New Parkinson's Treatment Shows Promise in Animals

[ruggerson]

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/03/19/new-parkinsons-treatment-shows-promise-in-animals.html

Rodents with Parkinson's-like symptoms walked and moved normally again after their spinal cords were stimulated with high frequency electrical currents, a new study shows.


Researchers said the technique, called dorsal column stimulation, has the potential to be an important new weapon in the arsenal against Parkinson's disease. Spinal cord stimulation could one day replace deep brain stimulation, an effective but highly invasive treatment of last resort for Parkinson's patients.

Researchers plan to begin testing the new technique on primates in a few months and, if successful, begin human testing in about a year.

"If this technology could work in humans, it would provide a completely new option for treating Parkinson's disease," said senior study investigator Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, a professor of neuroscience at Duke University Medical Center, in Durham, N.C.

(more at link)

[soothsayer]

1. Thank goodness we're close to curing Parkinson's in animals.

kidding of course---hopefully it's good news for the humans too!

[Why Syzygy]

3. lol

:rofl: I thought I had missed something in the OP.

[pscot]

2. Yeah. My brother went to Mexico

for a lot of dental work. Saved a bundle. Then all his caps came loose and his fillings started disintegrating. He had to have it all done over. Of course there was no air fare, so that part worked out OK.

[The Night Owl]

4. What does your brother's dental work have to do with a possible treatment for Parkinson's? {EOM}

[mzmolly]

5. Fabulous!

:)