Semaglutide and Alzheimer’s: are we seeing signals in the brain biology? AAN Annual Meeting in Chicago this week exploring how semaglutide may impact Alzheimer’s disease biology using biofluid biomarkers and multiomics immune profiling over a 12 week period.
Exposome and brain aging: your environment may be shaping your brain faster than you think. The exposome refers to the sum of all environmental exposures you experience across your life including air, water, social conditions and policies. Info on 34 countries on aging and risk for decline.
The age illusion in medicine: why your number may not reflect your biology. Biologic age refers to how your body functions and adapts to stress, which may differ from the number of years you have lived. Relying on chronologic age can mislead clinical decision making.
Living with Parkinson's Disease 2nd edition is finally out. We can teach persons w/ disease and families from the moment of a diagnosis that PD is a livable condition. Stay Up-To-Date with Expert Guidance, Practical Tools, and Real Hope for Life with Parkinson's.
www.amazon.com/Living-Parki...
Can the Bee Gees activate the Parkinson’s brain and improve walking? Spoiler alert: It seems YES. New paper in JAMA Network Open how music, including a Bee Gees track, compares to metronomes for improving walking in the setting of Parkinson’s disease.
Why African genetics may reshape our understanding of Parkinson’s disease. Spoiler alert: 98% of Sub-Saharan African cases lack an identified genetic cause. New paper in Movement Disorders how the genetic causes of Parkinson’s disease differ across African populations.
Why dementia rates differ across the globe may unlock prevention. This is a very important paper I hope folks don’t miss reading. New paper in JAMA how dementia and Alzheimer disease rates differ between older Yoruba adults in Nigeria and African Americans in Indianapolis. Spoiler: less in Africa.
Honor to be interviewed by rising University of Florida Journalism senior student Kairi Lowery. The event was a community gathering held in bestselling novelist Lauren Groff's bookstore the Lynx. Watch for Kairi's great work as she heads to the Miami Herald. Let's create dialogue and change.
Bladder and sexual symptoms are frequently brain symptoms hiding in plain sight. Sakakibara and colleagues describe in a new paper in Nature Reviews Neurology how urogenital dysfunction is tightly linked to the brain and broader nervous system in neurological disease.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Time to get to work on a unified plan and a unified voice for Parkinson's disease.
www.parkinson.org/about-us/new...
www.ninds.nih.gov/current-rese...
Flexible ultrasound: is it a wearable path to deep brain therapy? Flexible ultrasound uses a soft, skull-conforming device to deliver precise sound waves deep into the brain w/o surgery. New paper on how a flexible ultrasound array may overcome one of the biggest barriers: the skull.
Adaptive DBS means a system that senses brain signals in real time and adjusts stimulation automatically rather than delivering constant stimulation. New paper in Movement Disorders how adaptive deep brain stimulation is evolving and what is holding it back from widespread clinical use.
High-dose flu shot and Alzheimer’s risk: does more immune stimulation matter? Immunogenic means how strongly a vaccine activates the immune system. Bukhbinder and colleagues describe how high-dose vs standard-dose influenza vaccines relate to Alzheimer dementia risk in adults age 65 and older.
AI meets Parkinson’s: can smarter data lead to smarter care? Marks describes in a new paper in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease how AI may transform diagnosis, monitoring and treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
Can exercise and aggressive risk factor control protect your brain as you age? A new randomized trial provides important data. New paper on the effects of exercise and intensive vascular risk reduction on cognitive function in older adults at risk for dementia. Spoiler: It may take a minute(s).
Tears of alpha synuclein? Parkinson’s disease detected in your tears: a new window into brain biology? Canaslan and colleagues describe in a new paper that just dropped in NPJ Parkinson’s Disease how tear fluid may reveal Parkinson’s biology using a sensitive protein amplification assay.
Parkinson’s is not a $50 billion problem, it is an $82 billion crisis. Economic burden means the total cost of a disease including medical care, lost work, caregiving and everyday life expenses. A new report led by the The Michael J. Fox Foundation in partnership w/ APDA and Parkinson's Foundation.
The best doughnut in the world. For me, it happened last night in Krakow, Poland. My friend Div Dubey from Mayo Clinic Rochester and I wandered into a small shop called Dobra Pączkarnia, not knowing what to expect. WOW is the only word that fits. dobrapaczkarnia.pl
A new combination therapy in ALS: Did PrimeC move the needle? Cudkowicz and colleagues describe in a new paper in JAMA Neurology the results of the PARADIGM randomized clinical trial testing PrimeC in ALS. The results were encouraging, however the trial was not powered for efficacy.
A recent announcement that a major manufacturer will no longer produce paraquat has been framed by some as a possible turning point. It is progress, and it should be recognized as such. However, there is much work to do.
Who doesn't love a scientific 'double feature?' A second paper also just came out in JAMA Neurology and this one featuring Tavapadon as an 'add on therapy' to your current PD drug regimen? A new D1/D5 agonist. Different paper on the same drug and the first author on this one was Hubert Fernandez.
A new drug 'on the block' for Parkinson’s: Tavapadon, a D1/D5 selective dopamine agonist. Pahwa and colleagues describe in their new paper in JAMA Neurology the results of a phase 3 randomized trial of Tavapadon in EARLY PD. cutt.ly/btIYBwr3
The Sydney multi-center study of Parkinson’s disease: Why it mattered, how it was done, and what we learned. What does longitudinal mean? New paper on the story behind the Sydney multi-center study of Parkinson’s disease and what decades of careful observation have taught us.
Using a blood test as a clock for Alzheimer’s: can a single test predict when symptoms may begin? Petersen and colleagues describe in a new paper in Nature Medicine how plasma p-tau217 clock models may estimate when individuals will develop symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease.
Where do environmental exposures and biological vulnerability collide? Your gut of course. This is why as we face down the PD pandemic, environmental policy may shape the future of brain health. Environmental exposures and the gut microbiome may together shape the rising global burden of PD.
Parkinson’s disease and bone health: why I think screening should be mandatory. Gandhi and colleagues describe in a new paper that just dropped in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease why early bone health assessment should be part of routine Parkinson’s care, and I strongly agree.
Does dairy increase Parkinson’s risk? A new meta-analysis takes a closer look. Dairy refers to foods produced from milk (milk, cheese, yogurt and butter). New paper that just dropped in Movement Disorders Clinical Practice how dairy and milk intake may relate to PD risk in men and women.
Adaptive DBS and the future of walking: Proceedings is out from the XIII annual DBS Think Tank. The meeting gathered engineers, neuroscientists, industry partners and health care providers to discuss the evolving landscape of DBS, including adaptive stimulation for walking and more.
Japan just approved stem cells for Parkinson’s disease. How will it work? Stem cells are special cells that can develop into other types of cells. In this case they are turned into dopamine-producing brain cells designed to replace the cells lost in Parkinson’s disease.
Why do many folks lose weight with Parkinson’s disease? The biology is more complex than eating less. New paper in Movement Disorders how multiple biological pathways combine to drive weight loss in Parkinson’s disease.
