Parkinson's disease corresponds to a cerebral upheaval characterized by tremor and difficulty in walking, movement and in coordination, produced by a progressive damage to the neurons that control the muscular movement.
Parkinson's disease was first described by Doctor James Parkinson in England in 1817. It affects approximately 2 out of each 1.000 people and appears more frequently after 50 years of age. Parkinson affects as much men and women alike and is one of the most common neurological disorders in aged people.
Although the exact reason for which neurons deteriorate is not known, the concepts of Systemic Medicine considers that life's negative impacts, physical, chemical, biological or emotional, produce a reduction in the biological Intelligence that regulates all the corporal functions, which leads to neuronal damage.
This upheaval can affect one or both sides of the body, with variable degrees of function loss.
Neurons communicate by means of neuro-transmitters, one of which -dopamine- is diminished in Parkinson 's disease, reason why nerve cells cannot send messages in an adequate form, inflicting a loss of muscular function. The lack of dopamine can also be associated with depression, lack of motivation, reduction in the capacity to make voluntary movements, mental deterioration or dementia, deeply affecting the patients' quality of life.
Although there does not exist a cure for this disease, the treatment used for more than 40 years has been levodopa, a substance that is transformed in the brain into dopamine. Nevertheless, because this therapy usually causes various movement disorders, such as: tremors, muscular rigidity, or lack of coordination in the movement; symptoms which reappear before the administration of the following dose, the experts raise the necessity to look for a combined pharmacological therapy that reduces those symptoms.
Dr. Jose A. Obese, consultant and professor of Neurology at the Clínica Universitaria de Navarra (Navarra University clinic) explained the cause of the complications: "Levodopa has a plasmatic average life of 90 minutes, which causes noticeable oscillations in the brain's dopamine levels. Indeed, that discontinuity of the dopaminergic stimulus is a causal factor of singular importance in the origin of motor complications'.
There exist natural alternatives to reduce the complications caused by levodopa. For example, a study made in China in 2003, demonstrates that the combined use of Ginkgo biloba with levodopa can diminish the toxicity of this last one in the treatment of Parkinson's disease and that this combination is superior to the single use of levodopa. (Cao F, Sun S, Tong ET. Experimental study on inhibition of neuronal toxical effect of levodopa by ginkgo biloba extract on Parkinson disease. J Huazhong Univ Sci Technolog Med Sci. 2003; 23 (2):151-3.)
On the other hand, carbidopa is a drug used in combination with levodopa in patients with Parkinson's disease, with the purpose of inhibiting the metabolism of levodopa, since carbidopa inhibits the dopadecarboxilase enzyme, increasing the average life of levodopa. A natural alternative is the use of Leuzea Carthamoides , adaptogen whose main active principles are derived from the Ecdysone. This phytomedicine inhibits the dopadecarboxilase and prolongs the average life of levodopa, thus diminishing their indirect effects. (Shaaya and, Sekeris EC. Inhibitory effects of alpha-amanitin on RNA synthesis and induction of DOPA-decarboxylase by beta-ecdysone. FEBS Lett. 1971 Sep 1; 16 (4):333-336.)
