Apathy – Red lights on the brain

Exercise and sleep in Parkinson’s

Hot off the research press is a journal article with a self-explanatory title: Effects of exercise on sleep in neurodegenerative disease.

It starts by summarising the main things that affect sleep in people with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases as being:

damage to the sleep-wake system in the brain, that affects the circadian rhythm and disrupts normal sleeping and waking patterns; and
“secondary mechanisms” which include a raft of things like medication side effects, having to get up to the toilet during the night, poor sleep “hygiene”, sleep-related breathing disorders, and the environment in which you try to sleep.

Interest in Apathy – at last!

The more I observe people with Parkinson’s disease using photobiomodulation, the more astonishing and wonderful it is to see the positive effect of daily lights on the significant and debilitating symptom of apathy.

Three days

Al has Parkinson’s and he started using a two-wavelength Duo Coronet in July last year, once daily in the morning.

I had an email from Al the other day, and I have his permission to quote his very interesting comments.

‘If I miss a day session, there is a gradual change in me. Bad dreams come back, my tolerance level goes way down and my lethargy goes way up.’

Apathetic about Apathy

Apathy is “a frequent and disabling” symptom of Parkinson’s disease. You’d assume, given how frequently apathy occurs and how disabling it is, that the main websites supporting people with Parkinson’s would have lots of information about apathy.

You’d be wrong.

Parkinson’s and apathy

Apathy is a prominent and nasty symptom of Parkinson’s disease. One researcher described it as “one of the most disabling” of all symptoms. Apathy can appear years before a diagnosis of Parkinson’s is made. At least a third of people with Parkinson’s will experience it and once it starts it never goes away. Apathy might look like depression but it is a very different symptom. Anti-depressant medication won’t help at all. Apathy relentlessly destroys all motivation and interest in life. Once present, there is no turning back because there is no treatment for apathy…

South Australian PD study – early results

Twelve people in South Australia volunteered to participate in a study on the effect of near-infrared light on people with Parkinson’s disease.

Dr Liebert presented the findings of a preliminary analysis of the data to the study participants, their families and members of Parkinson’s South Australia on Tuesday 9 September 2019.