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New Approach to Parkinson's Treatment (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Doctors from New York say they may have uncovered a "cheap and easy way to treat Parkinson's disease." The treatment, which is currently used to help people with epilepsy, appears to restore impaired brain function and protect against neurological degeneration. In this week's issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Serge Przedborski and colleagues report the findings of a new study in which mice with Parkinson's disease were treated with infusions of the drug D-beta-HB. Researchers believe Parkinson's is caused by a depletion of the chemical dopamine in the brain. MPTP is a toxin that plays a role in this depletion. The idea behind this research is that D-beta-HB can protect both against the degeneration associated with the disease as well as protect against MPTP-related motor deficits. Researchers found the mice treated with D-beta-HB had their levels of dopamine in the brain remain constant while those treated with a placebo had their levels drop during the seven-day study. Based on their findings, Przedborski writes that D-beta-HB, "...may be a straightforward neuroprotective strategy for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease." Researchers say more research needs to be done to determine the effect of long-term use of D-beta-HB. Current small studies in humans show the treatment can be well tolerated and similar approaches have been used to treat epilepsy for more than 70 years with safe outcomes. This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/. SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2003,112:892-901 SOURCE: HealthCentral.com / Ivanhoe Newswire http://www.healthcentral.com/news/NewsFullText.cfm?id=8007000 * * * ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn