Parkinson’s disease: Why it is striking people under 50

New Delhi, April 11 (IANS) While advancing age remains a prominent risk factor for Parkinson’s disease, health experts on Thursday expressed concerns over the increasing early onset of the neurodegenerative disease, among people under the age of 50.

According to a 2022 study published in the journal Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, India has an increasing prevalence of Parkinson’s disease, with the average age of onset almost a decade younger in comparison to other countries.

“The prevailing myth that Parkinson's primarily afflicts older individuals is rapidly dissipating in light of evolving epidemiological trends and clinical observations. The recent surge in early-onset Parkinson's cases, particularly in countries like India where a significant proportion of patients experience motor symptoms before the age of 50, challenges this misconception,” Dr Aashka Ponda, Consultant Neuro-physician, Bhailal Amin General Hospital, Vadodara, told IANS.

Even though age continues to be the major risk factor, emerging evidence highlights the role of environmental toxins, genetic predispositions, and lifestyle factors in precipitating Parkinson's onset at younger ages.

“Factors such as exposure to pesticides, air pollution, and dietary habits intersect with genetic susceptibilities to shape the disease trajectory, challenging the notion of Parkinson's as an exclusive affliction of the elderly,” the doctor said.

Characterised by symptoms such as reduced movement speed, stiffness, tremors, and impaired balance or posture, Parkinson's can substantially disrupt daily activities and mobility, leading to distress.

Parkinson's disease patients contend not only with motor symptoms like tremors, slowness, stiffness, and postural instability but also grapple with often overlooked non-motor manifestations such as sleep disturbances, anxiety, depression, and cognitive impairments.

“With a substantial portion of Parkinson's patients falling within the younger age bracket, it's imperative to recognise that this neurological disorder does not discriminate solely based on age. Instead, a multifaceted interplay of genetic predispositions, environmental exposures, and comorbidities underscore the complexity of Parkinson's aetiology,” Dr. Aashka said.

“Early detection and effective management of Parkinson's disease play a pivotal role in enhancing symptom management, slowing down disease advancement, and averting complications, thereby enhancing the patient's overall quality of life,” added Dr. Sanjay Pandey, HoD, Neurology and Stroke Medicine, Amrita Hospital, Faridabad.

How a healthy diet can help people with Parkinson's

Diet plays a key role in managing Parkinson's disease, as it can raise the risk of weight loss and malnutrition, said experts on World Parkinson's Day on Thursday.

World Parkinson's Day is observed every year on April 11 to raise awareness about the neurological condition that leads to progressive impairment of motor functions and includes tremors, painful muscle contractions, and difficulty in speaking, eating, and sleeping.

While there is no superfood, eating a well-balanced diet with plenty of whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables, lean protein, beans and legumes, and whole grains, with adequate hydration, not only boosts general well-being but also improves patients' ability to deal with symptoms of the disease.

"Parkinson's disease is defined as a neurodegenerative disorder that impacts the quality of life and decreases nutritional status. Nutrition may modify the risk factors but there is no preventive curative therapy as per studies. No single nutrient acts like a superfood but it is a combination of functional foods and dietary patterns that impacts the risk of disease," Sweedal Trinidade, Chief Dietician, P. D. Hinduja Hospital & MRC, Mahim, told IANS.

"Regular monitoring of nutritional status is vital for individuals with Parkinson's disease as poor nutrition can significantly impact their health outcomes. Parkinson's patients often experience significant weight loss, increasing the risk of malnutrition and exacerbating disease severity. Therefore, it's essential to maintain a balanced diet, consume meals at shorter intervals, and ensure adequate hydration," added Charu Dua, Chief Clinical Nutritionist, at Amrita Hospital, Faridabad.

The experts noted that incorporating healthy fats and spreading out protein intake throughout the day can optimise medication effectiveness and support muscle health.

Sweedal emphasised the need to consume an antioxidant-rich diet -- known to reduce the pace of the ageing process -- to get a neuroprotective effect.

"A diet rich in fruits and vegetables provides us with an adequate dose of antioxidants, such as vitamins A, B, C, and E that are known to decrease metabolic failure in antioxidant mechanisms that may increase chemical processes that can lead to lipid peroxidation and parkinsonian characteristics," she said.

She recommended eating fresh fruits and vegetables rich in lycopene, beta carotenoids, riboflavin, tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, cauliflower, cabbage, and broccoli but warned against dairy products.

"Studies have shown that high consumption of dairy products may often result in low serum uric acid levels. Serum uric acid is inversely proportional to the risk of Parkinson’s. However, more evidence is needed to support the same in men and women," Sweedal said.

Meanwhile, Charu stressed a high-fibre diet that can help prevent constipation -- a common issue in Parkinson's patients."Including flavonoids from sources like soy, known for their osteogenic effects, may offer neuroprotective benefits. Likewise, polyphenol-rich foods such as berries, nuts, broccoli, and olive oil possess antioxidant properties that can potentially protect against neurodegeneration," the expert said.Parkinson’s disease: Why it is striking people under 50 | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........→May 15, 2024

Curiosity Rover Celebrates 1 Year on Mars with Dramatic Discoveries

This scene combines seven images from the telephoto-lens camera on the right side of the Mast Camera (Mastcam) instrument on NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity on Sol 343 of the rover’s work on Mars (July 24, 2013). The center of the scene is toward the southwest. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Malin Space Science Systems Story updated with further details: 

By Ken Kremer: NASA’s mega Mars rover Curiosity is celebrating 1 Year on the Red Planet since the dramatic landing on Aug. 6, 2012 by reveling in a string of groundbreaking science discoveries demonstrating that Mars could once have supported past life – thereby accomplishing her primary science goal – and with a promise that the best is yet to come! “We now know Mars offered favorable conditions for microbial life billions of years ago,” said the mission’s project scientist, John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “Curiosity has landed in an ancient river or lake bed on Mars,” Jim Green, Director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, told Universe Today. Curiosity is now speeding onwards towards Mount Sharp, the huge 3.4 mile (5. 5 km) mountain dominating the center of her Gale Crater landing site – and which is the primary destination of the mission. During Year 1, Curiosity has transmitted over 190 gigabits of data, captured more than 71,000 images, fired over 75,000 laser shots to investigate the composition of rocks and soil and drilled into two rocks for sample analysis by the pair of state-of-the-art miniaturized chemistry labs housed in her belly – SAM & CheMin. “From the sophisticated instruments on Curiosity the data tells us that this region could have been habitable in Mars’ distant past,” Green told me. “This is a major step forward in understanding the history and evolution of Mars.” And just in the nick of time for her 1 year anniversary, the car sized robot just passed the 1 mile (1.6 kilometer) driving mark on Aug. 1, or Sol 351. Mount Sharp still lies roughly 5 miles (8 kilometers) distant – as the Martian crow flies. “We will be on a general heading of southwest to

The total distance driven by NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity passed the one-mile mark a few days before the first anniversary of the rover’s landing on Mars. This map traces where Curiosity drove between landing at “Bradbury Landing” on Aug. 5, 2012, PDT, (Aug. 6, 2012 (Universal Time and EDT) and the position reached during the mission’s 351st Martian day, or sol, (Aug. 1, 2013). The Sol 351 leg added 279 feet (85.1 meters) and brought the odometry since landing to about 1.05 miles (1,686 meters). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Mount Sharp,” Jim Erickson, Curiosity Project Manager of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), told Universe Today in an exclusive interview. See the NASA JPL route maps below. “We have been going through various options of different planned routes.” How long will the journey to Mount Sharp take? “Perhaps about a year,” Erickson told me. “We have put some new software – called autonav, or autonomous navigation – on the vehicle right after the conjunction period back in March 2013. This will increase our ability to drive.” “We are trying to make that significantly faster by bringing the new autonav online. That will help. But how much it helps really depends on the terrain.” So far the terrain has not been problematical. “Things are going very well and we have a couple of drives under our belt,” said Erickson, since starting the long trek to Mount Sharp about a month ago. The lower reaches of Mount Sharp are comprised of exposed geological layers of sedimentary materials that formed eons ago when Mars was warmer and wetter, and much more hospitable to microscopic life. “It has been gratifying to succeed, but that has also whetted our appetites to learn more,” says Grotzinger. “We hope those enticing layers at Mount Sharp will preserve a broad diversity of other environmental conditions that could have affected habitability.” Indeed, Curiosity’s breakthrough discovery that the surface of Mars possesses the key chemical ingredients required to sustain microbial life in a habitable zone, has emboldened NASA to start mapping out the future of Mars exploration. NASA announced plans to start work on a follow on robotic explorer launching in 2020and develop strategies for returning Martian samples to Earth and dispatching eventual human missions to Mars in the 2030’s using the new Orion capsule and SLS Heavy lift rocket. “NASA’s Mars program is back on track with the 2016 InSight lander and the 2020 rover,” Jim Green, Director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, told Universe Today in an interview. “Successes of our Curiosity — that dramatic touchdown a year ago and the science findings since then — advance us toward further exploration, including sending humans to an asteroid and Mars,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in a statement. “Wheel tracks now, will lead to boot prints later.” Following the hair-raising touchdown using with the never before used sky-crane descent thrusters, the science team directed the 1 ton robot to drive to a nearby area of interesting outcrops on the Gale crater floor – at a place called Glenelg and Yellowknife Bay. Along the way, barely 5 weeks after landing, Curiosity found a spot laden with rounded pebbles at the Hottah outcrop of concretions that formed in an ancient stream bed where hip deep liquid water once flowed rather vigorously. In February 2013, Curiosity conducted the historic first ever interplanetary drilling into Red Planet rocks at the ‘John Klein’ outcrop inside Yellowknife Bay that was shot through with hydrated mineral veins of gypsum. The Yellowknife Bay basin looks like a dried up 

Curiosity accomplished Historic 1st drilling into Martian rock at John Klein outcrop on Feb 8, 2013 (Sol 182), shown in this context mosaic view of the Yellowknife Bay basin taken on Jan. 26 (Sol 169). The robotic arm is pressing down on the surface at John Klein outcrop of veined hydrated minerals – dramatically back dropped with her ultimate destination; Mount Sharp. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Ken Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo

river bed. Analysis of pulverized portions of the gray colored rocky powder cored from the interior of ‘John Klein’ revealed evidence for phyllosilicates clay minerals that typically form in pH neutral water. These starting findings on the crater floor were unexpected and revealed habitable environmental conditions on Mars – thus fulfilling the primary science goal of the mission. See herein our context panoramic mosaic from Sol 169 showing the robotic arm touching and investigating the Martian soil and rocks at ‘John Klein’. And if you take a visit to Washington, DC, you can see our panorama (assembled by Ken Kremer and Marco Di Lorenzo) on permanent display at a newly installed Solar System exhibit at the US National Mall in front of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum- details here.

A mosaic by the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover, assembled by Ken Kremer and Marco Di Lorenzo is now part of the permanent Solar System Exhibit outside the National Air and Space Museum on the US National Mall in Washington, D.C. Image courtesy NCESSE.

“We have found a habitable environment [at John Klein] which is so benign and supportive of life that probably if this water was around, and you had been on the planet, you would have been able to drink it,” says Grotzinger, summing up the mission. This past week she captured rare sky watching images of the diminutive Martian moons – Phobos and Deimos – together! Meanwhile, Curiosity’s 10 year old sister rover Opportunity Is trundling merrily along and will arrive shortly at her own mountain climbing goal on the opposite of Mars. And NASA’s next Mars orbiter called MAVEN (for Mars Atmosphere and 

Curiosity captured unique and rare view of tiny Martian moons Phobos & Deimos together on Sol 351 (Aug 1, 2013). Look close and see craters on pockmarked Phobos. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS, contrast enhanced by Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken KremerOn the long road to Mount Sharp, Curiosity will make occasional stops for science.

Volatile Evolution), has just arrived intact at the Kennedy Space Center after a cross country trip aboard a USAF C-17. Technicians at Kennedy will complete final preparations for MAVEN’s blastoff to the Red Planet on Nov. 18 from the Florida Space Coast atop an Atlas V rocket. On Tuesday, Aug 6, NASA will broadcast a half day of new programming on NASA TV commemorating the landing and discussing the science accomplished so far and what’s coming next. And stay tuned for more astonishing discoveries during ‘Year 2′ on the Red Planet from our intrepid rover Curiosity – Starting Right Now ! Ken Kremer

Curiosity Route Map From ‘Glenelg’ to Mount Sharp: This map shows where NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity landed in August 2012 at “Bradbury Landing”; the area where the rover worked from November 2012 through May 2013 at and near the “John Klein” target rock in the “Glenelg” area; and the mission’s next major destination, the entry point to the base of Mount Sharp. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona. Source: Universetoday

Read More........→August 06, 2013

Lesula: Africa’s newest species of monkey

This discovery was made during the first expedition that John and Terese Hart, Yale conservation biologists working for Lukuru Foundation, carried out in a remote forested area of DR Congo. 

A new forest monkey is the latest discovery of a team of international scientists in DR Congo. The news has been highlighted in a report in Plos One scientific online journal earlier this week. The researchers found the primate known locally as Lesula, earlier unknown to science which they named Cercopithecus Lomamiensis.The scientists spoke with the Voice of Russia about the new monkey. Dr. Christopher Gilbert from the Department of Anthropology of Hunter College in New York is one of the authors of the report. In an interview with the Voice of Russia he said, “This new species was unknown to the outside world. But it was well-known locally and the locals hunted it quite a bit, which is a problem going forward.“In 2007, John and Terese Hart, field biologists working in the Congo, and their field team, came across an interesting monkey that has been kept as a pet in a local town. They noticed it looked somewhat like the owl faced monkey which is found much further to the East, but it looked quite different from them”, explained the anthropologist. In an exclusive interview with the Voice of Russia, John Hart explained that he first saw this monkey in 2007 during the first expedition he and his wife undertook in this part of DR Congo. At that time, the scientists noticed that this primate was different from other species they knew, and they decided to track

This monkey is different from already known species. It was quite a beautiful animal according to Dr.John Hart.

this animal. “The new monkey compared to its closest relative, has a much paler face and a sort of pale creamed-colored stripe on its nose: unlike, its closest relative, who has a very dark face and a clear kind of white stripe on its nose. So the whole face is different. TheLesula has also a sort of blond-golden colored mane around the face. And on its back, it has a really beautiful sort of red, amber colored stripe. And he has really big eyes, much bigger eyes than the eyes of the owl faced monkeys.” Furthermore, the Cercopithecus Lomamienshas a particular behavior and way of life. As Dr. Gilbert pointed out, “We know right now that they appear to spend a lot of time on the ground and that’s interesting because for the all group of monkeys, there is not a lot of them who spend that lot of time in the ground, most of them are strictly tree-living.” This discovery is quite a success for the scientists involved in the project. Actually the Lesula is the second species of primate to be found in Africa over the past 28 years. On the one hand, this discovery positively shows that the scientific progress is still getting further and further. But on the other hand, it is also an illustration that hunters are going further too, and hunt in even more remote areas, than the place where the Lesula lives. As Dr. John Hart described, in the region, the bush meat hunters are poaching beyond control. And this is a big threat for the local biodiversity. That is why the scientific project led in Congo by Terese and John Hart and their team, aims both to document the biodiversity and to prevent the area from further ecological damage. Thus, this discovery shows how vital it is to protect nature, particularly in Africa. More information about the project can be found on the website of the Lukuru Foundation and on the website of Terese and John Hart’s project (Searching for Bonobos in Congo) Source: Voice of Russia, 

Read More........→September 15, 2012