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Gail, I hope all of your positive comments are true, as I'm in an Open Label test for Riluzole (Rilutek). It is administered by Baylor Uni of Medicine in Houston. Lanny 56/4/1+ Gail Vass wrote: > > Drug slows pace of Parkinson’s > > New York, Jan. 28 1999 - Recently Parkinson’s disease has > been in the news because actor Michael J. Fox revealed that > he suffers from the degenerative brain disorder. Before > that it was Attorney General Janet Reno and boxer Muhammad > Ali. Now a drug for Lou Gehrig’s disease is being tested as > a way to slow the progression of Parkinson’s. > > It started with a twitch in my right index finger, which is > going right now,” said Parkinson’s patient Carole Peters. > > In the past 10 years, Peters’ Parkinson’s disease has progressed > rapidly. Today, she only gets about 30 minutes at a time relatively > symptom-free. The remainder of the time, she’s either shaking, > or she is completely stiff. > > “The stiffness bothers me the most because I feel like I’m stuck > in a chair and can’t move and helpless. I get panicky,” Peters > explained. > > Peter’s Parkinson’s is due to the degeneration of a specific group > of nerve cells deep in the brain. It is not clear why these brain cells > die, but one theory is that they are bombarded with an excess > of a neurotransmitter called glutamate. > > According to Dr. Warren Olanow of Mount Sinai Medical School, > “Normally, glutamate helps to communicate information between > nerves and other nerves. But if you get too much glutamate, it > can actually induce cell death, what’s called excitotoxic > degeneration. > > A new drug called Rilutek, already approved to treat Lou Gehrig’s > disease, is being tested as a way to protect brain cells in Parkinson’s. > > The central neuron is damaged by too much glutamate. Rilutek then is > introduced and the glutamate dissipates. > > Dr. Olanow said, “The hope is that if we block the glutamate with > this drug inParkinson’s disease, we’ll be able to interfere with > that cascade and slow down the degeneration.” > > In other words, if an early stage Parkinson’s patient were to be > given the drug, it might prevent them from getting to the advanced stage > that Peters suffers, or at least significantly delay that progression. > > Dr. Olanow is leading a national study to see whether Rilutek works. > “We are recruiting patients with early, untreated or minimally > Parkinson’s disease,” he said. > > This Phase III study aims to enroll people with early Parkinson’s, ages > 40 to 80, at 43 medical centers around the country. > The Parkinson’s Foundation is encouraging patients to take part, partly > because it is the first drug that actually interferes with > the cell death process rather than just treating the symptoms. > > This is not a cure for Parkinson’s, but what Rilutek may do is > make it so that instead of taking 10 years to get to a certain > stage of the disaese, it may take 20 years or more. > > MSNBC Conditions and Privacy © 1999 > -- > Gail Vass > ^^^ > \ / > \ | / Today’s Research > \\ | // ...Tomorrow’s Cure > \ | / > \|/ > ```````