People living with Parkinson's often have freezing episodes when walking and can't take another step, or can't cross a threshold. Some people draw a line with chalk, or put down a line of tape between the kitchen and living room that provides a visual cue. Or to overcome the episode they visualize their next movement. This helps them get around their house with increased ease.
So, the theory is the mind has some very strong abilities. Placebos may not be tricking people. Instead, they may be drawing on abilities that we do not yet understand completely—much like people do to overcome freezing.
CNN posted this story from Fortune magazine on its Web site. It reviews the placebo effect, and cites some recent studies experimenting with the placebo effect.
A confession: There are some treatments that work well for a number of people living with Parkinson's disease. However, nobody has enough to offer you, including My Parkinson's Info. So, we look for any advantage we can find including the power of the mind. We hope the story we link to is helpful, and helps you tap into the power of your heart and mind. We believe it is substantial. Nevertheless, we hope to report even more concrete progress on treatments that can alleviate or cure this condition.
Animal Stem Cell Study Gets Help from Nanotechnology (Don't worry—we'll make it easy to understand nanotechnology)
We want to be encouraging, but honest. So, we report the stories of success with animal research. We also emphasize that many successes with animals aren't replicated in humans and that it may take 10 to 20 years to convert those findings to humans.
Monday at the American Chemical Society's national meeting, an encouraging presentation reported that adult stem cells were able to morph into the desired neurons in rats and mice. In the experiment researchers mixed nanotubes (a small carbon device 80,000 times thinner than a human hair) with adult rat stem cells and then implanted the mixture into brain-damaged areas of three rats that had suffered strokes. With the nanotubes, the adult stem cells not only remained in the brain-damaged regions, they began to differentiate into functioning neurons.
It's easy to imagine a future where a mixture of human stem cells and nanotubes could regenerate dopamine producing neurons, and other cell structures in the brains of people living with Parkinson's disease.
By the way, the term 'nano' means small—usually something smaller than one billionth of a meter. The science of nanotechnology works with atoms and molecules. If you are interested in a basic introduction to nanotechnology, follow these links:
1 - Rice University's "What is Nanotechnology" Page
2 - This movie from the University of California San Diego. It is designed for kids, but even the university graduates here at My Parkinson's Info found it insightful. Just click on the play button. (If you are using dial-up, this movie may take hours to load.)
This movie is not really focused on health care, so it may not be interesting to all readers. The point is many health care solutions of the future will come from being able to manipulate things at this very small level. We may find that one of the causes of Parkinson's disease is on this level. If you are not interested, you may be able to pass it on as good career advice to a child or grandchild.
