Parkinson’s is a well-known and much-dreaded disease. Parkinson’s disease affects dopamine-producing nerve cells and is characterized by tremors, speech impairment, and gait changes. It renders the affected individual almost unable to do much, and makes them dependent on other people for even the most basic of tasks, such as eating and walking.
In the U.S. alone, a million people are expected to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease by 2020. Every year, nearly 60,000 individuals are diagnosed with it in the U.S. When it comes to the world in general, 10 million individuals suffer from the disease.
Generally common among the older folk, Parkinson’s is more common in men than in women, and does not have a cure so far.
While it doesn’t have a cure, there are ways in which one can gain symptomatic relief. One of these treatment options is Duodopa.
Duodopa
Duodopa is what you get in gel form when you mix levodopa and carbidopa. The whole system includes of a pump, a medication cassette, an external PEG tube that is sent inside the stomach from the pump, and an internal J-tube that reaches the small intestine (the first section of the small intestine is called the duodenum) from the PEG tube.
Using an automatic pump, a specialist injects calculated amounts of duodopa into the designated areas of the digestive tract, a process that continues throughout the day.
Duodopa is ideal for people who have been rendered unable to carry out daily tasks to the extent that they spend much of their day dealing with their symptoms. If these symptoms and dyskinesia continue, despite the fact that you have been taking your Parkinson’s medicines regularly, you will definitely benefit from duodopa.
While oral medications must first go through the digestive tract and travel to the stomach before they can be absorbed in the duodenum, duodopa bypasses this long highway and takes a shortcut directly to the duodenum. Your body’s levodopa levels are kept constant as a result, and thus, the need for oral medication is reduced.
Major Benefits of Using Duodopa
Parkinson’s is a painful condition, but its symptoms worsen over time, becoming more potent and more difficult to manage. This is usually due to two reasons:
- The long pathway through the stomach: anything you consume—medication included—must pass through the mouth, esophagus, stomach, etc. before being absorbed and mixed into the bloodstream. The digestive movements are all controlled by muscles—and Parkinson’s disease affects these very muscles.
- Increased dopamine tolerance in the barin. The reason dyskinesia develops after levodopa dosage is because the brain is responding to high dopamine levels. With time, a Parkinson’s patient notices that their dyskinesia becomes more prominent and prevalent.
With duodopa being administered into your body, you’ll have a better time managing both these problems. Start your duodopa treatment with neurologist and movement specialist Dr. Farzin Pedouim, who’s based in L.A. and Huntington Beach. He received his specialization from the University of California Irvine and a sub-specialty from Loma Linda University.
Make an appointment here.
