Bacteria 'linked' to Parkinson's disease (Helicobacter pylori)

The bacteria responsible for stomach ulcers have been linked to Parkinson's disease, according to researchers in the US.

Mice infected with Helicobacter pylori went onto develop Parkinson's like symptoms.

The study, presented at a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology, argues that infection could play "a significant role".

Parkinson's disease affects the brain and results in slow movements and a tremor.

Middle-aged mice, the equivalent of being between 55 and 65 in humans, were infected. Six months later they showed symptoms related to Parkinson's, such as reduced movement and decreased levels of a chemical, dopamine, in the brain.

Definition
By Mayo Clinic staff
H. pylori infection occurs when a bacterium called Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infects your stomach or the first part of your small intestine.

H. pylori infection is thought to be present in about half the people in the world. For many people, H. pylori infection causes no signs or symptoms and doesn’t lead to any complications. But for others, H. pylori can lead to serious complications, such as ulcers and stomach cancer.

In the United States, H. pylori infection rates are declining. In turn, the rates of serious complications are also declining.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/h-pylori/DS00958

Treatments and drugs
By Mayo Clinic staff
Treatment for H. pylori infection typically involves a combination of medications to eradicate H. pylori from your body.

Medications to eliminate H. pylori from your body
Antibiotic medications are used to treat H. pylori infection. Doctors typically prescribe a combination of medications, with the hope that this strategy will help keep H. pylori from developing a resistance to one particular medication. You’ll likely take two antibiotic medications for 14 days.

Medications to reduce acid in your stomach
Medications that reduce acid in your stomach may help enhance the effectiveness of antibiotics. Acid-reducing medications may also help alleviate symptoms and promote healing. These medications include:
Proton pump inhibitors. These prescription medications suppress acids by shutting down “pumps” in acid-producing cells. Examples include omeprazole (Prilosec), lansoprazole (Prevacid), pantoprazole (Protonix), rabeprazole (Aciphex) and esomeprazole (Nexium).
Histamine (H-2) blockers. These medications reduce the amount of acid released into your digestive tract. H-2 blockers include ranitidine (Zantac), famotidine (Pepcid), cimetidine (Tagamet) and nizatidine (Axid).

Testing for H. pylori after treatment
Your doctor may recommend that you undergo testing for H. pylori several weeks after your treatment. A follow-up breath or stool test may confirm that the H. pylori bacterium is no longer present in your body and treatment was successful.

Or follow-up testing may show that treatment was unsuccessful. In that case, you may undergo treatment again, receiving a different combination of antibiotic medications.

This is noteworthy, because one or more variety of Parkinson’s disease are believe to occur in clusters. For example, in Michael J. Fox’s case:

“Mr. Fox, it turns out, was one of four people who worked on a production crew at a television studio in Vancouver, British Columbia, in the late 1970’s and developed Parkinson’s disease. Given that only 125 people worked on the crew in those years — including actors, directors, writers, production people and technicians — the number of cases seems extraordinary.”

Some years ago there was a suspicion that one *type* of Parkinson’s disease might be virus based, thus explaining the cluster, yet no virus was found. But because H. Pylori is so common, it might have been the cause, “hiding in plain sight”.

But it needs another factor. Other trivia surrounding this cluster:

Fewer than 5 percent of Parkinson’s patients develop symptoms before age 50. But all four in the Vancouver Cluster were under the age of 40. Fox himself was only 16, yet didn’t show symptoms until he was 30.

Parkinson’s progresses gradually, taking 5 to 10 years from the time it starts to the appearance of the first symptoms — usually, rigidity in an arm or leg or tremor in a hand.

There are three classes of drugs that are likely to produce Parkinsonism:

1. Dopamine receptor blocking agents, including the phenothiazines (such as Compazine, Stelazine, and Thorazine), butyrophenones (such as Haldol), and metoclopramide (Reglan).
2. Dopamine-depleting agents, including reserpine (rarely used) and tetrabenazine (used to control dyskinesia)
3. Drugs that act by various known and unknown mechanisms, including the atypical antipsychotic drugs such as Resperidal, Orap, and Zyprexa).

One study shows that farm workers who used the common herbicide Paraquat had two to three times the normal risk of Parkinson’s.

Those at higher risk of contracting Parkinson’s Disease are teachers, medical workers, farm workers, loggers and miners.

Oddly, individuals may have Parkinson’s Syndrome from a multitude of causes other than disease, such as induced symptoms caused by repeated concussions in boxing and football, such as Muhammed Ali, the boxer.

Parkinson’s is a terrible disease. If someone in your family gets it, you’ll find out it’s nothing to joke about.

My mother has a form of it called Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.

She can’t stand, walk, or turn over in bed. We have to carry her to put her to bed or in the wheelchair. It has taken away her handwriting and her ability to speak. Now it’s destroying her eyesight so we read the newspaper to her.

Also, her eyelids won’t stay open unless we take her to the hospital for Botox injections in her eyelids every three months.

We have her at home, and we’re caring for her there. It requires 24 hr. care. We prepare her meals and help her to eat. Caregivers help us to bathe and dress her.

My mother has all her faculties, and she’s trapped in her body.

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