Root Cause Of Parkinson’s Disease

What Is Parkinsons Protocol By Jodi Knapp

Basically, Parkinsons Protocol is an online program that promises you evidence-based strategies to cure the symptoms of the disease. In essence, this new Parkinsons disease treatment book gives you ways to make a plan change in your brains healthy habits.

The habits will help to treat the brain disease risk factors. In a word, the guide has 12 simple steps of diet and lifestyle to deal with the root cause of brain health degeneration.

What Lifestyle Changes Can I Make To Ease Parkinsons Symptoms

Exercise: Exercise helps improve muscle strength, balance, coordination, flexibility, and tremor. It is also strongly believed to improve memory, thinking and reduce the risk of falls and decrease anxiety and depression. One study in persons with Parkinsons disease showed that 2.5 hours of exercise per week resulted in improved ability to move and a slower decline in quality of life compared to those who didnt exercise or didnt start until later in the course of their disease. Some exercises to consider include strengthening or resistance training, stretching exercises or aerobics . All types of exercise are helpful.

Eat a healthy, balanced diet: This is not only good for your general health but can ease some of the non-movement related symptoms of Parkinsons, such as constipation. Eating foods high in fiber in particular can relieve constipation. The Mediterranean diet is one example of a healthy diet.

Preventing falls and maintaining balance: Falls are a frequent complication of Parkinson’s. While you can do many things to reduce your risk of falling, the two most important are: 1) to work with your doctor to ensure that your treatments whether medicines or deep brain stimulation are optimal and 2) to consult with a physical therapist who can assess your walking and balance. The physical therapist is the expert when it comes to recommending assistive devices or exercise to improve safety and preventing falls.

Neuropathology Of Parkinsons Disease

Macroscopically, the brain in idiopathic PD is often unremarkable with mild atrophy of the frontal cortex and ventricular dilation in some cases. The main distinctive morphological change in the PD brain is observed in transverse sections of the brainstem, where almost all cases present with loss of the darkly pigmented area in the substantia nigra pars compacta and locus coeruleus. This pigmentation loss directly correlates with the death of dopaminergic neuromelanin-containing neurons in the SNpc and noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus . Cell death in the SNpc is mostly restricted to a specific group of neuromelanin-containing dopaminergic neurons, namely the A9 neurons, while other neuronal and glial cell types are largely spared .

Coronal section at the level of the substantia nigra pars compacta in a control and a PD brain stained by hematoxylin and eosin. In both sections, the dark brown cells are the neuromelanin-containing dopaminergic neurons.

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Can Parkinsons Disease Be Prevented

Unfortunately, no. Parkinsons disease is long-term disease that worsens over time. Although there is no way to prevent or cure the disease , medications may significantly relieve your symptoms. In some patients especially those with later-stage disease, surgery to improve symptoms may be an option.

Science Behind Parkinsons Protocol

The Parkinsons Protocol claims to address the root cause of Parkinsons disease. Specifically, it may reduce cell degeneration rate in the substantia nigra area in the brain.

The substantia nigra nerve cells produce dopamine chemicals. The role of dopamine is to connect the brain and the nervous system for coordinated body movements.

Doctors prescribe pills as dopamine supplements. But, with time, the cells die and stop dopamine production.

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What Are The Symptoms

The four main symptoms of Parkinson’s are:

• Tremor, which means shaking or trembling. Tremor may affect your hands, arms, or legs.
• Stiff muscles.
• Slow movement.
• Problems with balance or walking.

Tremor may be the first symptom you notice. It’s one of the most common signs of the disease, although not everyone has it.

More importantly, not everyone with a tremor has Parkinson’s disease.

Tremor often starts in just one arm or leg or on only one side of the body. It may be worse when you are awake but not moving the affected arm or leg. It may get better when you move the limb or you are asleep.

In time, Parkinson’s affects muscles all through your body, so it can lead to problems like trouble swallowing or constipation.

In the later stages of the disease, a person with Parkinson’s may have a fixed or blank expression, trouble speaking, and other problems. Some people also lose mental skills .

People usually start to have symptoms between the ages of 50 and 60. But sometimes symptoms start earlier.

Whats The Difference Between Progressive Supranuclear Palsy And Parkinsons

People with PSP generally progress more rapidly than people with Parkinsons. A person with Parkinsons tends to lean forward while a person with PSP tends to lean backward. Tremors are common in people with Parkinsons and rare in people with PSP. Speech and swallowing abnormalities are more severe and show up sooner in those living with PSP.

For more information on progressive supranuclear palsy, read this fact sheet and insights from the CurePSP organization website.

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Medicines For Parkinson’s Disease

Medicines prescribed for Parkinson’s include:

• Drugs that increase the level of dopamine in the brain
• Drugs that affect other brain chemicals in the body
• Drugs that help control nonmotor symptoms

The main therapy for Parkinson’s is levodopa, also called L-dopa. Nerve cells use levodopa to make dopamine to replenish the brain’s dwindling supply. Usually, people take levodopa along with another medication called carbidopa. Carbidopa prevents or reduces some of the side effects of levodopa therapysuch as nausea, vomiting, low blood pressure, and restlessnessand reduces the amount of levodopa needed to improve symptoms.

People with Parkinson’s should never stop taking levodopa without telling their doctor. Suddenly stopping the drug may have serious side effects, such as being unable to move or having difficulty breathing.

Other medicines used to treat Parkinsons symptoms include:

• Dopamine agonists to mimic the role of dopamine in the brain
• MAO-B inhibitors to slow down an enzyme that breaks down dopamine in the brain
• COMT inhibitors to help break down dopamine
• Amantadine, an old antiviral drug, to reduce involuntary movements
• Anticholinergic drugs to reduce tremors and muscle rigidity

What Is Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease affects the way you move. It happens when there is a problem with certain nerve cells in the brain.

Normally, these nerve cells make an important chemical called dopamine. Dopamine sends signals to the part of your brain that controls movement. It lets your muscles move smoothly and do what you want them to do. When you have Parkinson’s, these nerve cells break down. Then you no longer have enough dopamine, and you have trouble moving the way you want to.

Parkinson’s is progressive, which means it gets worse over time. But usually this happens slowly, over many years. And there are good treatments that can help you live a full life.

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How Is Parkinsons Disease Treated

There is no cure for Parkinsons disease. However, medications and other treatments can help relieve some of your symptoms. Exercise can help your Parkinsons symptoms significantly. In addition, physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech-language therapy can help with walking and balance problems, eating and swallowing challenges and speech problems. Surgery is an option for some patients.

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Early Signs Of Parkinsons Disease

Knowing how to identify early symptoms of illness is vital for treating physical and mental health conditions. All diseases are complicated and have their impacts on the body, but what if the central nervous system of your body gets affected?

Indeed, it will be a tough job to handle a body with less motor control. A person who cannot have a proper grip or cannot command his body part feels frustrated and exhausted. If you notice these signs, you should seek medical help and monitor your condition. Although the early stage of the disease is difficult to detect, there have been recent breakthroughs in the treatment of Parkinsons disease. The most common symptoms of this disease include slurred speech, tremors, and difficulty with walking and standing, but they can be associated with other health issues and that is why people attend to ignore them when they first appear. Since Parkinsons disease is more common in men compared to females, this disease is related to mens health checks. One of the explanations is that mens brain activity gets disturbed due to different emotional events, traumas, stress, and anxiety and that is why they are more prone to this disease, however, this is just one of the many assumptions why men have a higher probability of getting this disease

This post will discuss the early signs of Parkinsons disease so you can anticipate it and be aware of its early signs and if thats the case then it will help you take action before it advances.

What Raises Someone’s Risk For Parkinson’s

It’s a complex picture, but you may be more likely to get Parkinson’s based on:

Age. Since it mostly affects people 60 and older, your risk goes up as the years go by.

Family history. If your parent, brother, or sister has it, you’re a little more likely to get it.

Job. Some types of work, like farming or factory jobs, can cause you to have contact with chemicals linked to Parkinson’s.

Race. It shows up more often in white people than other groups.

Serious head injury. If you hit your head hard enough to lose consciousness or forget things as a result of it, you may be more likely to get Parkinson’s later in life.

Gender. Men get it more than women. Doctors aren’t sure why.

Where you live. People in rural areas seem to get it more often, which may be tied to chemicals used in farming.

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Whats The Difference Between Dementia With Lewy Bodies And Parkinsons

In dementia with Lewy bodies, dementia always appears first. There can also be changes in alertness as well as visual hallucinations. However, because of the presence of Lewy bodies throughout the entire brain, characteristics of this disease not only include cognitive characteristics, but also physical, sleep, and behavioral changes. As the disease progresses, the motor symptoms common to Parkinsons such as tremor, slowness, stiffness, and walking and balance problems will appear.

For more information on dementia with Lewy bodies, visit www.lbda.org.

Whats The Difference Between Multiple System Atrophy And Parkinsons

Parkinsons and MSA both affect the movement control system and the involuntary autonomic control system and early symptoms can make a differential diagnosis a challenge. MSA, however, tends to progress faster than Parkinsons balance problems and a stooped posture happen earlier and get worse more quickly with MSA and autonomic functions such as blood pressure, heart rate, breathing, sweating, bladder function, and sexual problems are more severe in people with MSA.

For more information on multiple symptom atrophy, read this fact sheet.

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What Is The Treatment For This Disease

Theres currently no cure for Parkinsons disease, but treatments are available to help maintain quality of life for as long as possible. Medication is not a cure for Parkinsons disease, but it can be a good starting point in managing symptoms and restoring mobility. While medication cannot completely eliminate the symptoms of the disease, simple exercises and stretches can help with walking.

How Does Environment Come Into It

Your environment is a hard one to pin down. Partly, that’s because it covers a lot of ground. It’s everything that’s not your genes, which could mean where you live, what you eat, chemicals you’ve come into contact with, and more.

Not only that, but it could take years for the effects from something in your environment to show up. So far, doctors have a lot of clues but no smoking gun. So you could have people who live or work in an area around chemicals tied to Parkinson’s, but many of them don’t get it.

Some research shows links between Parkinson’s and:

• Agent Orange, a chemical used to destroy trees and crops in the Vietnam War.
• Certain chemicals used in farming, such as insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides.
• Some metals and chemicals used in factories, such as manganese, lead, and trichlorethylene .

These can come into play based on where you live, what you do for work, or if you served in the military. Sometimes, these chemicals seep into well water, so that’s one more way they can affect you.

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Dysfunctional Protein Clearance Systems

There are two central protein clearance systems within cells responsible for the removal of dysfunctional proteins: the ubiquitin-proteasome system and the autophagy-lysosome pathway. The UPS is primarily responsible for breaking down abnormal proteins, and it does so by tagging them with ubiquitin and transporting them to the proteasome for degradation. The autophagy-lysosome pathway is divided into three constituents: macroautophagy, microautophagy, and chaperone-mediated autophagy . Briefly, in macroautophagy, intracellular components, including cytosolic proteins, are engulfed by the autophagosome, which then fuses with the lysosome, leading to the breakdown of its contents. On the other hand, in microautophagy, the lysosome alone engulfs and destroys cytoplasmic components. CMA is a more selective process, whereby molecular chaperones target specific proteins and transport them to the lysosome for degradation . Monomeric -synuclein is generally cleared by both the UPS and the autophagy-lysosome pathway , and damage in either of their machineries is implicated in the pathogenesis of PD by contributing to the accumulation of defective proteins, in particular soluble misfolded -synuclein .

How Is Parkinson’s Disease Diagnosed

Your doctor will ask questions about your symptoms and your past health and will do a neurological examination. This examination includes questions and tests that show how well your nerves are working. For example, your doctor will watch how you move, check your muscle strength and reflexes, and check your vision.

Your doctor will also ask questions about your mood.

In some cases, your doctor may have you try a medicine. How this medicine works may help your doctor know if you have Parkinson’s disease.

There are no lab or blood tests that can help your doctor know whether you have Parkinson’s. But you may have tests to help your doctor rule out other diseases that could be causing your symptoms. For example, you might have an MRI to look for signs of a stroke or brain tumour.

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Taking Medicine With Food

Early in the disease, it might be helpful to take pills with food to help with nausea, which may be caused by some of the medicines for Parkinson’s disease.

Later in the disease, taking the medicines at least 1 hour before meals may help them work best.

Some medicines for Parkinson’s disease don’t work as well if you take them at the same time you eat food with protein in it, such as meat or cheese. The protein can block the medicine and keep it from working as well as it should.

Metabolic & Nutrient Imbalances

For blood work, I recommend a regular complete blood count with a differential, a comprehensive metabolic panel , iron panels, and thyroid tests. Of note, in the CBC, I focus mostly on the MCV result, which should ideally be below 92 for optimum vitamin B12 utilization.1 If you suspect B12 deficiency, you should still measure serum B12 and methylmalonic acid.

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How Will Parkinson’s Disease Affect Your Life

Finding out that you have a long-term, progressive disease can lead to a wide range of feelings. You may feel angry, afraid, sad, or worried about what lies ahead. It may help to keep a few things in mind:

• Usually this disease progresses slowly. Some people live for many years with only minor symptoms.
• Many people are able to keep working for years. As the disease gets worse, you may need to change how you work.
• It is important to take an active role in your health care. Find a doctor you trust and can work with.
• Depression is common in people who have Parkinson’s. If you feel very sad or hopeless, talk to your doctor or see a counsellor.
• It can make a big difference to know that you’re not alone. Ask your doctor about Parkinson’s support groups, or look for online groups or message boards.
• Parkinson’s affects more than just the person who has it. It also affects your loved ones. Be sure to include them in your decisions.

How Is It Treated

At this time, there is no cure for Parkinson’s disease. But there are several types of medicines that can control the symptoms and make the disease easier to live with.

You may not even need treatment if your symptoms are mild. Your doctor may wait to prescribe medicines until your symptoms start to get in the way of your daily life. Your doctor will adjust your medicines as your symptoms get worse. You may need to take several medicines to get the best results.

Levodopa is the best drug for controlling symptoms of Parkinson’s. But it can cause problems if you use it for a long time or at a high dose. So doctors sometimes use other medicines to treat people in the early stages of the disease.

The decision to start taking medicine, and which medicine to take, will be different for each person. Your doctor will be able to help you make these choices.

In some cases, a treatment called deep brain stimulation may also be used. For this treatment, a surgeon places wires in your brain. The wires carry tiny electrical signals to the parts of the brain that control movement. These little signals can help those parts of the brain work better.

There are many things you can do at home that can help you stay as independent and healthy as possible. Eat healthy foods. Get the rest you need. Make wise use of your energy. Get some exercise every day. Physical therapy and occupational therapy can also help.

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