Published yesterday, but does creatine also decrease BBB permeability?
Ron

http://www.wtvq.com/midatlantic/tvq/...3-11-0005.html

Tuesday, Mar 11, 2008 - 08:34 AM

CREATINE
Parkinson's disease is a devastating disorder that, among other things, slowly robs patients of their mobility.
Now, researchers are looking at whether a nutritional supplement, commonly used by body builders, can keep them moving.

In Parkinson's disease, brain cells die off little by little.
There is no cure and no treatment to slow it down.

Dr. Kathleen Shannon, a neurologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, is leading part of a large national study to test whether creatine, a food supplement athletes use to build muscles, can slow the loss of brain cells in Parkinson's patients.

"Its effects in the brain have to do with um improving the energy system within the brain cells and it's also got some kind of anti-oxidents so oxidation, rust is something that happens in brain cells as well as on your garden tools. And uh it helps to prevent that as well." says Dr. Shannon.

Study volunteers mix a packet of white powder in their food or drink twice a day. Half receive real creatine, half an inactive compound. More than 15-hundred volunteers will be tracked over five years.

"What we're hoping is, that at the end of the five year period when we break the blind and analyze all the data, the research subjects who have been taking the creatine, will have had a less severe progression than the people who are taking a placebo," she says.

Parkinson's disease affects at least a-million people in the US. This trial is the first large study in a series of national institutes of health-sponsored clinical trials aimed at finding effective and lasting treatments for Parkinson's disease.

AUDIENCE INQUIRY:
For information about the trial, log onto http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Then type the trial identification number in the search box: NCT00449865. Information is also available at: http://www.parkinsontrial.ninds.nih.gov

For general information on Parkinson's Disease:
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, http://www.ninds.nih.gov
National Parkinson Foundation, http://www.parkinson.org
Parkinson's Disease Foundation, http://www.pdf.org
WE MOVE™, http://www.wemove.org/par