 |
 |
The source of this article is The Medical Post: http://tinyurl.com/6yc5g Ginseng shows potential as Parkinson's treatment By Donalee Moulton HALIFAX – The ancient Chinese believed ginseng could help treat everything from lung ailments to stomach problems to psychiatric conditions. Now a thoroughly modern 21st-century researcher says the perennial herb may well be an effective treatment for Parkinson's disease. Dr. Harold Robertson was skeptical when first approached by two members of his lab interested in exploring the use of ginseng as a possible means of replacing dopamine cells in patients with Parkinson's disease. "I wasn't really sure it was going to have any effect at all, (but) I let them play," the head of the department of pharmacology at Dalhousie University said. However, "When I saw the results, I was convinced." In the first study conducted by Dr. Robertson and his colleagues, some rats were given a commercial preparation of ginseng in their drinking water. Others received only plain water. The rats were then injected with MPP+, a drug that induces Parkinson's disease. The drug has become a reliable model for Parkinson's disease since it gained notoriety in the 1980s following an outbreak of PD among drug addicts in California. The addicts had been trying to synthesize Demerol, but instead came up with a precursor of MPP+. Virtually everyone who injected this drug developed Parkinson's disease. A number of behavioural results are associated with MPP+. In rats who had been sipping on ginseng, these results failed to occur. Further exploration found that the dopamine neurons in animals injected only with MPP+ were dead. Surprisingly, in animals that had received ginseng, virtually 100% of the neurons were alive, said Dr. Robertson. The research, first published in Experimental Neurology, was then replicated in mice, and the same effects were discovered. "This is evidence that it would work in vivo," said Dr. Robertson, whose research interests are in the area of gene expression in long-term changes in the brain and dopaminergic neurotransmission. "The literature suggests that ginseng is protective of neurons," he noted, "but the exciting thing to me is that we're giving this orally." The Dalhousie team, which also includes Dr. Bob Drobitch, a member of the College of Pharmacy at Dalhousie and Dr. Jackalina Van Kampen, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Robertson's lab, found that the protective effects of ginseng lasted for about 48 hours. The implications for treating patients is significant, noted Dr. Robertson. "When we first diagnose patients with Parkinson's disease most people aren't very ill with the disease. They have a lot of healthy neurons left. If we could start treating people as soon as they are diagnosed, we could stop the process. "We believe ginseng has the potential to do this," he added. "We would effectively have a cure for the disease." Dr. Robertson is not advocating those with Parkinson's begin consuming large quantities of ginseng. Indeed, more research is needed and he is now exploring the possibility of doing a limited clinical trial. "It requires almost nothing to set up," he said. "There are no really serious side-effects." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn