A study has created more research opportunities for Parkinson's

Hannah_Alumni

In an article published by the BBC on Monday 6th November 2023, a man from Bordeaux, France feels like he has been "given a second chance at life".

Two years ago, Marc Gauthier had a stimulating device fitted to sit in the lumbar region of his spinal cord. It now helps him walk for miles when he was often housebound and had several falls a day. 

Professor Grégoire Courtine, one of the team members on this project has stressed that more work needs to be done in order to see if it would help other Parkinson's patients. 

"This is only one participant and we don't know whether all the individuals with Parkinson's disease will respond to the therapy. For some, a brain implant - deep brain stimulation - might be able to do the job instead".

Parkinson's UK research director, David Dexter was quoted saying: 

"The research is still at a very early stage and requires much more development and testing before it can be made available to people with Parkinson's. However, this is a significant and exciting step forward and we hope to see this research progress quickly."

What I found very interesting from this article is just how far technology and funding has come for Parkinson's. At the moment, the team working on this project are going to be getting more information and results from 6 more Parkinson's patients by using funding from the Michael J Fox foundation. 

When we read articles online, or hear stories on the news about the advancements in medical care, I feel it can give a lot of false hope. I wanted to highlight this research because although they have seen results for Marc in just 2 years. They have also been conscience of reminding people it is early. 

Over to you:

• Do you think advances in technology are going to be the way forward?
• Is it beneficial to see stages of studies like this as they happen?