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

..about 3/4 tea spoon daily for the last year .. My energy is good but can't tell if it is due to creatine, ginseng or the other supplements. These tryals are valuable but who can afford to wait 5 years?
Thank you Ron for the posting.

From an article in the mucuna thread, seems mucuna may help the creatine problem:

"Plasma creatinine was reduced to a similar degree in chicks fed both raw and heated VB (velvet bean or mucuna), and most likely reflects changes in muscle mass or metabolism concurrent with feeding either form of VB."

Seems mucuna may increase creatine in the muscles.

Parkinsonism & Related Disorders
Volume 9, Supplement 1, April 2003, Pages 43-46

Serum creatine kinase is elevated in patients with Parkinson's disease: a case controlled study

Hideki Takuboa, Satoe Shimoda-Matsubayashib
Available online 8 April 2003.

Abstract

We report serum creatine kinase (CK) activity level in patients with Parkinson's disease and controls matched with gender and age. The clinical subjects consist of 84 patients with Parkinson's disease and 257 control subjects. Serum CK level was significantly elevated in parkinsonian patients (117.3±65.0 units/l) compared to that of the controls (85.1±33.2 units/l) (p<0.01).

The elevation correlated with the use of levodopa and the duration of the disease. In our study, 56.0% of parkinsonian patients and 32.7 % of the control subjects showed higher than normal upper limits of serum CK activity (p<0.01). Whereas no correlation was noted between serum CK level and Hoehn-Yahr stage, age of onset, duration of the disease, predominant symptoms (rigidity vs. tremor), and average daily dose of levodopa.

Patients with Parkinson's disease may be sensitive to physical activity resulting in leakage of CK from skeletal muscles. Neural mechanism mediated by hypothalamic dopamine and by autonomic nervous system may also be contributing to the elevation of serum CK.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...983246ddd677fc

NEUROLOGY 2006;67:1262-1264
© 2006 American Academy of Neurology
Brief Communications
Creatine supplementation in Parkinson disease: A placebo-controlled randomized pilot trial
A. Bender, MD, W. Koch,

Mitochondrial dysfunction plays a major role in the pathogenesis of Parkinson disease (PD). Creatine (Cr) is an ergogenic compound that exerts neuroprotective effects in animal models of PD. We conducted a 2-year placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial on the effect of Cr in 60 patients with PD. Cr improved patient mood and led to a smaller dose increase of dopaminergic therapy but had no effect on overall Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale scores or dopamine transporter SPECT

http://neurology.org/cgi/content/abs.../7/1262?ck=nck