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Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

moorfields.nhs.uk

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Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dopamine is to help control symptoms, not to slow development of the disease. There is no use for dopamine treatment in an early diagnosis that precedes meaningful symptoms. Lifestyle changes, on the other hand, mostly meaning exercise, significantly and reliably slow the onset and development of symptoms.

What does early intervention look like for Parkinson’s besides lifestyle changes?

My mom has Parkinson's and was in the medical industry for many years (so is a reasonably savvy person). So I trust her opinion, and have been helping her manage the disease. There is effectively nothing at this point that appears to stop the progression of the disease besides lifestyle changes. My mother at 70 goes to the gym for about 2 hours a day on average. This is the most obviously helpful. She has tried fecal transplant (limited evidence this helps in studies, dindn't help her biomarkers), tested going gluten free/dairy free (also some limited evidence it works, didn't help her biomarkers). There are multiple things for brain stimulation, including vibrating tactile glove/boards, but these help symptoms.

We have talked to many different Parkinson's experts around the world, and I think at this point the only thing she seems to think really makes a difference is lots of exercise. She completed halting any evidence of the progression of the disease for about 5 years with exercise, but it will not last forever.

So completely serious, if you get flagged for Parkinsons, and start getting in amazing shape, you have a good chance of really helping yourself get more good years.

Fingers crossed for ongoing research to finally find some way to stop or reverse the damage in another way! (not medical advice)

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#122
post #29

I recall two companies working on this - RightEye and Neuralight: https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/17/righteyes-portable-eye-tra... https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/24/neuralight-aims-to-track-a... Probably there are more by now. As I recall this data is great for essentially saying "you should go get a real test." No one is diagnosing - just saying that a certain, say, eye movement slowness is correlated and you can det…

is early diagnosis useful?

Probably only for research at the moment.

I expect people will look into why eye scans work and how to make them work better.

I also expect them to use this to catch potential Parkinson's patients early and see if they can find out more about early stages of the disease. Maybe they'll find something that works even earlier than eye scans.

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Seems promising at catching a decent proportion of Parkinson’s super early What does early intervention look like for Parkinson’s (besides lifestyle changes)? As far as I know the treatment for Parkinson’s is basically lifelong dopamine pills, which of course you build a tolerance to and which lose effectiveness over time, requiring ever higher doses. Meaning once you start on them, the ticking countdown of your bra…

Deep brain stimulation is becoming quite popular as well...

DBS is very much a late-stage treatment - it can stop your uncontrollable shaking once you're at that point, but it does nothing as far as reversal is concerned

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#124
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Practicality matters. Squeezing you dry isn’t denying coverage by the letter of the word, but the effect is the same. How much opportunity is drained form everyone who relies on insulin to survive every month?

Doubling down on your ignorance. Impressive

Do you deny that people who need insulin to live pay through the nose for the privilege of not dying?

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#125
post #111
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AI does not think. It filters data to identify patterns (ML) or accomplish objectives (AI generally), or generates output based on prior patterns or rulesets under nondeterminism. It is a tool.

Sounds like the ideal employee - does what it's told, generates output based on prior examples and patterns. the average code monkey cranking out web microservices is not exactly plato either here, after all. look at the existing codebase, try to mimic the style, can you have the PR by friday?

Yes, a job is when someone tells you what to do and pays you for it, what's your point?

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#126

This will get used against you to deny insurance coverage. Not to help anyone.

In the United States, insurance plans are prohibited from excluding people based on pre-existing conditions since 2014. I suppose if you tried to get certain types of long-term care insurance or life insurance and failed to disclose this you'd be at risk of losing the policy. But nobody should be avoiding screenings or care for fear of losing health coverage for pre-existing conditions. That stopped being true almost…

But does "Will likely develop a disease in a few years" count as a pre-existing condition?

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Deep brain stimulation is becoming quite popular as well...

DBS is very much a late-stage treatment - it can stop your uncontrollable shaking once you're at that point, but it does nothing as far as reversal is concerned

While I agree that is the common sentiment, I have read numerous studies that are starting to question this...

"There is evidence to support the use of DBS in less advanced PD and that it may be appropriate for earlier stages of the disease than for which it is currently used. The improving short and long-term safety profile of DBS makes early application a realistic possibility. "

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4065356/

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#128
post #98

This will get used against you to deny insurance coverage. Not to help anyone.

You could apply this kind of thinking to virtually any medical advance. Appropriate regulation would solve the problem.

Unless you live in Europe good luck with that

Re: Eye scans detect signs of Parkinson’s disease up to seven years before diagnosis

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does early intervention look like for Parkinson’s besides lifestyle changes?

My mom has Parkinson's and was in the medical industry for many years (so is a reasonably savvy person). So I trust her opinion, and have been helping her manage the disease. There is effectively nothing at this point that appears to stop the progression of the disease besides lifestyle changes. My mother at 70 goes to the gym for about 2 hours a day on average. This is the most obviously helpful. She has tried fecal…

Not to discount the correlation that matches her progression history, but Parkinson's can progress in fits and starts...a stable plateau can suddenly turn into a cliff with accompanying severe decline in health.
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