La noche temática - Mi padre, mi hermano y yo 04 mar 2012
Producción estadounidense de 2009 dirigida por Deve Iverson y Michael Schwarz, que explora el debate científico, ético y político que rodea al Parkinson: enfermedad neurológica degenerativa que afecta a cerca de un millón de estadounidenses.
La Noche Temática emite una producción norteamericana en la que el corresponsal Dave Iverson narra en primera persona su propio diagnóstico de Párkinson, descubierto hace varios años y que también han sufrido su padre y su hermano. En el documental intervienen también algunos de sus compañeros de viaje como el actor Michael J. Fox y el escritor Michael Kinsley.
La Noche Temática emite una producción norteamericana en la que el corresponsal Dave Iverson narra en primera persona su propio diagnóstico de Párkinson, descubierto hace varios años y que también han sufrido su padre y su hermano. En el documental intervienen también algunos de sus compañeros de viaje como el actor Michael J. Fox y el escritor Michael Kinsley.
[La enfermedad podría estar producida por causas genéticas unidas a la exposición de toxinas ambientales (herbicidas como el Paraquat, la neurotoxina MPTP...) El origen de la enfermedad es posterior a la Revolución industrial de 1817. Se han probado tratamientos experimentales con trasplante de neuronas fetales y de células madre que retornan la producción cerebral de dopamina y remiten los síntomas del mal. Parece que el ejercicio frena el avance de la enfermedad, en estudios realizados con macacos.]
El consumo de agua proveniente de pozos, puede ser una de las razones por las que existe una mayor prevalencia de EP en el ámbito rural.
EJERCICIO Y PARKINSON from PxicologoForum on Vimeo.
En La Noche Temática de la 2, se emitió un documental (Mi padre, mi hermano y yo) sobre la aplicacion de las células madres a diversas enfermedades, asi como las trabas morales y politicas que se han suscitado para su uso y aplicación.
En él se mostraba un experimento muy interesante, en el que a dos monos se les sometia a dos situaciones diferentes: una era de sendetarismo extremo (no hacia nada ni se movia nada solo miraba) y otra situación de caminar sin parar en una cinta andadora.
Después de un tiempo, se les inyectaba a ambos monos una sustancia que propiciaba La Enfermedad de Parkinson en ambos animales y curiosamente el mono que hacia ejercicio resistia perfectamente el veneno, mientras que el otro su brazo quedaba inútil.
Después se les paso un scanner cerebral a los dos monos y el que se habia ejercitado tenia un cerebro perfecto con gran actividad de dopamina mientras que el otro, el sedentario quedó mermada casi a la mitad o menos esta actividad dopaminérgica.
FRONTLINE My Father, My Brother and Me
Beginning with the story of his own Parkinson’s diagnosis several years ago, correspondent Dave Iverson sets out on a personal journey to understand a disease that scientists believe could hold the key to unlocking the secrets of the rest of the major brain diseases that afflict millions each year.
Along the way, he meets some remarkable people — a leading Parkinson’s researcher whose encounter with “frozen” heroin addicts led to a major breakthrough; a Parkinson’s sufferer given a new lease on life by an experimental brain surgery; and a geneticist who helped identify some of the gene mutations responsible for Parkinson’s and who is now working on drugs to fix them.
Iverson also has intimate conversations with fellow Parkinson’s sufferers actor Michael J. Fox and writer Michael Kinsley, who describe how they became caught up in the politics of Parkinson’s research after the Bush administration greatly restricted federal funding for promising stem cell research in 2001, three years before Iverson got his diagnosis.
“When you’re talking about the potential to heal and cure and it’s not going forward because of its value as a political wedge issue,” Fox says of his reaction to the Bush stem cell restrictions, “it pissed me off, and I wanted to do something.”
Until recently, genetics was thought to play no real role in Parkinson’s disease at all, but Iverson’s family history leads him to enroll in a genetic study at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. To date, researchers have identified at least six genes where mutations can cause Parkinson’s, and while the familial form of the disease remains unusual, it may provide researchers with a ready-made target to fix the genes. “We’re a lot closer than we were 10 years ago,” says Mayo Clinic geneticist Matthew Farrer, “a lot closer.”
Finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease may still be on the distant horizon, but in the interim, millions of Americans find ways to live with the condition. Iverson examines one of the experimental surgical interventions that attempts to compensate for the lack of dopamine that characterizes Parkinson’s: a fetal brain cell transplant. “Now we talk about the concept of brain repair,” says surgeon Dr. Ivar Mendez. “Brain repair, when I was in medical school, was not even something that was thought about. So we have advanced tremendously over these years to be able to understand there’s the possibility that we can potentially repair the brain.” While some forms of fetal cell transplant surgery appear to have yielded positive results, others have proved disappointing, in some cases even making patients worse. Dr. Bill Langston of the Parkinson’s Institute tells Iverson: “There’s an old saying in science that research is the process of going up alleys to see if they’re blind. And more often than not they are. But that’s what we do.”
Toward the end of the film, Iverson finds a new source of hope in a very unlikely place: new research that indicates that regular exercise may help delay or slow down the progression of Parkinson’s. Says one leading researcher: “It’s not at all hard for me to imagine that the results of a properly designed exercise program are going to be more effective than many of the medications and surgeries we have now.”
FRONTLINE My Father, My Brother and Me
Beginning with the story of his own Parkinson’s diagnosis several years ago, correspondent Dave Iverson sets out on a personal journey to understand a disease that scientists believe could hold the key to unlocking the secrets of the rest of the major brain diseases that afflict millions each year.
Along the way, he meets some remarkable people — a leading Parkinson’s researcher whose encounter with “frozen” heroin addicts led to a major breakthrough; a Parkinson’s sufferer given a new lease on life by an experimental brain surgery; and a geneticist who helped identify some of the gene mutations responsible for Parkinson’s and who is now working on drugs to fix them.
Iverson also has intimate conversations with fellow Parkinson’s sufferers actor Michael J. Fox and writer Michael Kinsley, who describe how they became caught up in the politics of Parkinson’s research after the Bush administration greatly restricted federal funding for promising stem cell research in 2001, three years before Iverson got his diagnosis.
“When you’re talking about the potential to heal and cure and it’s not going forward because of its value as a political wedge issue,” Fox says of his reaction to the Bush stem cell restrictions, “it pissed me off, and I wanted to do something.”
Until recently, genetics was thought to play no real role in Parkinson’s disease at all, but Iverson’s family history leads him to enroll in a genetic study at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. To date, researchers have identified at least six genes where mutations can cause Parkinson’s, and while the familial form of the disease remains unusual, it may provide researchers with a ready-made target to fix the genes. “We’re a lot closer than we were 10 years ago,” says Mayo Clinic geneticist Matthew Farrer, “a lot closer.”
Finding a cure for Parkinson’s disease may still be on the distant horizon, but in the interim, millions of Americans find ways to live with the condition. Iverson examines one of the experimental surgical interventions that attempts to compensate for the lack of dopamine that characterizes Parkinson’s: a fetal brain cell transplant. “Now we talk about the concept of brain repair,” says surgeon Dr. Ivar Mendez. “Brain repair, when I was in medical school, was not even something that was thought about. So we have advanced tremendously over these years to be able to understand there’s the possibility that we can potentially repair the brain.” While some forms of fetal cell transplant surgery appear to have yielded positive results, others have proved disappointing, in some cases even making patients worse. Dr. Bill Langston of the Parkinson’s Institute tells Iverson: “There’s an old saying in science that research is the process of going up alleys to see if they’re blind. And more often than not they are. But that’s what we do.”
Toward the end of the film, Iverson finds a new source of hope in a very unlikely place: new research that indicates that regular exercise may help delay or slow down the progression of Parkinson’s. Says one leading researcher: “It’s not at all hard for me to imagine that the results of a properly designed exercise program are going to be more effective than many of the medications and surgeries we have now.”
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