New article on gait and balance issues
 

This is the link to a newly published paper on gait and balance in animal models of PD. http://www.jci.org/articles/view/426...2e3074e99478bd.

One conclusion that they come to is that the problem seems to be in the PPD region of the brain. The other thing that indicate is that nicotine therapy may be helpful for some of these problems.

There are some articles in the literature that I found that pertain to nicotine patch or gum for concentration, ADHD, Parkinson's and other brain issues.

Has anyone had any experience with using nicotine replacement therapy (patch or gum) for gait, balance and falling in PD?

My wife who has these problems as her major symptoms would be interested in trying nicotine replacement to see if it has any impact.

Any thoughts or experience with this?

Thanks,
Howard

we did it
 

We began using a nicotine patch early on, because of articles we read indicating it may help. It did. It helped with mood, constipation (later on), smoothness, etc. Since we started using it pretty much right after dx, we can't say it helped with balance or gait because we didn't have those symptoms early on.

Now, however, after about four years of using the nicotine patch, we had to quit. We noticed, and this is our experience, that when it wore off, it dropped my husband pretty hard and made his "offs" much harder. It's hard to explain, but now that we don't use it, his on/off is smoother. But for a few years there, it really helped.

If he puts a patch on now, like if he has a meeting, he'll get about 15 minutes of good time, then crashes. It used to make his day smoother, but not any more. I hope this helps. And no, he never smoked a day in his life.

FYI: the patch can be a nasty thing. When you first put it on, you can become very nauseous and dizzy....my husband would put on the patch, then have to lie down for five or so minutes because of this. I tried half a patch one day to see what he was talking about (I really wanted to see if it was the PD or the patch that caused this) and boy, within minutes I got so sick I thought I was going to puke but was so dizzy I couldn't get to the toilet! I ripped the patch off (I actually only put half of one on, thank heavens) and was OK in about fifteen minutes. But it was really scary. If your wife wants to try the nicotine patch, be sure she does so at home, in a safe (no stairs, slippery rugs, etc.) place.

Also FYI: we started with the 14mg patch and stayed there pretty much. We tried going to the 21mg but it was too much. Be sure to take the thing off a few hours before bedtime or your wife will be up all night.

MJFF work in nicotine and separately PIGD
 

This NIC-PD study is looking overall at neuroprotective effects of nicotine patch. http://michaeljfox.org/newsEvents_mj...cle.cfm?ID=400

Separately, in Dec 2009 we funded grants on PIGD http://michaeljfox.org/newsEvents_mj...cle.cfm?ID=392

Debi

PS...anyone can go to our site www.michaeljfox.org and search by keyword to see all our grants funded (historic and current)...we have funded nearly $200 million in research on over 100 targets so there is information there on many topics. We are currently working to improve how we report outcomes on all these grants as well. (Worry not, we know the outcomes of all the grants funded its just not in a public database. But, rest assured if we see something that is working we keep funding it!) We want to find better ways to share mixed and negative results as well.