Michael J. Fox is a Canadian-born actor who was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1991.
Fun Fact: My favorite childhood movie is "Back to the Future."
Extra Credit Opportunities:
- Comment on this post with an explanation of the neurotransmitter deficiency associated with Parkinson's.
- Comment on this post with a brief summary of this interesting article on the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research website. Make sure to explain the type of brain imaging they refer to in the article.
The Neurotranmitter that is invovled with Parkinson's Disease is Dopamine. Dopamine's deficiencies are the reduced ability to feel pleasure, flat, bored, depressed, difficulty getting through a task even when interested, difficulty pating attention & concentrating, mentally & physically fatigued easily, and many more. At 1:05 Dr.Sanjay stated that Micheal J. Fox gets tired very easily. Another Dopamine deficiency Micheal J. Fox stated that he seen in himself is that he seems to have tremors or shakings. He has slow monotone speech, which is also a Dopamine deficiency.
ReplyDeleteSites that i used : http://www.nutritional-healing.com.au/content/articles-content.php?heading=Dopamine%20deficiency
http://www.enotalone.com/article/4115.html
Great job, Taylor! People with Parkinson's disease have a deficiency of the neurotransmitter dopamine. It's interesting to note that an over abundance of dopamine is associated with schizophrenia.
ReplyDeleteIs anyone going to take advantage of the other extra credit opportunity?
The neurotransmitter deficiency that is occurring is that the brain in not producing little dopamine when it comes to Parkinson's Disease. Dopamine deficiency causes tiredness, tremor, movement, emotional responses, and trembling in the hands, arms, jaw, legs, etc. When Gupta was interviewing Fox, he mentioned to Fox that his leg/foot was shaking. He asked why it was shaking, and Fox said that it was because of stress. He also said it was an on and off thing that happens because his brain is saying to "get that glass" or other things, and his foot is trying to make his body focus.
ReplyDeleteSITES:
http://www.utexas.edu/research/asrec/dopamine.html
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/parkinsons_disease/parkinsons_disease.htm
In the article they refer to positron emission tomography (PET) scan. A PET scan shows how organs and tissues are working; this can identify which form of Parkinsonism a patient has. The article is the work of Dr. David Eidelberg, Center for Neurosciences, The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, Manhasset, New York, and colleagues. They preformed a study to see if metabolic brain imaging combined with pattern analysis could accurately diagnose patients with different forms of Parkinsonism.
ReplyDeleteIn the study, They all had Parkinsonism features but unproven diagnosis. All of the patients underwent a PET scan. The team of researchers developed a way to tell apart individual patients with the different diseases. Then the likelihood of having each of the three diseases was calculated for each patient. A classification was made according to probability measurements. After imaging, movement disorders specialists, who were unaware of the PET results, assessed the patients for an average of 2.6 years before a final clinical diagnosis was made. Then, the accuracy of the initial image-based classification was evaluated and compared with the final clinical diagnosis.
Results say that the PET scan in accurate when diagnosing patients with different forms of the Parkinson's disease. Dr Eidelberg comments: "The excellent specificity and PPV of the imaging classification makes this test suitable for diagnostic use rather than as a screening tool." This means that with the results like this, that rather it be used as a pre-test it can actually diagnose people correctly. In addition to those findings, the authors indicate that early and correct diagnosis is crucial to make sure that patients with the proper diagnosis are enrolled in drug trials for potentially disease-modifying drugs for the various parkinsonism disorders. Also, the authors wish to expand their work to be able to differentiate other forms of parkinsonism.
They make sure to clear up a few things though. They specify that other studies and more research has to be done to establish accuracy to this method of diagnoses. Also, this may not be cost effective for early diagnosis, but it will find its natural application in the medical field.
The article "Parkinson's in the news" introduces an article that was published that talked about how PET brain scans(positron emission tomography can accurately identify the form of Parkinson in a patient. This article states that this finding is very important because it helps patients get the correct treatment. This article explains the idea that brain PET brain scans can give an early detection of different forms of Parkinson. This study was performed on 167 patients that were recruited in New York.All these patients had symptoms of Parkinson, but were not not really diagnosed. The brain scans of the patients then were classified image based. The classifications were idiopathic Parkinson's disease and multiple system atrophy. Then after about 2.6 years, the patients had a final clinical diagnosis. The results were compared to the PET scans. The results of the clinical diagnosis seemed to be basically the same as the PET results. Professor Angelo Antonini commented saying that he expects for this method to be used for other purposes that will help humans. In other words, he expects for this method to be used more common in diseases. I found this article very interesting since this article was published January 11, 2010. There is a lot more to discover.
ReplyDeleteThe article "Parkinson's in the news" introduces an article that was published that talked about how PET brain scans(positron emission tomography can accurately identify the form of Parkinson in a patient. This article states that this finding is very important because it helps patients get the correct treatment. This article explains the idea that brain PET brain scans can give an early detection of different forms of Parkinson. This study was performed on 167 patients that were recruited in New York.All these patients had symptoms of Parkinson, but were not not really diagnosed. The brain scans of the patients then were classified image based. The classifications were idiopathic Parkinson's disease and multiple system atrophy. Then after about 2.6 years, the patients had a final clinical diagnosis. The results were compared to the PET scans. The results of the clinical diagnosis seemed to be basically the same as the PET results. Professor Angelo Antonini commented saying that he expects for this method to be used for other purposes that will help humans. In other words, he expects for this method to be used more common in diseases. I found this article very interesting since this article was published January 11, 2010. There is a lot more to discover.
ReplyDeleteWOW! By the way I never knew this about Michael J. Fox.
ReplyDeleteThe neurotransmitter deficiencies associated with Parkinson's disease are tiredness, excessive muscle contraction, motor behavior impairments, etc. Dopamine controls some motor senses and muscle controls. Your brain produces the chemical Dopamine. Michael Fox brain is not producing enough of it, so now he's having a chemical imbalance. The imbalance causes numerous problems. Fox problem is Parkinson's. He's experiencing lack of body control, tiredness, and behavior impairments. He said sometimes he wants the do one thing with his body but his brain takes control and does something different. Throughout the interview he was doing a lot of shaking and moving as if he was trying to gain control but he wasn’t able to. You can see the effect this disease has on him not just physically but also mentally.
OAN: I really love that he's taking this disease with a grain of salt but of course there's still challenges he has to overcome because of the changes in his life.
That’s right, keep enjoying life Mr. Fox!
Ebony Y. =)