Constipation, olfactory disorders and co – the first indications long before the disease – a healing practice

Parkinson’s disease is often announced years in advance of diagnosis

Parkinson’s disease (also called Parkinson’s disease) is a disease of the brain. Its causes are still not fully understood. The disease cannot be cured, but there are effective treatments that can relieve symptoms. Researchers now report that Parkinson’s disease is often announced well in advance of diagnosis. Good news can include constipation or olfactory disturbances.

Like the Medical Center for Quality in Medicine (ÄZQ) on the portalPatienten-Information.deHe writes, about 220,000 people in Germany have Parkinson’s disease. Neurodegenerative disease is still not curable. But experts talk time and time again about the new findings Parkinson’s. The same is the case with Kiel’s neurologist Daniella Berg, who and her team are focusing on early stage Parkinson’s disease in a current post, as this allows predicting the course of the disease.

Summarizing the current scientific situation

According to another Message Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disease that affects the brain and results in the death of special nerve cells.

The disease is characterized by movement disorders such as slowed movements, muscle stiffness, tremors, or certain changes in gait pattern. It may take many years before these typical symptoms of Parkinson’s disease are diagnosed.

They can include, for example, constipation, dream sleep disorders (REM sleep disorder), odor perception disturbances or depression.

These are indeed signs of the neuronal damage typical in Parkinson’s disease. However, this has not yet reached the relevant region of the brain to the point where typical movement disorders appear, ”explains Daniella Berg, an expert in Parkinson, director of the Department of Neurology at the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), Campus Kiel. And a professor at the University’s Faculty of Medicine.

Along with colleagues from Denmark, Canada and Sweden, the scientist and her team summarize in the popular specialty journalNature Reviews NeuroscienceThe current state of science relates to these early symptoms regarding the course of the disease.

There are no specific symptoms

It is important that early symptoms such as constipation, depression or olfactory disturbances can have many causes. Therefore, it is not specific to Parkinson’s disease. This differs from what is known as rapid eye movement sleep disorder.

“If people over the age of 50 suffer from this type of sleep disorder and there are no other causes, such as drug abuse, there is a more than 80 percent chance that they will develop Parkinson’s disease or Parkinson’s disease in the next few years,” says a doctor. Nerves agent.

It affects the stage of dream sleep, also known as REM sleep. Usually a person is dormant in dream sleep due to the usual loss of muscle tone.

On the other hand, in REM sleep behavior disorder, there is muscle strength and the movements you dream of can be performed. This can be dangerous for those affected and your partner.

Often times, people with this disorder have very vivid or frightening dreams. They become really energetic and can even hit their partner in bed or fall out of bed on their own and seriously injure themselves, ”says Berg. Because there are so many causes of disturbed sleep, a diagnosis of REM sleep behavior disorder must be confirmed in a sleep lab.

The disease begins in the body or in the brain

“If you want to say something about the course of Parkinson’s disease, you have to take this early stage seriously,” says Berg. The current post describes how the course of the disease is actually determined and can be recognized at this early stage.

From scientific studies with imaging diagnostics, there are indications that the change in the alpha-synuclein typical for Parkinson’s disease primarily spreads in the body through two pathways.

While the disease begins in some patients in the intestine and spreads from there through nerve cells and nerve pathways to the brain (the first type of body), according to experts, pathological abnormalities can also appear in certain areas of the brain and from there to others spread areas of the brain as well as the body (brain type) the first).

In the first case, there is constipation, then dream sleep disturbance, and in the second case, these symptoms do not appear in the foreground, but rather what resemble an olfactory disorder or depression.

“Together with an international working group, we have developed a model that can be used to calculate the probability that a person will be in the early stage of the disease (prodromal stage) using early symptoms, genetic factors and specific risk factors. On the basis of the symptoms present, cycle indicators and other symptoms can be derived,” Berg says. These individual calculations are currently only carried out in the context of scientific studies.

There is no special treatment yet

There is currently no special treatment that can stop the disease’s progression. However, according to Berg, more and more people with REM sleep behavior disorder or an olfactory disorder that cannot be explained by a cold or allergies want to know if they have early Parkinson’s disease.

These symptoms must be taken very seriously. Because even in the absence of special treatment, people can be encouraged. Lifestyle changes, especially increased physical activity and a Mediterranean diet, significantly reduces the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease at a later time. “

Understanding the disease prevalence and the resulting subtypes can lead to an earlier and more accurate diagnosis. It is also used to study other factors that can affect the course of disease, such as microbiome involvement or the effects of the immune system.

In this way, people can be identified in the long term for studies with novel treatments that affect the course of the disease in the early stage of the disease. (ad)