Boston Meeting - Part 3 Various questions & answers

[Guest guest]

Sorry it has taken me so long to get this to the group. These are

various questions and answers that came uup along the way that I

thought might be helpful:

Is the " brain pacemaker " recently available for Parkinson's patients

helpful to MSA patients?

No, because the areas of the brain affected in MSA are so diffuse.

Dr. Tarsy noted that his team had implanted one of these devices in a

patient they thought had Parkinsons' and it had not worked well.

Upon further testing, it turned out the patient has MSA, not

Parkinsons.

Is pain part of MSA?

There was some disagreement on this, but Dr. Freeman stated that pain

can be part of MSA and is usually caused by dystonia or peripheral

neuropathy

Are nutritional supplements helpful in delaying or treating MSA?

This was broken down by type:

Vitamin E -- no help

CoenzymeQ10 -- Not sure. There is currently a study underway in

Parkinsons' patients.

Glutathione -- There is evidence that processing of glutathione does

not work properly in Parkinsons' patients. However, glutathione

given orally or by injection does not cross the blood/brain barrier,

so " you could inject a gallon of it and it would have no effect. "

I'm sure I missed a lot of what was said, but I hope some of my notes

are helpful to others. I wish you all could have been there!

Hugs,

Carol & Rob

Lexington, MA