Complementary & Alternative Medicine

Biography

Biography: Barbara Anne Pickut

Abstract

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a debilitating neurodegenerative disease with unclear etiopathogenesis and no cure or established secondary prevention. PD is believed to be an exclusively human disease possibly related to a disproportionate expansion of the neocortex resulting in maladaptive bioenergetic stress on vulnerable, relatively less evolved, subcortical structures leading to brain pathology and aging. Significant emotional stress has been implicated as a risk factor in developing PD, although the mechanisms are not clea. Higher levels of psychological stress are clinically related to increased motor and non-motor symptom severity in PD. Secondary to psychological stress in PD, a decline in social relationships, anhedonia, a need for more social support are implicated. How acute or chronic stress is additive to heightened biogenetic stress within subcortical structures remains to be seen. Several environmental and lifestyle factors and mechanisms are suspected to play a role in PD. A widely held hypothesis of the underlying cause of disease progression, known as the prion hypothesis in PD, describes the peripheral seeding and centripetal disease progression of alpha-synuclein, which is a hallmark neuropathological finding in PD. There is growing preliminary evidence indicating that diet and nutrition may both impact the risk of developing PD, as well as play a neuroprotective role. Precise mechanisms for possible vectors introducing the pathology to the nervous system is of great interest. In an attempt to assuage the suffering in People with Parkinson’s (PwP) and to offer a more participatory health care approach, we suggest that a complementary and alternative medicine be considered. Preliminary evidence exists for Mindfulness Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Group effect, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, yoga and in addition, fundamental attention should be given to diet and nutritional supplements as possible viable interventions in the holistic treatment in PwP.