How many of us know a family member, friend or neighbor who has been touched by this disabling disease? Parkinson’s disease is a progressive degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system. It is a devastating disease that not only affects our body movements but also our mind with sufferer’s often exhibiting depression and or dementia. Scientific American has posted an article called “Sparkling Recovery with Brain Pacemakers” that shows promise and hope for those individuals suffering from this dreaded disease.
  
In this study a medical technology known as “deep-brain stimulation” has been used. The video at Kringelbach shows an individual with advanced Parkinson’s disease revealing and eliminating symptoms with a quick click of a switch.  To understand the meaning of all this lets do a review on Parkinson’s disease.

What is Parkinson’s disease?

In Parkinson’s disease a specific area of the brain, where a chemical messenger called dopamine is produced, dies or becomes impaired. The underlying cause is unknown. Symptoms appear when there is a lack of dopamine in the brain.  Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that carries messages from one nerve cell to another. In a healthy brain, it exists in balance with another neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. In Parkinson’s disease, the substancia nigra, the area of the brain containing cells that manufacture dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin, are dying or are damaged and the brain loses the ability to manufacture these chemicals.

Symptoms:

The symptoms can vary from person to person. Symptoms usually begin on one side of the body and remain worse on that side of the body. The symptoms start gradually, with a mild tremor of a hand.  Also, a back and forth rubbing of the thumb and forefinger, known as pill-rolling, is common. Over time this disorder causes a slowing of voluntary movement and muscle stiffness such as impaired speech or a fixed facial expression while the body becomes rigid and the limbs stiffen.  People with Parkinson’s disease often experience instability when standing or impaired balance and coordination.  Depression and /or dementia often accompany the physical symptoms.

What is Deep Brain stimulation?

Deep-brain stimulation is basically a pacemaker for the brain that consists of a simple two part device. The surgeon places two thin wires deep within the brain and then inserts a small battery just underneath the skin near the collarbone. Pulses of electricity travel from the battery to electrodes located at the tip of the wires. In those afflicted with Parkinson’s the effects are instantaneous.  Notably, the quieting of the tremors and the ability to walk again.  This technique is still being perfected, but shows much promise. It is not a cure and does involve a deeply invasive surgery, with all the brain surgery risks, to reap the benefits.

Let’s hope that in the near future this medical technology becomes available for all Parkinson’s sufferers and that they can make a choice to undergo this surgery to live a good quality life afterwards.
If you are interested in reading the Scientific American article go to Sciam.com