How many of us know a family member, friend or neighbor who has been touched by this disabling disease? Parkinson’s disease is a progressive degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system. It is a devastating disease that not only affects our body movements but also our mind with sufferer’s often exhibiting depression and or dementia. Scientific American has posted an article called “Sparkling Recovery with Brain Pacemakers” that shows promise and hope for those individuals suffering from this dreaded disease.
In this study a medical technology known as “deep-brain stimulation” has been used. The video at Kringelbach shows an individual with advanced Parkinson’s disease revealing and eliminating symptoms with a quick click of a switch. To understand the meaning of all this lets do a review on Parkinson’s disease.
What is Parkinson’s disease?
In Parkinson’s disease a specific area of the brain, where a chemical messenger called dopamine is produced, dies or becomes impaired. The underlying cause is unknown. Symptoms appear when there is a lack of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that carries messages from one nerve cell to another. In a healthy brain, it exists in balance with another neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. In Parkinson’s disease, the substancia nigra, the area of the brain containing cells that manufacture dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin, are dying or are damaged and the brain loses the ability to manufacture these chemicals.
Symptoms:
The symptoms can vary from person to person. Symptoms usually begin on one side of the body and remain worse on that side of the body. The symptoms start gradually, with a mild tremor of a hand. Also, a back and forth rubbing of the thumb and forefinger, known as pill-rolling, is common. Over time this disorder causes a slowing of voluntary movement and muscle stiffness such as impaired speech or a fixed facial expression while the body becomes rigid and the limbs stiffen. People with Parkinson’s disease often experience instability when standing or impaired balance and coordination. Depression and /or dementia often accompany the physical symptoms.
What is Deep Brain stimulation?
Deep-brain stimulation is basically a pacemaker for the brain that consists of a simple two part device. The surgeon places two thin wires deep within the brain and then inserts a small battery just underneath the skin near the collarbone. Pulses of electricity travel from the battery to electrodes located at the tip of the wires. In those afflicted with Parkinson’s the effects are instantaneous. Notably, the quieting of the tremors and the ability to walk again. This technique is still being perfected, but shows much promise. It is not a cure and does involve a deeply invasive surgery, with all the brain surgery risks, to reap the benefits.
Let’s hope that in the near future this medical technology becomes available for all Parkinson’s sufferers and that they can make a choice to undergo this surgery to live a good quality life afterwards.
If you are interested in reading the Scientific American article go to Sciam.com
Did you wake up to the “alarming” sound of your alarm clock this morning? Why? Is it healthy to get jolted out of a good night’s sleep by a loud, obnoxious buzzing noise that makes your heart pound and gives you an adrenaline rush? Music for therapy can start first thing upon waking.
The right sort of music has a definite beneficial effect on our health. Think of a Mother’s bedside lullaby to her child. This is a good example of how a soft melody can have a calming effect. Now think of your favorite loud, blaring rock and roll tune that you are enthusiastically screaming along with while driving your car. Although enjoyable, the latter is not exactly restful and relaxing.
Music Therapy is an established healthcare profession. Wikipedia describes it as “an interpersonal process in which the therapist uses music and all of its facets – physical, emotional, mental, social, aesthetic and spiritual – to help clients to improve or maintain their health”. We’ve heard that prenatal stimulation through the music heard regularly while in the womb might provide some babies with a sense of comfort. Progressive Doctors know that music has a soothing effect on their patients who are under stress or dealing with pain. Modern day Dentists also know that while they are drilling around at high speed in their patient’s mouths that the patient can be distracted from the work while his attention is drawn to the background music.
While our Doctors and Dentists use music to calm us, many of us don’t think of using music for therapy in our day to day lives. If you are not fortunate, as I am, in having musical family members who love to sing and play their musical instrument and music daily, then do yourself a favor and listen for everyday wonderful, soothing sounds such as birds singing outside your window. Why not attend local choir concerts where children or adults are singing. Regularly treat yourself to a musical theatre production. Play your favorite musical tunes in your car to help calm you while stuck in traffic. If you are stressed try humming a tune yourself.
Music does not need a prescription. Put yourself in charge of your health and remember music for therapy when you need to:
– Manage Pain
– Lift your mood
– Reduce your dependence on sedatives
– Relieve anxiety
– Ease depression
– Enhance relationships and creativity
– Promote feelings of confidence and well-being
– Relax and enjoy your life
Believe in the power of music for therapy. Music therapy combined with laughter therapy is the best kind of medicine with no prescription required.
Everyone gets depressed from time to time. And considering the very frightening times we’re living in, it’s no wonder that more and more people are feeling increased anxiety and what can be called depression. Of course losing your job and facing home foreclosure or just wondering if it’s going to happen to you next can make anyone depressed!Have a combination of feelings of anxiousness and being afraid really cannot be called Major Depression as there is usually more to this than those two emotions.
Depression is a condition caused when the brain does not properly regulate the production of certain chemicals that are necessary for a good or healthy mood. Outside factors can influence how the brain releases and regulates these chemicals, but in major depression these chemicals are very rarely released and are not released in adequate amounts.
Symptoms of Major Depression
There are many different types of depression, from postpartum depression which of course occurs after a woman has had a baby, as well as bipolar disorder which is marked by wild mood swings of euphoria to near suicidal thoughts, and many other types in between.Being a very severe form of Depression, Major Depression is usually found is someone with extremely low and down moods all of the time. A person with this condition may not necessarily be suicidal but struggles every day just with getting out of bed, and not just on the worst of Mondays but also when they even have something fun and enjoyable planned. Patients with major depression often see no point to any activity, even hobbies they once enjoyed.A lot of times people just disengage with their lives and tend to have no feelings and almost walk around as a zombie. Very often things they would have once taken care of now are ignored, and this might include their own personal care and hygiene.
Coping With Depression
It can be very difficult to deal with depression in any form, and the condition often brings with it other emotional distresses such as guilt, panic and anxiety. Others in the family may also be less than supportive, thinking that the patient should just snap out of it and pull themselves together. These things don’t make coping with major depression any easier. It’s important to recognize the condition as a disease and not something the patient has chosen or enjoys. On the other hands, it’s important for the patient to remember that he or she shouldn’t hide behind the disease and still needs to take care of responsibilities around the house and in the office whether or not he or she “feels like it.”
Some form of medication is also recommended when it comes to major depression. While many shy away from taking medication, remember that it’s important to treat this condition as the disease it is. There are also many new options on the market today that are less harsh than choices in the past and that have far fewer side effects than before.
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