Results: In Other (Non-Covid) Medical News...

All focus seems to be on the pandemic in medical news, but some interesting developments in other medical fields has been quietly making news too. According to new findings Parkinson's disease is actually two separate diseases that start in different parts of the body. This could redefine how doctors treat the complex brain condition. Based on scans, researchers say Parkinson's disease begins in either the brain or in the intestines. They now categorize the disease as either "brain first" or "body first." Researchers say their discovery helps explain why symptoms of Parkinson's disease vary widely from one patient to the next. Moving forward, doctors should look to personalized medicine when treating the disease, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, researchers say. This news is especially interesting to me, as my father died from complications due to Parkinson's (and my guess he had the "body first" version of the disease, and I have a friend who has just recently been diagnosed. Are you more likely to be interested in news that affects you directly?

In another study, conducted by a team from the Neuroregeneration Institute at McLean Hospital (Harvard), investigators believe they have found key brain cell type changes involving lipids, inflammation, and the development of Parkinson's disease This is ground-breaking news in the early detection (and earlier treatment) of the disease, which has been known to make a big difference in the progression of the disease. Do you personally know anyone, or have you been diagnosed with Parkinson's?

As most of us know, early detection of any disease could mean the difference between a productive life and the disease progressing and even ending a life. A new blood test called p-tau217 has shown great promise in diagnosing people with some cancers, and now could potentially also be used in diagnosing early Alzheimer's. This test could potentially show diagnosis twenty years before the onset of symptoms, in the case of Alzheimer's, which would be be very beneficial in the early treatments of symptoms. Another recent study has discovered that "severe apathy", long dismissed as just a "sign of aging" could also be a benchmark symptom of Alzheimer's and should not be dismissed as normal or inevitable. These two discoveries could mean the difference to senior populations dealing with this devastating disease. Do you know anyone or have you been diagnosed with Alzheimer's?

Do you regularly keep up to date with medical news?