Spinal electricity could help treat Parkinson’s disease

Many people with Parkinson’s disease experience freezing of gait and gait disturbances. This means that the gait “freezes” and the legs stand still even though the person tries to move.

in A study published in the journal Nature Medicine It contains a small plate, which is a nerve prosthesis, that sends electricity, and is performed on the vertebrae in the patient’s lumbar spine.

It goes as if without illness

The man in the study had lived with Parkinson’s disease for about 30 years and had significant problems with balance and freezing to walk. Previously, he had fallen several times a day, despite having undergone extensive brain surgery.

With the prosthetic, he walks, by researchers’ standards, much like a healthy person. It also almost never falls off.

– Now I’m no longer afraid of stairs. Every Sunday I go to the lake and walk about six kilometres. It’s unbelievable, says French patient Marc.

A big step towards a potential cure

So far, this method has only been tested on humans in addition to animal experiments. Larger studies with a larger number of patients are now needed to find out how large the overall effect is.

– It is very difficult to combine the step from animal trials to human trials in Parkinson’s disease, it does not always work. In this way, this study has really come a long way. It’s an important step on the road to the next application, says Sarah Regary, a patient researcher at Uppsala University who participated in the study.

Six more people will test the treatment over the next year.

Researcher Sarah Regar talks about her freezing gait in the video above.