Tag: Parkinson's

“Printing” Brain Cells

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Recently, a friend pointed me to the news article linked here.

This news, while exciting, is also extremely scientific (i.e., hard to read). So, I offer you my summary of what it all means.

First of all, the article is about research done by the University of Wisconsin. Yet it has nothing to do with cheese, Leinenkugel’s, or the Green Bay Packers. I guess Wisconsin does science, too.

The big news is that researchers have found a way to use 3-D printers to print WORKING brain structures. If my understanding is correct (and I do have some questions), it works like this:

  1. Neurons are grown from “induced pluripotent stem cells” (iPSCs). This is the term used for adult stem cells that have been triggered to act like embryonic stem cells. This means they are using stem cells that could be harvested from any adult human being – no embryo or fetus is involved.
  2. These new brain cells are placed into a “bio-ink” (be careful where you put the hyphen in that term or you may end up discussing the sexual orientation of pigs). This bio-ink is the medium that delivers nutrients and oxygen to the new brain cells – essentially it performs the functions normally performed by blood and/or brain fluids.
  3. The brain cells actually begin connecting to and communicating with each other, just like new brain cells in a human embryo.

Now you may be saying to yourself, “But Cedric, what does this all mean for Parkinson’s sufferers?” And if you are talking to yourself…and calling yourself Cedric…then you may be in serious need of psychological help. Believe me! I call myself Cedric, and I am in serious need of psychological help.

The reality is this: scientists have long known that neurons physically connect to one another and communicate through electrical and chemical signals. What they haven’t necessarily understood is exactly how these communications work. Part of the reason for this is the sheer complexity of the brain. The human brain contains about 86 billion neurons, and a typical neuron connects to 1,000 other neurons. This 3-D printing breakthrough enables scientists to create mini-brains with much more manageable numbers of neurons. This of course will make it easier to isolate and study specific aspects of brain functionality, ultimately leading to better understanding of how the brain works. And since Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a brain-based disease, this better understanding of brain functions could lead to better and/or more permanent treatments for PD. And it doesn’t end with just learning. During the development of new drugs, these “printed brains” could serve as test subjects to determine whether the drug actually works, before moving on to testing it on animals or humans.

My ultimate hope, though the article doesn’t directly say anything about this, is some day they MIGHT be able to cure PD by removing brain cells that have died (the death of cells in a very specific part of the brain leads to PD), then “printing” and implanting replacements for the dead brain cells. Or maybe, just maybe, some day we’ll be able to round up all the truly stupid people in the world and print them each a new brain.

Man vs. Cotton

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I am, as most of you know, taking multiple medications AND multiple dietary supplements in my fight against Parkinson’s Disease (PD). This of course means that I am handling a variety of pill bottles, featuring a variety of anti-tamper / safety seals. But I’ve discovered an industry secret: These seals are not actually designed to protect you. They are designed to make you drop the pill bottle at the exact moment the seal pops off, so that they spill all over the place, causing you to lose half of them so that you have to buy more. But not all of them are like that. Some bottles don’t spill because a cotton ball has been stuffed in on top of the pills. This cotton ball cannot be removed by anyone with PD tremors or really anyone with full-grown fingers. I believe the drug / supplement companies are trying to get children interested in pills at an early age. Think about it: a cap that is supposedly child-proof (what kid isn’t going to see that as a challenge?) followed by a cotton ball that requires child-size fingers to remove.

For the longest time, I handled the “safety seals” by stabbing them with either a steak knife or a car key – whichever was handy. As for the cotton balls, I would always fumble around trying to pin a substantial amount of the cotton between one finger and the inner wall of the bottle, then keep it pinned as I tried to slide it up to where I could get a second finger involved. With some bottles, this could take months.

It wasn’t until surprisingly recently that it occurred to me I should employ some kind of tool to remove the cotton ball. My first thought was needle-nose pliers. But I know where those have been. So…no. Don’t ask, just know it’s no. So, I thought to myself, “What’s a smaller (and hopefully more sanitary) version of needle-nose pliers?” The answer: tweezers! I retrieved the one pair of tweezers that I own, and set to work on a newly opened bottle of pramipexole. To my great delight, they removed the cotton ball with ease. On top of that, they turned out to be the ideal seal-stabber. Since I could be just about anywhere when the need to open a new medication or supplement bottle arises, I added tweezers to my packing list. And thus we have the latest PD Travel Tip.

PD Travel Tip: Pack tweezers.

Airline Tickets and Mushrooms

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Well over a decade ago, I read somewhere that air fares tend to be least expensive from 18 to 28 days prior to the flight. This has proved true time and time again over the years. Many times, I have looked at flight prices over a month in advance, and been tempted by a good price. And many times, I have waited until that 18 – 28 day window, and been rewarded with an even better price. 

But not so this time. A week from tomorrow, I will be leaving for Mississippi. This trip will conclude with a one-way flight from Birmingham, Alabama back home to Charlotte. When I was initially plotting this trip a couple of months ago, I was tempted to buy this ticket the first time I looked, as it was only $133 at the time. But, as always, I waited, hoping an even better price would emerge. This time it didn’t; I ended up paying $204 for this flight. This isn’t as bad as it sounds, as the flight I ended up booking is with Southwest airlines, which does not charge to check a bag. The $133 flight would have been with either American or United, and I would’ve had to pay at least an additional $30 to check a bag.

About a month ago, I told you about a dietary supplement that I had added to my routine: lion’s mane mushroom extract. Since that report, my off periods have been less frequent and more tolerable than before. Of course, Parkinson’s symptoms come and go as they please, and there are other potential factors involved. Time will tell whether this fungus is really helping, but right now it seems to be doing some good.

‘Shrooms

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Long ago, a relative sent me a link to a news article about “lion’s mane” mushrooms and their possible use in fighting Parkinson’s Disease (PD). The article made it sound like this particular type of mushroom may be quite helpful. I decided to add some lion’s mane to my diet. Unfortunately, I was never able to find any grocery outlets that carried this particular fungus, and any thought of it slipped to the back of my mind. Which is a scary place, but that’s not what this post is about.

A few weeks ago, I was reminded of lion’s mane mushrooms (though I forget what it was that reminded me). I did some fresh Googling and read a few articles. Many of these articles were extremely scientific (i.e., hard to read), so I’ll just point you to this one, which sums things up in a human-readable form. At this point, I’m feeling pretty good about lion’s mane, so I decided to see if I could find it in pill form, since my attempts at finding full-fledged fungus failed, folks. A quick Amazon search for “lion’s mane extract” turned up loads of options. I focused on dietary supplements, though I made a mental note that you can also order a kit to grow your own lions mane ‘shrooms.

One thing to note: According to at least one of the articles I read, you need to read the label to make sure you’re getting the correct part of the mushroom. Apparently, there are two main parts to a mushroom: the fruiting body and the mycelium. It seems the helpful stuff is found only in the mycelium. I saw quite a few products on Amazon that only mentioned fruiting bodies. In the end, I settled on a brand that says it contains both parts. It contains 7,500 mg “per serving”; the articles I read concluded that 1,000 to 1,500 mg per day is appropriate, but I want results NOW, DAMMIT!

Any way…I’ve been taking them for a week now. It seems like my anxiety and depression have been slightly reduced, but those symptoms vary so much that it’s hard to gauge anything by them. I’ll let you know if I experience any major changes in my PD symptoms. If I don’t notice any changes after a year, I’ll take stock of my condition and report back to you at that time.

Seeking Alarm Ideas

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Some time ago, I mentioned that I was using the Timer function on my phone to help me take my meds on time. Basically, I start the timer when I take my first dose in the morning, it sounds an alarm three hours later, and I respond by resetting the alarm and taking pills. This worked great for about 10 months. But yesterday, I forgot to set the timer when I took my morning pills. But I remembered when I needed to take my next dose, so I took it on time…and AGAIN forgot to start the timer! This time, I didn’t realize my mistake until I was feeling pretty ragged. And so, I finally set the timer…but this time, I forgot to take the damn pills! About half an hour later, I discovered this new mistake, then corrected it by taking the pills and resetting the timer. Three hours later, I got the alarm. So I reset the timer and AGAIN forgot to actually take the pills! Today at lunchtime, it was the same thing: I reset the timer without actually taking the meds!

So, I ask you, does anyone make an alarm clock that will slap me upside the head? Alternatively, have any of you had this problem, and found a good solution? I’m all ears (except for the rest of my body).

NEW Helpful Tool!

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Long ago, I realized it would be a good idea to take an inventory of my meds about a week before each trip I take, to ensure I’ll have enough to last me through the trip. For a long time, I did all the math in my head. But the number of prescriptions keeps growing, and so does the number of places where I keep them. So, before my last trip (Vermont), I decided to build a spreadsheet to help me with this task. It occurred to me that I’m surely not the first person to do this, but I’m also surely not the last. So, in hopes that some o’ y’all may get some use out of this, I am making my creation freely available to download. Here’s a quick preview of the beast, which I call MedSpred:

Start by typing the names of all your medications and/or dietary supplements into the “Drug” column under the red section. If you need to add more lines for more meds, you should be able to add lines normally. The formulas should be entered automatically, so your new row should have zeroes in columns C, H, and I. Now, in Column B under the Red “Demand” section, enter the number of pills you take per day, for each medication / supplement.

Next go to Row 5, directly under the green bar, and enter a short name or description for each place where you keep a stash of meds. For example, I keep the bulk of my daytime meds in the kitchen, the bulk of my bedtime meds in my bedroom, a day or so worth of meds in a fanny pack I keep just inside my front door, and a two-day supply in my Aware In Care kit (which lives in the trunk of my car). If your meds are strewn across more than four locations, you may add more columns (again, the formulas should be updated automatically), but you should seriously consider consolidating.

Now the math fun begins! In the yellow cell (C2), enter the total of number days you need to have covered – including the days between now and your trip (e.g., if you will be leaving 7 days from now, on a 7-day trip, you would enter 14). Lo and/or behold, column C now shows how many total pills you will need for each medicine and/or supplement! Go now, if you will, to each of your med stashes. Enter the number of pills of each medicine at each cache. Unless you only have unopened bottles, this will require actual counting.

Once you have entered all of your information as described above, look at the purple-headed “Result” column. A negative number means you don’t have enough of that drug /supplement to last the whole trip. Contact your pharmacy / doctor immediately to make sure you can get the amount you need before you have to leave. If you get a result that’s at or near zero, you might want to contact your pharmacy / doctor while you’re away, to make sure your meds are waiting for you as soon as you get back.

In case it helps, here’s an example, showing my completed MedSpred for my last trip:

If you’ve gotten this far and think you want to give MedSpred a try, click here to see the available files.