Exercise, Exercise, Exercise

On August 4, 2017 By skrischerIn Exercise, Living Well, Parkinsons Disease, Research & Clinical Studies1 Comment

Exercise is your medicine! Do it EVERYDAY

[re+active] physical therapy and wellness

By now, you know that I am a big fan of exercise. It has been a daily part of my life since I was young. Since my diagnosis with Parkinson’s, it has become not just something I enjoy, but something that I must do to keep on moving. I am sure that many of you feel that way as well. But for those of you who have never embarked on an exercise program, you need to speak to your Movement Disorders Specialist about how to begin. You may think that you cannot exercise because of limited movement or pain caused by PD. That was the prevailing theory 50 years ago. Today, however, we know that lack of exercise only makes things worse. You know the old adage: use it or lose it.

Scientists, such as Dr. Jay Alberts from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute, have shown the benefits of forced exercise on PD. As a result, many physical therapists and trainers work with PD patients to improve motor function using forced exercise.

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We have been told that Neuroplasticity is crucial to either change or delay the progression of PD. And exercise is one of those activities that allows the brain to change. Exercise enables more of the dopamine in the brain to be used. It is important to exercise outside of your comfort zone. It increases blood flow to the brain and allows the neuroplasticity to occur. Goal directed exercise allows for these changes in the brain to occur. It improves the circuitry and improves the connection of the basal ganglia to the cortex.

Physical therapist, Allie Southam, from [re+active] physical therapy & wellness explained all of this in a fascinating talk last Sunday. Briefly:

#1 reason for exercise: potential to slow the progression of PD through neuroplasticiy
Find exercise that you love – otherwise you won’t do it
Goal-directed motor skill training through acquisition of skills
Learning a skill is hard, practice drives skill aquisition
Getting feedback during exercise – allows us to challenge ourselves
and make ourselves aware ofour movements. What used to be automatic now requires us to think about what we are doing. It is also motivational

You can read a summary of her talk here.

Exercise for PD Handout

Tom McLaughlin, a personal trainer whose wife, Linda, has PD, has been working on a training program to improve PD symptoms. He says that the brain is a learning machine. Because of dopamine depletion, we have cut off the connection between the brain and our muscles. The brain doesn’t know the connection is gone, so you have to go back and have your cognitive brain focus on motor function and motor skills. You have to overcome the “defect” in the brain through exercise.

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Tom’s exercise program tries to activate all of the muscles, and challenge them, in order to improve neuroplasticity in the brain. There are 16 steps to his program with the goal to work on 8 muscular functions on the top half of the body and 8 on the bottom. Those steps include working with each muscle group to move out to the side, the middle, forward and back, and to the 4 corners. Focusing on these 16 steps will help the brain reconnect with the body to return to more normal function.

Both Allie and Tom stressed the words Focus and Learning. To improve your PD symptoms, you must focus on your movements to make them become automatic again, and you must learn new skills to increase the neuroplasticity in your brain.

Some related articles:

Study: Biking Restores Brain Connectivity in Parkinson’s

Brain Connectivity

Computer Games as Therapy for PD????

On July 11, 2017 By skrischerIn Alternative Therapy, Living Well, Parkinsons Disease, Research & Clinical StudiesLeave a comment

I recently read an article from Parkinson’s News Today that explores the use of Computer Games as a non-drug therapy for Parkinson’s Disease. Being an addictive person who spends way too much time on the computer anyway, I had to check this out. Can I really justify the minutes – ok hours – spent playing games on my iPad as therapy for my brain? This sounds too good to be true.

The scientific study titled, “Early stage feasibility assessment of a non-pharmacological intervention for motor slowing and fatigue in Parkinson’s disease,” will be conducted by researchers from Bangor University’s School of Psychology(BUSP), the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB), and Walton Centre in Liverpool.

They say that the project will record Parkinson’s disease patients’ movement ability before and after playing touch screen “spatial reasoning games” to assess motor function and potential improvements.

That sounds great, but shouldn’t there also be a study looking at complex reasoning tasks and cognitive ability in games such as Sudoku and Word Brain, where the puzzles get more and more challenging as you progress? I have been playing these games for a while, and can judge how well I am doing cognitively by how well I do on the games on any given day. Being able to solve the most difficult Sudoku games is an accomplishment and a measure of cognitive ability. Some days, I have no problems solving the games. On those days, I feel that my brain is working the way it should. Other days, it is just plain difficult and I have to work harder to achieve my goals.

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Word Brain is a word search puzzle, which starts out very easy with a 2 X 2 puzzle and progresses through 20 levels 0f 20 games each, most of which are 6 X 6. The difficulty increases with each level. Like Sudoku and other games, it requires higher and higher levels of problem solving as you progress.

Do you have a favorite computer game that stimulates your brain? Please share it here:

Much Ado about Parkinson’s

On April 9, 2017April 9, 2017 By skrischerIn Drugs & Treatment, Living Well, Research & Clinical Studies1 Comment

As we celebrate the 200th anniversary of Dr. James Parkinson’s groundbreaking essay of “The Shaking Palsy”, there seems to be a flurry of announcements of possible breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment of Parkinson’s. Eight years ago, when I was first diagnosed with Parkinson’s, the prevailing theories all stated that PD was a disease that started with “dopamine-producing cell death in the brain.” Sometimes the cause was genetic. Other times exposure to pesticides or other chemicals were to blame. But most of the time, there was no apparent cause. Just 6 months ago, at the World Parkinson’s Congress, we began to hear about different ways of looking at PD.

We have known for years, that Parkinson’s is a designer disease. The progression can be very different for each person. But now doctors and researchers are looking at PD as a group of syndromes, not just a single neurological condition that caused movement disorders. Many other symptoms and diseases not typically considered Parkinson’s were now seen as part of PD. There have been a lot of studies of possible treatments that seemed promising, but the hope for a cure still seemed elusive. In fact, one of the speakers at the WPC, whom I believe was Tom Isaacs, quipped that the cure was always 5 years away, no matter what the research said.

But something has changed since then. In the last few months, researchers are coming out with reports that Parkinson’s does not start in the brain, but may actually start in the gut. Many say the culprit in some cases may be microbiomes in the gut. WOW! If this is true, scientists at Caltech say it may mean that PD can be detected much earlier and drug treatments can be designed to remove those nasty little bacteria that are causing problems in our gut and our brain. This treatment may also be more effective because medications

271-smts-gutbrain-connection-news-web — Credit: Caltech

can easily be absorbed in the gut, unlike treatments for the brain, which is protected by the blood brain barrier. There has been much written about this, and it is probably confusing for most of us who are not researchers. I am not a biologist, or a scientist, but I do understand that treating the cause much earlier, if it is in fact in the gut, is much easier that treating the damaged neurons in the brain, especially since symptoms don’t appear until it is way too late to reverse the damage.

Here is a quick look at some of the other announcements over the last few weeks:

Biomarkers can be used to used to define disease subtypes. “This precision-medicine approach will likely yield smaller, but well-defined, subsets of [Parkinson’s disease] amenable to successful neuroprotection.” according to Alberto Espay, MD, who conducted a study titled “Precision Medicine For Disease Modification In Parkinson Disease.”
Last week the FDA approved Xadago (Safinamide) for people with Parkinson’s disease (PD) who are taking levodopa but experiencing “off” episodes.
Also last week, researchers from the University of New Brunswick found that an extract from the brown seaweed Alaria esculenta can prevent this conversion and, therefore, could be useful in avoiding the onset of the disease or delaying its progress.” Ok. Does this mean we should eat more sushi?
A new study published in the Annals of Neurology suggests that redheads may carry a gene variant that increases the risk of both Parkinson’s disease (PD) and melanoma. Researchers have long known that having either PD or melanoma heightens the chances of developing the other condition, but it’s been unclear exactly why. What if you are blonde and have had both, like I have??? I think this means I am in trouble….
The Food and Drug Administration finally gave approval for 23andMe to sell to consumers genetic tests and their accompanying health risk reports for up to 10 diseases, including late-onset Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
And finally, the New York Times declared that exercise is good for us old people.

All kidding aside, it seems that the big breakthrough may just come in less than 5 years, which would make all of us very happy.

100 and counting

On January 1, 2017January 4, 2017 By skrischerIn Exercise, Inspiration, Living Well, Research & Clinical Studies4 Comments

Wow, it has been an interesting journey! I started writing this blog in March, 2015, as a way to share my experience with Parkinson’s Disease with others. I never imagined that I would still be writing almost 2 years later, with this my 100th post! 15 people read that first post when it was published. Now my subscribed readers number several hundred, with many more just checking in, coming from 76 different countries. I want to thank all of you for your support over the last 2 years.

Looking back on the past year, there have been many exciting findings in Parkinson’s research. The most important is the change in thinking about how Parkinson’s gets started. Research now points to changes in the microbes in the gut as the trigger for setting off Parkinson’s symptoms.* What this means for us: a possibility for earlier detection with a screening test, and new treatment options that begin before damage to the brain occurs. To learn more about it, register for Michael J Fox Foundation’s next webinar on January 19, titled Gut (Bacteria) Check on Parkinson’s: Role of the Microbiome. Maybe this will be the year………

There has also been a world-wide effort to change the image of Parkinson’s from the stooped over, shuffling person to someone who is actively enjoying life with PD. Photographer Anders Leines‘ photo exhibit at the World Parkinson’s Congress was highly successful. There is also a Facebook page, Many Faces of Parkinson’s that is working to change that image. The World Parkinson Coalition has just published a book Faces of Parkinson’s: Global Reflections of PD which can be ordered through their website.

Exercise has also been a positive force this year for PwP. Many studies have shown that exercise can be more beneficial in relieving Parkinson’s symptoms that anything else. See Exercise May Be Real Medicine for Parkinson’s Disease. Yoga, boxing and tennis keep me going. If you are not exercising, 2017 is the year to get moving. There are so many options, either in group exercise classes, online videos or just walking. Just check with your doctor before beginning any exercise program.

I was fortunate to attend the World Parkinson Congress in Portland in September. This amazing conference brought together over 4300 people from around the world, People with Parkinson’s and their caregivers, doctors, scientists, and many others in related fields for 4 fabulous days. I am so glad that I met many of you there. I hope that we can all meet in Kyoto in 2019 at the next WPC!

My Parkinson’s resolutions for 2017:

Keep on moving: exercise every day.
Keep a positive attitude. Look in a mirror and smile – it will brighten your day.
Participate in PD research. PwP’s are an important part of finding the cure,
Get more sleep.
Hug my grandchildren as much as possible for they are the best medicine! (Thank you Linda B for saying that).

Have a wonderful and healthy 2017!

Some photos from 2016

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An evening of Hope

On November 30, 2016November 30, 2016 By skrischerIn Drugs & Treatment, Research & Clinical Studies3 Comments

Research begins with the patient, not in the lab

Professor Tamir Ben-Hur

25 people packed into my family room on Monday night to hear Professor Tamir Ben-Hur, the Israel S.Wechsler Chair in Neurology at Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem, speak about the future of Parkinson’s research. The one word we kept hearing throughout his presentation was “Hope.” The standing room crowd listened intently to his presentation, hoping to hear those magic words: we have found a cure for Parkinson’s. But we all know the reality of our situation, and the best we can hope for now is an improvement in our lives with PD.

Prof Ben-Hur spoke about 3 key points. First, he spoke about treatments being developed for PD. One is using stem cells for treatment of Parkinson’s Disease. Animal models have shown some success with stem cells generating dopamine neurons and movement functions improved. Unfortunately, the implanted stem cells did not survive very well in humans. It has taken 10 years to develop an improved method to generate stem cells and implant them and trials in humans will begin soon. There is an international multi-center effort to find a way to do the tranplant successfully. It is most likely that they will recruit patients who have movement symptoms. The downside is that side effects may include increased diskinesias.

He spoke about the direction of DBS (deep brain stimulation) research. DBS is the most important therapeutic option today. The most difficult thing is finding the exact spot in the brain to place the electrode. The process he described was amazing. If the surgeon misses by a mm, the emotional part of the brain can be affected with terrible side effects. Prof Ben Hur is very excited about the next generation of DBS. Researchers are looking at a Closed Loop system for DBS. Brain activity can be read by the system. When pathological activity is identified, the stimulator will be activitated to correct the symptoms. It has been shown to work in animal models and is now in development for human patients. Prof Ben Hur says that this should be available in a few years.

Second, he spoke about what we can do to prevent the disease. We need to develop a means of early diagnosis to stop the disease early. In PD, when pathological symptoms occurs, approximately 50% of the neurons have already died off. Several areas being investigated are:

A blood test – when the brain cells die, some of the DNA shows up in the blood. There are specific fingerprints that tell us where the DNA came from in the body. The technological challenge is to identify such small amounts of DNA. The hope is that the general population can eventually be screened for an accelerated death of dopamine neurons in the brain, well before clinical symptoms appear.

Another blood test being developed looks for alpha-synuclein aggregation, which may come from the gut nervous system before it moves to the brain, causing constipation. It may begin as a systemic disease for some people, not in the brain.

Use of a new MRI process, a hyperpolarizer, that shows the metabolic activity of dopamine in the brain. This has wide ranging implications for PD and for psychiatric disorders.

Finally, he talked the future. He spoke about using simple solutions that are widely available, not expensive and have no side effects. One is using powerful anti-oxidants that can cross the blood-brain barrier to reach the brain cells. Punicic Acid from Pomegranites is one anti-oxidant that is being investigated with positive results. It is being developed as a food additive, so that it does not need the expense of going through the FDA to get approval. This should be available very soon.

The final frontier for neurologic diseases is to use bio-markers to predict how the disease will behave and how it will respond to medication. Treatment can be individualized and specific to the patient. This also has implications for pharmaceutical research. Bio-markers can be used to create clinical studies using a smaller well-defined group of patients for a shorter time period, therefore decreasing dramatically the expense and time-frame for developing effective drugs for approval by the FDA.

Professor Ben-Hur ended his talk with just one word: Hope

There is Hope for the future in Parkinson’s research and treatment. As Prof Ben-Hur said, he thinks this will occur during his lifetime – and ours. Let’s hope he is right.