113876"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113876\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}