Word: parkinson
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Melton's confidence is testament to the extraordinary advances in stem-cell science, some of which have brought the promise of breakthrough therapies for conditions like diabetes, Parkinson's and heart disease closer than ever before. The cells filling petri dishes in freezers and incubators in Melton's lab and others around the world are so vastly different - in provenance, programming and potential - from the stem cells of just two years ago that even the scientists leading this biological revolution marvel at the pace at which they are learning, and in some cases relearning, rules of development. Until recently...
Calming the tremors of Parkinson's disease remains a challenge for patients and doctors alike, but new research suggests that future therapies for the condition may emerge from an unlikely place: people's sleep habits...
Scientists at Sacre-Coeur Hospital at the University of Montreal report in the journal Neurology that Parkinson's can be predicted relatively accurately up to 12 years before the first muscle tremors appear. People diagnosed with an unusual sleep condition called REM sleep disorder, in which they physically act out their dreams by kicking, screaming and even harming themselves and others lying next to them, are 18% more likely to develop a neurodegenerative disease like dementia or Parkinson's within five years of their diagnosis, and 52% more likely after 12 years. "We have been aware of the potential connection...
...dream state, which explains why inside our dreams, we occasionally feel as if we can't move or are operating in slow motion. People with REM sleep disorder, however, never achieve this muscle relaxation, and researchers now believe that this could be the first sign of Parkinson's. The latest thinking on the disease holds that the uncontrolled movements that are the hallmark of Parkinson's are only the latest and most advanced sign of the disease, the final stage of a 10- or 20-year gradual decline in nerve function. In fact, experts believe that the condition actually begins...
...sleep disorder itself can be treated with medications, but those drugs won't slow the decline in nerve function that's responsible for Parkinson's. But identifying the disease at this earlier stage may help scientists come up with newer ways of protecting the motor neurons from further damage. "We don't have agents now to stop the degeneration of Parkinson's," says Postuma. "But once we have those agents, as far as I'm concerned, every patient with REM sleep disorder should be taking...