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Parkinson's & Movement disorders news

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Early Parkinson's predictor found in daily step count

Oxford's Big Data Institute and Nuffield Department of Population Health report that daily step counts may help identify who will later be diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, with lower activity patterns acting as an early ...

Neuroscience

Dance effective in fighting against cognitive decline in Parkinson's, study finds

A new study led by researchers at York University shows that dance can be beneficial in halting the cognitive decline associated with Parkinson's disease and, for some participants, they even showed signs of improvement. ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

In-home sensor technology offers smarter care for ALS patients

Bill Janes is on a mission to improve life for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). As a licensed occupational therapist and researcher at the University of Missouri, he's seen firsthand how the disease can steal ...

Neuroscience

Brain markers could yield early clues into Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease affects more than 1.1 million people in the United States, progressively damaging the brain cells that control movement. By the time symptoms like tremors appear, patients have already lost around half ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Untreated sleep apnea raises risk of Parkinson's, study finds

New research reveals that people with untreated obstructive sleep apnea have a higher risk of developing Parkinson's disease. However, they can significantly reduce the risk by improving the quality of their sleep by using ...

Neuroscience

Pause and rewind: How the brain keeps time to control action

Whether speaking or swinging a bat, precise and adaptable timing of movement is essential for everyday behavior. Although we do not have sensory organs like eyes or a nose to sense time, we can keep time and control the timing ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Evidence builds for disrupted mitochondria as cause of Parkinson's

For decades, scientists have known that mitochondria, which produce energy inside our cells, malfunction in Parkinson's disease. But a critical question remained: do the failing mitochondria cause Parkinson's, or do they ...

Alzheimer's disease & dementia

What polymers can teach us about curing Alzheimer's disease

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have applied ideas from polymer physics to illuminate the mechanism behind a key pathology in Alzheimer's disease, the formation of fibrils of tau proteins. They showed that ...

Genetics

New genetic test targets elusive cause of rare movement disorder

Scientists at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School have developed a targeted genetic test to improve diagnosis for X-linked dystonia-parkinsonism (XDP), a rare and disabling movement disorder that affects ...

Neuroscience

Removing toxic proteins before they can damage motor neurons

University of Wollongong (UOW) scientists have developed a breakthrough therapy that clears toxic proteins from nerve cells—a discovery that advances the work of the late Professor Justin Yerbury and could transform the ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Personalized care can ease Parkinson's pain

Every 27 minutes, someone in Australia is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Best known for its tremors, movement and balance issues, it also brings another, often overlooked burden—persistent pain.

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Emotion detection in Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that leads to significant disturbances to motor control resulting in involuntary tremor, shuffling gait, muscular rigidity, and other problems. The disease also leads to ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Mimicking brain cells to understand Parkinson's

A device that mimics the brain cells affected by Parkinson's disease could help find new treatments for the condition. The device is described in the Elsevier journal Organs-on-a-Chip. "We have created human neurons that ...

Neuroscience

Leap forward for brain research

Pre-clinical research into deadly brain cancer, Parkinson's, dementia, epilepsy and other major psychiatric and neurological conditions can speed up with the global commercialisation of an advanced neuromedium, called BrainPhys.

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Common diabetes drugs may prevent Parkinson's

Elevated risk of Parkinson's disease among people with type 2 diabetes appears to be reduced by some medications used to treat their diabetes, finds a new study led by UCL researchers.

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Gut bacteria could be responsible for side effect of Parkinson's drug

Bacteria in the small intestine can deaminate levodopa, the main drug that is used to treat Parkinson's disease. Bacterial processing of the unabsorbed fractions of the drug results in a metabolite that reduces gut motility. ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Even in people with Parkinson's gene, coffee may be protective

Even for people with a gene mutation tied to Parkinson's disease, coffee consumption may be associated with a lower risk of actually developing the disease, according to a new study published in the September 30, 2020, online ...

Parkinson's & Movement disorders

Finding right drug balance for Parkinson's patients

Parkinson's disease is most commonly treated with levodopa, a drug which alleviates the slowing of bodily movements, called bradykinesia, found in Parkinson's disease patients.

Neuroscience

Stem cells can repair Parkinson's-damaged circuits in mouse brains

The mature brain is infamously bad at repairing itself following damage like that caused by trauma or strokes, or from degenerative diseases like Parkinson's. Stem cells, which are endlessly adaptable, have offered the promise ...