Bryan Betty: Parkinson's

Parkinson's is one of the most common neurological conditions for those over the age of 60 - Michael J Fox very famously has early onset Parkinson's, and is now a champion for awareness of the disease.  

 

So what is Parkinson's?  

• A degenerative disease of the nervous system causing movement problems.  
• Affects 1:100 over the age of 60. Occasionally it’s early onset like with Michael J Fox. 
• Nerve cells in the brain break down, we lose a chemical messenger called dopamine. 
• There’s no simple test to diagnose, diagnosis comes from symptoms.  

   

How do you recognise it?  

• It’s often very slow to develop and initially can be difficult to diagnose.  
• Everyone’s journey with Parkinson's is different.  
• It’s common to notice tremors at rest, often on one side. You may notice it gets better when moving or doing something – it can fluctuate. 
• Over time: Slow movements become difficult, stiff muscles, loss of balance.  
• Can be associated with depression, anxiety, poor sleep, and lack of motivation.  
• Loss of smell, difficulty with speech, fatigue, cramping muscles.  

   

What causes it?  

• We don’t know the cause.  
• However, risk factors include age, family history, and it’s more common in men. 
• Other factors: Traumatic brain injuries, exposure to toxins, certain pesticides, and some illegal drugs.  

   

Can we treat it?  

• It can’t be cured and does tend to be progressive.  
• However, there are a range of medications that can help: medication that either replaces dopamine, or stops the breakdown of dopamine in brain can alleviate symptoms.  
• Lifestyle:  exercise to improve muscle strength, preventing falls; not rushing, use of walking aids, massage.  
• Occupational therapists to teach how to help with daily activities  
• Support organisations such as Parkinson's New Zealand. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
That'd be Michael J. Fox is probably the best known
person with Parkinson's disease in the world, but he had
or has early onset Parkinson's disease. What's interesting about the
condition is that it is now one of the most
common neurological conditions for people over the age of sixty,
which obviously isn't early onset. Here with the details is

(00:33):
doctor Brian Betty go old O. Brian. Oh, good morning
Jack here Ian, nice to be chatting with you, as per.
Let's start off with the basic question, then, what is Parkinson's.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Well, Parkinson's. Yeah, look, it's a degenerative disease of the
neurosystem and it causes movement problems. Okay, it's one of
the commonest conditions neurological conditions that occur over the age
of sixty. Now it effects about one in one hundred
over the age of sixteen. We've got about fourteen thousand
people in New Zealand whore affected by Parkinson's. Occasionally has

(01:06):
As you get older, there's more of a risk, but
occasionally there's early onset. And I suppose Michael j. Fox
is the big example of that, and we're all familiar
with that. Now. Basically, what happens is nerve cells in
the brain start to break down and we lose a
chemical messengers. So these are little messages in the brain.
It's a chemical called dopamine. Now, this dopamine starts to

(01:27):
cause these movement problems. Now there's no simple test to
diagnose Parkinson's. It's actually a diagnosis of symptoms and what
actually happens over time.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
I didn't realize that, So how do you recognize it?

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, look now that now it can be really really
tricking in the early eight In the early stages, it
often is a very very slow developing disorder, and so
initially it can be missed and very very difficult to see.
And everyone's journey is different with Parkinson's. That's something I
do need to say. So there's no to that are
exactly identical. But what commonly people start to notice is

(02:02):
a trendor at rest. So it'll be one side of
the body. It will often be the arm, and it
would be just a trendor that they start to notice
when they're resting and when they go to do something
like pick up a couple do something, it can actually
go away or disappear. So it's very particular what starts
to happen, but over time it starts to fluctuate, so
it can get worse at particular times a day and
better at other times a day. Now again, over time,

(02:25):
other things start to develop, so you can start to
get this slow movement disorder where it's very difficult to
do things like pick up cups, get up off a chair,
start to move or walk, very stiff muscles and a
loss of balance which can risk falls and things often
associate with depression. Anxiety and lack of motivation is another

(02:46):
thing that's really seen with that. People are very low
motivation as it develops, and in particular issue is loss
of smell and that that actually occurs. And the other
thing that we see is difficulty in speech. So there's
this very slow, difficult to speak thing that occurs and
what we call paucity of facial muscles, so people get

(03:06):
this very blank look on their face and a very
difficult to express things. And that's what happens over time
as it develops. Yeah, so what causes it, Look, we
don't know the cause, so it's not well understood However,
there are some risk factors so like age is probably
the biggest risk factor, family history know as risk factors
that males are more likely to get it than females.

(03:29):
Now there's a couple of other things. Exposure to certain
pesticides can we thought of got a link now at
some illegal drugs as well. That's the other really interesting thing.
But the other one is traumatic brain injuries. And again
probably the big example of that is Muhammad Ali that
three years entry stocked boxing started to develop Parkinson's and
again that was very well known and that was trauma induced.

(03:52):
So there's a number of things that can be associated with.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
It, right, so can we tweat it?

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Look, it can't be cured and it does tend to
be progressive. However, there's a range of medication that can
actually help and alleviate the symptoms. Now, these are either
medications that replace the dopamine, this chemical in the brain
that we're losing, or stop the breakdown of dopamine in
the brain, and they can be very very effective at

(04:18):
reducing the symptoms over time and allviating symptoms. Now, we
know that lifestyle is very important, so that's exercise to
improve muscle strength, falls, prevention, use of walking aids, massage,
things like that we know are very useful and actually
occupational therapists. They're very very useful to teach people how
to do daily activities like you know, picking up a

(04:39):
cup and doing things, so they often become involved as
time goes on. And there's a very very good support
or organization in New Zealand which is Parkinson's New Zealand.
Lots of really useful information, lots of really useful support
mechanisms or to tap into support. So Parkinson's New Zealand
is a really really good place to go for information

(05:01):
on Parkinson's itself and we can get support.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah right, hey, thank you, Brian. I appreciate it as either.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Great. Thanks.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
There's doctor Brian Betty with us this morning. It's nine
to eleven.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live
to News Talks at B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.