Parkinson Disease Dementia

Question: I am trying to find information about non-medical treatments for parkinson disease dementia, coping mechanism? The neuro-psych tests show what appear to be learning disabilities that were not there before. Since learning disabled people can be helped, is anyone working on this for parkinson dementia? My son, at 53, has had pd for 20 years. He is very bright but realizes his limitations. Help, anyone?

Answer: There are meds to slow it down. My Mother has it. I think that one is called atenol. But other than that, I don't know.

Question: How do people view parkinson disease? 1.dementia 2.depression 3. anxiety.stress and tension 4.memory loss? 5.memroy loss 6.anosmia 7.fatigue 8.micrographia

Answer: It is none of those. Parkinson's disease develops gradually, often starting with a barely noticeable tremor in just one hand. But while tremor may be the most well-known sign of Parkinson's disease, the disorder also commonly causes a slowing or freezing of movement. Many symptoms of Parkinson's disease result from the lack of a chemical messenger, called dopamine, in the brain. This occurs when the specific brain cells that produce dopamine die or become impaired. But researchers still aren't certain about what sets this chain of events in motion. Some theorize that genetic mutations or environmental toxins may play a role in Parkinson's disease. Those things you listed can occur because of the parkinson's, but are the main thing associated with parkinson's. Specific symptoms of the disease are tremors, bradykinesia (slowed motion), rigid muscles, impaired posture and balance, loss of automatic movements (blinking, smiling), speech changes, and dementia (in the late stages).

Question: How do people view parkinson disease? 1.dementia 2.depresion 3. anxiety.stress and tension 4.memory loss?

Answer: Parkinson's disease can be all of the above. Because Parkinson's is a degenerative disease commonly seen as simply a neuro-motor disease, people may not realize that as a degenerative disease in/of the brain, caused by the loss of dopamine and norepinephrine producing neurons, and serotonin imbalance, it is more complicated than just movement problems. It is also sometimes called a disease with sleep disorders but that is beside the point here. Most people don't relate to Parkinson's disease as one of 2) depression 3) anxiety, stress and tension but PD is very definitely associated with these symptoms. 1) Dementia is associated with the last stages of PD and of course with old age and with Alzheimer's disease. As a matter of fact PD and Alzheimer's are similar in the rate of progression. I refer you to this WebMD article about dementia, PD and Alzheimers. http://www.webmd.com/parkinsons-disease/… 2) Depression can be both a symptom and a precursor symptom of Parkinson's disease. It is not necessarily the same as what the man on the street thinks of as depression nor is it treated in quite the same way. Depending upon the type of depression rating, PD depression is often treated self-worth counselling. There are some meds which will work but care must be taken when prescribing for the PD patient. See the following post at Parkinson's Focus Today: http://parkinsonsfocustoday.blogspot.com… and take a look for Depression and SAD in the right column under symptoms. 3) Anxiety, stress and tension - It has been thought that excessive stress might be a PD trigger just as trauma, med abuse and environmental toxins and heavy metal exposure. These are certainly feelings that many PD patients have when considering the change in their lives and their lifestyles. These are also triggers for tremor. 4) Loss of cognitive skills is a PD symptom which can begin very early in the disease. The loss is subtle at first but can develop rapidly. What people perceive as PD is often from experience. Some patients have a very slow rate of progression while others move from stage to stage of quickly. So people will recall a relative with similar progression. Because odds are that the patient was older, it may have been difficult to distinguish between what seems to be old age and the disease. What people do know by stereotype is the tremors, the shuffle, the stooped posture, the slowed speech. It is hoped that a cure or cures will be found within the next ten years - a realistic possibility - and then perhaps we won't have patients progressing to dementia. Good question.

Question: Will I inherit Parkinson's Disease, and , or Dementia from my deceased dad?

Answer: In rare cases a few families do show an inherited predisposition to Parkinson's disease- A gene being transmitted via an autosomal dominant trait. 15-25% of people with Parkinson's disease have a relative with the disease. you may find this info useful

Question: Can cats get Parkinson's disease? I'm a junior doctor, but not a vet so all I can do is guess when it comes to diagnosing our cat! He's old (17) but in good health, still pretty active etc. He was at the vet recently who did a whole host of blood tests to check his kidney function etc and reckoned he had a good few years left in him. He does seem to have feline dementia though....... Anyway, he has this weird kind of twitch sometimes, in his head and one of his front paws, and he sometimes seems to "freeze" in one position for 20 seconds or so, then he just gets on with whatever he was doing. In my opinion, he has symptoms kind of suggestive of Parkinson's disease, but I don't know whether cats can get that. If so, is there any treatments for it?

Answer: I had a dog that had seizures and his mild ones he would do what you described. But I'm not saying that's what it is. Did you ask the vet? Because that's really a good question you obviously love your kitty and he is well taken care of to be 17.

Question: I've been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease since1993. Any thoughts as to what else I can do? I'm currently seeing a top notch neurologist in the country. He was surprised to learn from the surgeon that because of my depression & dementia, I cant be a good candidate for DBS (deep brain stimulation). There was a 2nd Dr. who confirmed. I basically have 4 forms medication for Parkinson's: 3different kinds of pills & an injection. So I'm trying to get better regulated to my pills. On one end of the scale(my "off" period) I have a shuffling gait, slurred speech, can fall easily & even my bed sheets feel like they weigh a ton. However, on the other end of the scale(my "on" period)when my meds are working, if you are standing too close to me I may hit you accidentally cause of my thrashing arms, have to have my food carried to the the table, or I'll turn too quickly & lose balance amongue other things. What will I do?

Answer: continue your treatment and in addition practice yoga.

Question: Alpha-synuclein, what does it do, what does aggregate mean? What does it do and what does aggregate mean in the context: Normally an unstructured soluble protein, alpha-synuclein can aggregate to form insoluble fibrils in pathological conditions characterized by Lewy bodies, such as Parkinson's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies, and multiple system atrophy.

Answer: Alpha-synuclein is a synuclein protein of unknown function primarily found in neural tissue, where it is seen mainly in presynaptic terminals. Synuclein is a small, soluble protein primarily expressed in neural tissue and in certain tumors. When it aggregates - it clumps and produces an insoluble mass of fibrils.

Question: American english-speaker working in psychology research lab in Japan? I'm going to Japan in March to teach English, but I'd like to stay current in my line of work. I currently work as a research assistant studying Parkinson's disease and dementia. Any tips on schools or hospitals that might let me work/intern/volunteer in their lab? Any level of work will be fine (from data entry to patient care).

Answer: You have already gotten some excellent advice. The first being to make use of the remaining 5.5 months to learn Japanese. No easy task but since you will need it anyway, it is a good place to begin. You can make yourself valuable with both languages but just English probably won't open any doors. I am going to provide several links which you can use to make contact with people in different organizations for your inquiries. The best thing is to talk to your supervisors and ask them this same question. The higher you go, the more likely it is that you will find people who have contacts with researchers or medical centers in Japan. The problem is that without being able to speak, read and write in Japanese you would not necessarily make a good hire/volunteer unless you could volunteer in an international center. You would still need Japanese. Do you speak French perhaps? work, travel, volunteer, travel in Japan One Wold 365 http://www.oneworld365.org/country/japan… As you can see at this site for medical volunteering, Japan is not listed http://www.projects-abroad.org/projects/… Volunteer groups might have contacts - NGO and Volunteer Groups in Japan This is a link to several Health & Medical services with phone numbers and some with email addresses http://web-japan.org/links/society/ngo/h… This is an organization chart of sorts for the International Medical Center of Japan - it will probably link to some contact emails Here is a link to some of the research institutes in Japan http://sciencelinks.jp/content/view/270/… If you learn basic Japanese (just to go there anyway), find those 6 degrees of separation people and contact, contact, contact I think you will find something which will work for you. By the way, unless you can find an English speaking pharmaceutical company in Japan, figure that you will be volunteering. Best Wishes in your endeavor ����努力��多幸を祈り�� ����よ������有志��置を見��るよ��

Question: I provide Professional Occupational Therapy services, do you know anyone who need it? Hi there, I am a professional and experienced Occupational therapist for close to 9 years now. I have worked in hospitals, nursing homes and day care centres. In addition, I have private patients on my own. I see a wide array of medical problems (ranging from stroke, spinal cord injuries, dementia, parkinson's disease, fractures, children's disabilties, etc). I am also a trained and certified Aromatherapist & Holistic Massage Therapist. I combined conventional therapy with alternative treatment to help my patients and I see huge improvements. If you know of anyone one who require my professional therapy, please message me. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful day. Rgds, Aurora

Answer: you cannot keep posting the same repeated question. read your guidelines!! neither can you ADVERTISE. services ARE NOT needed.

Question: What to do with uncles interfering with your family getting close.? My mother died and was a perfect time for our family to get close, but my dad brothers jumped right in with their interferance and taking over my dad's life. My mom had a very large insurance policy in which my dad wanted to share with his children and grandchildren, but thanks to my uncles personal involvement in our family business that did not happen. Now my uncles had my dad put all his money into an account with their names on his accounts. My dad wants to get all his business in order because he has dementia and parkinson disease and his brothers refuse to help him get all legal matters in order. Now my dad want's to send me some money to buy a car and his brothers told him he can not send my money and refuse to take him to do so. They refuse to pay the taxes on his property out of town now this nice house is in jepordy of the state taken over and our family will loose this house that is worth 200.000. They haven't filed his taxes in 2 years, since mommy died. My dad now want's all his children to come to the city where he lives which is out of town and get him because of how they are controling his life. I know there is going to be violence because of the treats by my uncles who are 70, 72 years old. They act as if they are intitled to our family inheritance and we have small grandchildren in this family. We all live out of town and my parents purchased a home in the south years ago, dad needs 24 hour care and i have been trying to get him to move with his children and quit worring about that house because he can't take it with him. I am the oldest of three children and have made 2 attempts on going to get my dad and bring him home with me. But he cheated on mom with a lady who he lives with in her house not his. That is not working because he does not want to marry her. What is the best way to handle this situation because I am going back there in 4 days and this time i am taken my adult son and one of my brothers with me. Since they refuse to help him get all his business in order I am this time and they are not going to run me away and I refuse to leave him this time, because when these sickness take over he will not know who we are anymore and really needs to be with his family not this lady and his brothers because he is not respected, he has no say and is asking for a way out inspite of the negative influance violence or not we have to do this. So Help!

Answer: Take the time to get all the uncles names removed from any accounts, deeds, etc. They are not out to help him, they are out to get what he has. Your Dad will need a guardian at some point once his dementia becomes worse, see if you can get that taken care of as well. Any good lawyer can help with that. However, don't assume the responsibility alone-another sibling should be included in any paperwork(anything can happen after all). If at all possible, go ahead and get him to complete a will also. It needs to be filed with the court system and should include any and all assets and what he wants to do with them. Once he requires constant supervision, his guardian will not legally be able to change his wishes, so it is important that the will be taken care of before he becomes completely demented.(sorry about using that word, I could think of no other to use) Good luck.