Over 4.5 million people worldwide currently suffer from Parkinson’s disease and it is estimated by the National Parkinson’s Foundation the number will increase by thousands each year unless a cure is discovered. While a cure has yet to be found, scientists here at the University of Kansas are staying optimistic after finding a new development in slowing down the effects Parkinson’s can have on the body.
“New screening tests are being conducted everywhere really for potential drug therapies,” Erik Floor, an associate professor in the Department of Molecular Bioscience studying Parkinson’s Disease at KU said.
Parkinson’s Disease is a disorder that attacks the central nervous system and damages the victim’s motor skills and speech. While most people who suffer from the disease are 60 years and older, it is becoming common to see a younger generation with Parkinson’s in recent years.
KU sophomore Leah Massey has had experience with Parkinson’s disease, as her father, Gary Massey, learned he had Parkinson’s in 2002.
“My Dad was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about five years ago,” Massey said. “He was 45-years-old when he found out about it, but he probably had it much longer because doctors originally thought his symptoms were the result of an old football injury.”
Like majority of Parkinson’s victims, Massey’s father lost the ability to multi-task, saw a significant loss of weight, rigidity and posture instability. Rigidity can be defined as stiffness of limbs in the body and increased resistance to passive movement. As a result of the side effects, her father was put on medications called Levodopa and Dophamine-IR.
Levodopa and Dophamine-IR are two types of medications which are designed to help Parkinson’s disease victims control the characteristics of the disease, such as bad posture and rigidity. However, the medications can result in other side effects which cause problems.
“The medications make him moody; he can be really upbeat one minute and angry the next,” Massey said. “It is common with the medications that are recommended for the disease and something everyone deals with.”
Victims of the disease are forced to live with the problems the disease and current medications prescribed to them can cause, but the new studies being conducted at Universities such as KU suggest new medications are in development that would get rid of negative side effects, like mood swings, and slow down the disease’s ware on the body.
“The study suggests Creatine might slow down the disease,” Floor said. “It is used as a nutritional supplement to boost physical endurance.”
Creatine is a nitrogenous acid that is used to help supply energy to muscle cells in the body. 95 percent is stored in the body’s skeletal muscles, while the other 5 percent is dispersed with the brain and the heart.
The research being conducted by Floor and many others has shown that Creatine will decrease the number of mood swings, boost memory and help control motor skills. Floor says the use of Creatine has proven to be successful in patients tested and that he hopes to see it be used by Parkinson’s disease victims and not just weight lifters in the near future.
“I would be surprised if there was not some kind of therapy, probably something a multi-drug cocktail that contains Creatine that they come up with,” Floor said.
While Floor says he is almost certain Creatine will be used as treatment for victims, it will still be a few years before it sees the light.
“More research will have to be conducted to be positive it will help victims of the disease,” Floor said.
Until Creatine is made available for Parkinson’s treatment, people will have to hope for the best.
“I have not heard of treatment involving Creatine and I do not believe my Dad has either,” Massey said. “But if they find it works than I’m sure my Dad and other people with Parkinson’s are going to give it a try. It’s a disease nobody tends to think about, but it really can take its toll on a person.”
View imagebr />Photo: Matt Lindberg