Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0030567 (Parkinson's disease)
 63,064 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Using data from death certificates, we compared underlying causes of death for two populations of Michigan decedents: (1) persons 40 years of age and older for whom Parkinson's disease (PD) was listed as a contributing cause of death and who died in the years 1970 through 1989, and (2) all persons in Michigan over 40 years of age who died in 1970, 1980, or 1990. PD decedents were approximately 1.5 times more likely to die from cerebrovascular disease and three to four times more likely to die from pneumonia/influenza, but they had just 29% of the expected number of deaths due to cancer. These associations were maintained irrespective of gender or race. PD decedents had diabetes mellitus and heart diseases as frequently as decedents in the general population, but liver diseases were less frequent among PD decedents. These trends held throughout the 21-year study period. When we stratified cancers by whether they are known to be (1) highly related, (2) moderately related, or (3) weakly related or unrelated to smoking, there were still 2.5 times fewer cancers unrelated or weakly related to smoking among PD decedents than among decedents in the general population. We believe that the greater frequency of cerebrovascular disease in PD decedents may be due to a detection bias, since PD patients are more likely to be seen by neurologists, who are more apt to diagnose and document diseases of the nervous system. Pneumonia/influenza is more common among PD patients because of their relative immobility near the end of life.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Parkinson's disease and its comorbid disorders: an analysis of Michigan mortality data, 1970 to 1990. 793 38

Choosing an antidepressant for a medically ill patient is a common clinical problem. There is an increased prevalence of depression among patients with many medical illnesses. The clinician must be familiar with the recent additions to the antidepressant armamentarium, including the synaptic pharmacology and pharmacokinetics of the available agents. The factors usually used to guide antidepressant selection must be augmented by a careful evaluation of the patient's medical illness and therapeutic regimen. Special attention must be paid to the potential for drug-illness and drug-drug interactions. The author has used the example of four illnesses commonly associated with depression--stroke, cancer, Parkinson's disease, and dementia--to illustrate how these considerations affect the choice of an antidepressant.
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PMID:Depression in the medically ill: choosing an antidepressant. 796 48

This qualitative study was designed to examine the presence of chronic sorrow in diverse populations of individuals with chronic or life threatening conditions and to identify strategies for coping with feelings of chronic sorrow. Chronic sorrow was defined as a pervasive sadness that is permanent, periodic, and progressive in nature. The sample comprised 5 infertile couples, 10 individuals with long-term cancer, 10 individuals with multiple sclerosis, 6 individuals with Parkinson's disease, and 4 spouse caregivers. Data were collected through audiotaped face-to-face or telephone interviews using the Burke/NCRCS Chronic Sorrow Questionnaire. The audiotapes were transcribed, entered into a computer analysis program, and collaboratively analyzed by the researchers. The findings indicate that 83% of the subjects experienced chronic sorrow. The four coping strategies that were identified by the subjects as being helpful to their situation were categorized by the researchers as interpersonal, emotional, cognitive, and action.
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PMID:Coping with chronic sorrow. 811 97

The low risk of aging Africans, as opposed to high risk of Caucasians, to certain major disorders, including Parkinson's disease, myocardial infarction, osteoporosis and fractures, some rheumatic diseases, and an overall reduced incidence of cancer, has not been explained. In this study it is proposed, firstly, that relative risk is determined by a common physiological mechanism in which ANS status and calcium metabolism play a central role; secondly, that distinctive features of this mechanism in Africans may be subtly increased vagal tone, relatively enhanced dopaminergic versus noradrenergic activity, and an efficient dopamine/vitamin D-parathormone, anabolic hormone regulation of bone metabolism, and cell calcium homeostasis; and thirdly, that the neuroendocrine-metabolic context determines the response to specific stimuli; consequently, 'risk' factors, as defined for particular disorders, are not universally applicable. Maintained dopaminergic activity, as proposed for Africans, coupled with low risk to certain disorders, confirms the experimentally demonstrated paramount importance of this neurotransmitter in retarding aging processes in animals. The neuroendocrine profile as defined for Africans is consistent with a potentially extended period of physical and mental competence and a conceivable shorter duration of involutionary decline.
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PMID:Low risk to certain diseases in aging: role of the autonomic nervous system and calcium metabolism. 823 Dec 92

Several factors place older patients at increased risk for malnutrition. The physiologic effects of aging itself are considered risk factors, as are systemic diseases such as Parkinson's disease, diabetes, infection, and cancer; depression, and other psychiatric disorders; abnormal chemical values; and effects of various medications. Many of these factors are reversible if recognized and assessed early. Cholesterol and albumin measurements may help confirm the diagnosis of malnutrition. Nutrition-promoting interventions that you can recommend include increasing exercise, raising levels of fluid and nitrogen intake, avoiding constipation through dietary and lifestyle changes, and recommending routine dental examinations.
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PMID:The malnourished older patient: when and how to intervene. 832 14

Achalasia is an uncommon esophageal motility disorder of unknown etiology. To gain insights into possible etiologic risk factors, demographic and comorbidity data were obtained from Medicare hospital discharge data files from 1986-1989 on patients aged 65 and older. Age-adjusted sex- and race-specific occurrence rates were calculated for each US state. The rate of comorbid illness occurrence in achalasia patients was compared to that of the entire hospitalized Medicare population. Records of 15,000 achalasia discharges were available for analysis. Achalasia discharge rates increased linearly from age 65 to 94 years. They were similar in males and females as well as whites and nonwhites. High rates were observed in the South and low rates in most states of the East North Central region around the Great Lakes and in the Pacific region. The same geographic pattern was observed in men and women as well as in the two separate subsets of data representing the periods 1986-1987 and 1988-1989. Achalasia was associated with a significantly increased risk for pulmonary complications, malnutrition, and gastroesophageal cancer. The concordant occurrence of achalasia in patients with Parkinson's disease, depressive disorder, and various other myoneural disorders indicated a possible etiologic relationship. Achalasia appears to represent the clinical end point of several different pathways. Besides aging, different neurologic diseases may contribute to a loss in control of esophageal motility. The geographic pattern could suggest the influence of environmental factors.
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PMID:Epidemiology of hospitalization for achalasia in the United States. 842 36

The paradox of aerobic life, or the 'Oxygen Paradox', is that higher eukaryotic aerobic organisms cannot exist without oxygen, yet oxygen is inherently dangerous to their existence. This 'dark side' of oxygen relates directly to the fact that each oxygen atom has one unpaired electron in its outer valence shell, and molecular oxygen has two unpaired electrons. Thus atomic oxygen is a free radical and molecular oxygen is a (free) bi-radical. Concerted tetravalent reduction of oxygen by the mitochondrial electron-transport chain, to produce water, is considered to be a relatively safe process; however, the univalent reduction of oxygen generates reactive intermediates. The reductive environment of the cellular milieu provides ample opportunities for oxygen to undergo unscheduled univalent reduction. Thus the superoxide anion radical, hydrogen peroxide and the extremely reactive hydroxyl radical are common products of life in an aerobic environment, and these agents appear to be responsible for oxygen toxicity. To survive in such an unfriendly oxygen environment, living organisms generate--or garner from their surroundings--a variety of water- and lipid-soluble antioxidant compounds. Additionally, a series of antioxidant enzymes, whose role is to intercept and inactivate reactive oxygen intermediates, is synthesized by all known aerobic organisms. Although extremely important, the antioxidant enzymes and compounds are not completely effective in preventing oxidative damage. To deal with the damage that does still occur, a series of damage removal/repair enzymes, for proteins, lipids and DNA, is synthesized. Finally, since oxidative stress levels may vary from time to time, organisms are able to adapt to such fluctuating stresses by inducing the synthesis of antioxidant enzymes and damage removal/repair enzymes. In a perfect world the story would end here; unfortunately, biology is seldom so precise. The reality appears to be that, despite the valiant antioxidant and repair mechanisms described above, oxidative damage remains an inescapable outcome of aerobic existence. In recent years oxidative stress has been implicated in a wide variety of degenerative processes, diseases and syndromes, including the following: mutagenesis, cell transformation and cancer; atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis, heart attacks, strokes and ischaemia/reperfusion injury; chronic inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythematosus and psoriatic arthritis; acute inflammatory problems, such as wound healing; photo-oxidative stresses to the eye, such as cataract; central-nervous-system disorders, such as certain forms of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, certain glutathione peroxidase-linked adolescent seizures, Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's dementia; and a wide variety of age-related disorders, perhaps even including factors underlying the aging process itself. Some of these oxidation-linked diseases or disorders can be exacerbated, perhaps even initiated, by numerous environmental pro-oxidants and/or pro-oxidant drugs and foods. Alternatively, compounds found in certain foods may be able to significantly bolster biological resistance against oxidants. Currently, great interest centres on the possible protective value of a wide variety of plant-derived antioxidant compounds, particularly those from fruits and vegetables.
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PMID:Oxidative stress: the paradox of aerobic life. 866 Mar 87

Bioenergetic defects and oxidative stress may be critical links in an excitotoxic mechanism of neuronal death. Oxidative stress, a condition describing the production of oxygen radicals beyond a threshold for proper antioxidant neutralization, has been implicated as a pathologic condition in several neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease. In addition, oxygen radicals are known to be important mediators in acute pathologies, in the theory of senescence, cancer, as well as our healthy immune system. Although free radicals may have a special chemical nature which allows them to perform important cellular functions, they are a damaging entity whose reactivity may play a part in the development of cellular compromises that can kill a neuron. In this review, the free radicals in biological systems, the defense systems against them, and the damaging interactions, i.e., oxidative stress, which they confer are discussed. The descriptions provided raise the hypothesis that an imbalance between the production and removal of radicals would be abrasive on a neuron. Accordingly, the neurodegeneration initially caused by gene mutation in Huntington's disease may be further worsened by free radical damage underlied by oxidative stress. This article reviews existing data on the free radical damage and the oxidative stress, which are primarily directed towards Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease, and whenever possible relates such mechanisms to Huntington's disease.
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PMID:Free radical damage and oxidative stress in Huntington's disease. 866 72

The concept of gene therapy extends to all treatments involving modification of cellular genetics. This approach has numerous applications such as the treatment of genetic disorders, cancer and viral diseases. The first of these implies the introduction of a normal gene to replace the function of the defective gene. In the other two, several strategies may lead to a therapeutic effect. The transfer of genes is equally applicable in any disease where the expression of the gene in the particular tissue is more effective than systemic or local treatment with the corresponding protein (for example Dopamine or Tyrosine hydroxylase for Parkinson's Disease). According to its application and to the strategy chosen, therapeutic gene may be transferred, in vitro or in vivo, with the aid of plasmid vectors or recombinant viruses. These vectors may contain targeting systems and/or regulation of the specific expression of the target cell. Some encouraging results have been obtained for different applications in animals and there are numerous clinical studies currently in progress.
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PMID:[Gene therapy: technics, strategy and application]. 867 43

Cigarette smoking is an established risk factor for cancer and cardiovascular disease, and is the leading cause of avoidable disease in most industrialized countries. Less well-known are possible beneficial effects, which are briefly considered in this survey. Preliminary data suggest that there may be inverse associations of smoking with uterine fibroids and endometriosis, and protective effects on hypertensive disorders and vomiting of pregnancy are likely. Smoking has consistently been found to be inversely related to the risk of endometrial cancer, but cancers of the breast and colon seem unrelated to smoking. Inverse associations with venous thrombosis and fatality after myocardial infarction are probably not causal, but indications of benefits with regard to recurrent aphthous ulcers, ulcerative colitis, and control of body weight may well reflect a genuine benefit. Evidence is growing that cigarette smoking and nicotine may prevent or ameliorate Parkinson's disease, and could do so in Alzheimer's dementia. A variety of mechanisms for potentially beneficial effects of smoking have been proposed, but three predominate: the 'anti-estrogenic effect' of smoking; alterations in prostaglandin production; and stimulation of nicotinic cholinergic receptors in the central nervous system. Even established inverse associations cannot be used as a rationale for cigarette smoking. These data can be used, however, to clarify mechanisms of disease, and point to productive treatment or preventive options with more narrowly-acting interventions.
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PMID:Beneficial effects of nicotine and cigarette smoking: the real, the possible and the spurious. 874 97


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