Dr. Ray Watts, chair of UAB neurology, says more options available to treat Parkinson's patients

Monday, May 19, 2008
DAVE PARKS
News staff writer

New medications coupled with better understanding of Parkinson's disease are helping doctors provide patients with more effective, longer-acting treatments, says Dr. Ray L. Watts, chair of neurology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

"We are improving therapies that help control the Parkinson's symptoms and improve motor function and other functions," Watts said. "There is new evidence that the earlier and better we do that, the brain is plastic enough that it improves the long-term outcome."

More than 1.5 million Americans, most of them over age 50, have Parkinson's disease, according to the National Parkinson Foundation. The neurodegenerative condition is marked by tremors, imbalance and lack of coordination. The number of people with Parkinson's disease is expected to jump sharply in coming years as Baby Boomers age.

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This is all very nice, but now I am going to enter the broken record realm. I am having increasing disbelief that something like mucuna exists, its 'medication' form is approved by the FDA (Zandopa), and has been clearly shown by clinical studies - albeit not explicitly yet in the U.S. -but elsewhere clearly that it seems to ammeliorate the neurotoxicity of current levodopa therapy, and no doctor seems to know about it or mention it??? If they came up with a new dopamine agonist from Merck that accomplished that, we would be all celebrating the new breakthrough.

It makes me not trust the research that is being done. What the heck is going on in this crazy world??? I already know the answer, and I know I'm getting real boring on this one. But it has really made me very cynical about the medical status quo - I'm thinking of dropping it altogether - I can't rely on them for full or accurate info at all....