Alternative Therapies include herbal and nutritional supplements, exercise and massage techniques. A strong evidence for their benefit is lacking in general. Patients with Parkinson Disease (PD) routinely come across them and as many as 40% end up trying one of them. Here we will very briefly summarize the available scientific support for them, if any. Acupuncture, is an ancient Chinese technique based on idea of stimulating energy centers in body through needles. Although several small clinical trials reported modest benefit, …

Another interesting Journal Club with discussion on some excellent articles. Below is a brief summary of the articles with a short commentary of the discussion. Long term Safety and tolerability of Prosavin, a lentiviral vector-based gene therapy of Parkinson Disease Lancet. 2014 Jan 9. pii: S0140-6736(13)61939-X. Background: Parkinson Disease is treated by using levodopa that is taken up by the brain cells and converted into Dopamine thus correcting the deficiency. It is thought that rise and fall of blood levels …

The biggest efforts in Parkinson’s disease have been to figure out ways to slow down this condition and then down the road consider ways that will stop or even potentially reverse the progression of Parkinson’s disease. These efforts have been underway for more than 20 years starting as early as 1980s with attempt with vitamin E in high doses (DATATOP Study) along with selegiline a newly discovered agent at that point. Those efforts failed and vitamin E was found to …