Parkinson's Patients Find Relief In New Treatment

Michael J. Fox, Katherine Hepburn, Pope John Paul II, Muhammad Ali, the Rev. Billy Graham, Johnny Cash: All have been victimized by Parkinson's disease.

For musician and songwriter Freddy Powers and his wife Catherine, the journey through Parkinson's disease has been grueling. Parkinson's is degenerative, depressing and deadly. It starts in the brain, where cells that make dopamine begin to malfunction. Dopamine is the chemical messenger the brain sends out to tell parts of the body to move.

"Freddy was really walking very slow, moving real slow and his arm was clenched up real tight," Catherine said. "But the two main things was he had really lost his smile, and his eyes had become real cloudy and really despondent."

But doctors may have stumbled on a promising new treatment. After only 10 daily treatments with a machine that electronically stimulates acupuncture points, things changed.

"It was like I brought home a new husband," Catherine says. "He went from just, you know, almost not with me half the time, or it didn't feel like or look like he was with me, to all of a sudden, he was back; he was back to my Freddy."

Dr. Donald Rhodes was working on a machine to help alleviate chronic pain in his office in Corpus Christi when he noticed symptoms of other kinds improved in Parkinson's and diabetes patients.

"Diseases that respond to this treatment are grouped together by circulation," Rhodes said. "If we can improve circulation, good things happen."

Freddy's neurologist Rob Izor said the treatment is like acupuncture, but with a kick. Intrigued, Izor followed up with a 30-day pilot study with five patients, each of whom experienced some kind of improvement.

"He told me I was, what did you call me? You called me, 'blah,'" s Parkinson's patient Candyce Drum reminded Izor, remembering her treatment.

"Okay, I'm sorry," Izor said.


"He said my first, the 'pre,' was 'blah,' and then the second's a little livelier," Drum said.

"Well, one thing is I sleep a lot better," Parkinson's patient Eugene Faires said. "I've always had trouble sleeping, particularly going to sleep, and I sleep better."

To be sure the machine is what is really at work, though, a larger study is needed.

"Hopefully, with some publicity and interest from a humanitarian---" Izor began......

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