Brain Studies
Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases affect people living in North Dakota and the Northern Plains at a higher rate than other parts of the country.
As an agricultural state, North Dakota sees a particularly high incidence of Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, says Manuchair Ebadi, Ph.D., associate dean for research and program development, Grand Forks.
“These diseases are prevalent in North Dakota and other agriculture states because of the insecticides that are widely used here,” he says. “These chemicals are thought to play a part in damaging the mitochondria in the brain. We know that when the mitochondria is damaged, it leads to Parkinson’s disease.”
It is also due, he says, to the fact that North Dakota has one of the highest proportions of elderly of any state in the country, and “if you live long enough, you will get Parkinson’s.”
The second most-common neurodegenerative disease, Parkinson’s results from the degeneration of neurons in a region of the brain that controls movement. It is characterized by limb tremors, especially when the body is at rest, and affects millions of people around the world.
The incidence of Alzheimer’s, a disease of the elderly, is also higher in North Dakota, Ebadi says.
Ebadi and his research associates say the answers to better treatment for Parkinson’s and other neuro-degenerative diseases may be twofold: protection and restoration.
“When damage occurs to the neurons in the brain, it leads to Parkinson’s disease,” he said. “We want to find out how to protect the neurons and therefore prevent or delay the onset of this disease.”
“We know that people have different amounts of dopamine, a neurotransmiter in the brain that helps the central nervous system function normally, and that some people have a propensity to get Parkinson’s,” he says. “We are working toward finding ways that we may be able to predict which patients have a predisposition to get Parkinson’s. Once we are able to identify those patients, we would be able to treat them with neuroprotective agents.”
Ebadi places a high value on prevention. “Once you get cancer or have a stroke, it is very difficult to treat. Physicians of the past treated disease,” he says. “Physicians of the future will prevent disease.”
They are also looking at how treatments could be developed that would repair the neuronal damage that leads to Parkinson’s disease.
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