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Gait variability, or changes in stride while walking that associate with a greater risk of falls in people with Parkinson’s disease, significantly eased with patients’ use of deep brain stimulation (DBS) but not dopamine-increasing medications, a study showed. “We found that … DBS reduced step-to-step variability in a range…

Olfactory hallucinations (OH), or phantom smells, were present in over 18% of people with Parkinson’s disease and were associated with the presence of other hallucination types, but not objective sense of smell, according to a recent study. The findings overall suggest that olfactory hallucinations are a more prevalent Parkinson’s…

Transplanting human nerve cells into the brains of mice in a model of Parkinson’s disease to replace dopamine-producing cells — those lost in patients — improved the animals’ motor function over one year, a study demonstrated. But longer studies into the grafted cells and their ability to mature are…

Preclinical research supports the potential of small molecules that modulate the immune system to halt Parkinson’s disease (PD) progression and ease motor symptoms. According to a new study, Aeterna Zentari’s autoimmunity-modifying biologicals (AIM Biologicals) were able to induce a state of immunotolerance in a mouse model of Parkinson’s…

Concentrated cranberry juice eased signs associated with Parkinson’s disease in a chemically induced rat model, but its long-term use at high dose may affect the survival of brain cells, a study suggests. Further research is needed to determine an optimal dose of a cranberry juice concentrate with neuroprotective properties,…

People with Parkinson’s disease recognized food odors in a test called Sniffin’ Sticks better than they recognize the smell of natural spices used in food, a study showed. They were less able to recognize smells than healthy individuals, but the work demonstrated that patients could identify selected scents. These…

No causal relationship was identified between Parkinson’s disease and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or its major subtypes, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, in a large-scale European genetic analysis. More research is needed to determine whether other types of intestinal inflammation or unknown inflammatory mediators contribute to developing Parkinson’s,…

Hand movements induced eyeblinks in a 70-year-old man with Parkinson’s disease, a case study reported for the first time. Although more studies are necessary, researchers suggest that eyeblink bursts induced by hand movements may be regarded as a potential hallmark of Parkinson’s disease. The case study, “…

Variations in the gene that encodes for the vitamin D receptor were associated with the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease — and with side effects from common dopamine-related treatments, a Slovenian study showed. These findings may help identify people at risk of Parkinson’s as well as those at…

Holly Shill, director of the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at the Barrow Neurological Institute, is marking the facility’s 25th year with a bold prediction: within the next 25 years, researchers will find ways to prevent Parkinson’s disease (PD) progression. Shill, a movement disorder neurologist, started as a neurology resident…