The Auto-Immune Connection to Parkinson's Disease

It is a growing fear for all of us...the prospect of spending the last years of our lives trapped in a body with a degenerating brain. Conditions such as parkinsons, alzheimers, and dementia are becoming more and more common and unfortunately, are touching more and more lives. The most devastating fact about these disorders is that once they are diagnosed  treatment efficacy is limited, and the disease is bound to progress. The good news is that there are red flags that doctors can use to see if a patient is at an increased risk of developing a neurodegenerative disorder.

One such marker that can be used is homocysteine. Homocysteine is a marker that gives a measure of inflammation and it has been associated with brain inflammation more specifically. Studies show that homocysteine levels above 7.0 may be associated with increased risk of these neurodegenerative disorders. This is a marker that I perform on nearly all of my patients for this very reason.

Another risk factor for developing these conditions is the presence of auto-immune disorders. It is estimated that one out of every eight Americans suffers from an auto-immune disorder. Auto-immune disorders are characterized by abnormal immune system attack against one's own tissues. Common auto-immune diseases include rheumatoid arthritis, hashimoto's, grave's, sjogren's, lupus, ulcerative colitis, crohn's, celiac's disease, multiple sclerosis, and fibromyalgia (I consider fibromyalgia an auto-immune disorder until proven otherwise). Symptoms for patients that may indicate the presence of auto-immunity are irritable bowel, migraines, chronic headaches, allergies, neuropathy, sinusitis, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, chemical sensitivities, and many others.

Auto-immunity leads to destruction of tissues within your own body and rampant inflammation throughout the body. This cascade leads to the perfect storm for developing neurodegenerative disorders. I have attached one research abstract below that re-iterates the correlation between autoimmunity and the development of parkinsons.

      Immunology, Autoimmunity, and Auto-antibodies in Parkinson's Disease.

Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. 2011 Jan 14. [Epub ahead of print]Immunology, Autoimmunity, and      Autoantibodies in Parkinson's Disease.Benkler M, Agmon-Levin N, Hassin-Baer S, Cohen OS, Ortega-Hernandez OD, Levy A, Moscavitch SD, Szyper-Kravitz M, Damianovich M, Blank M, Chapman J, Shoenfeld Y. SourceFaculty of Health Sciences, Medical School, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheba, Israel. 

AbstractRecent revelations of immune alterations in Parkinson's disease have led to the convergence that an autoimmune mechanism may play a role in the etiopathogenesis of this neurodegenerative disease. In the current study, 77 Parkinson's disease patients and 77 matched healthy controls were analyzed for the presence of seven autoantibodies previously found to be associated with central nervous system manifestations namely: antineuronal-cells, anti-brain lysate, anti-dsDNA, anti-phosphatidylserine, anti-cardiolipin, anti-serotonin, and anti-melanocytes antibodies. Patients underwent systematic assessments of demographics, clinical, and biochemical manifestations. Three autoantibodies were found to be more prevalent among Parkinson's disease patients (antineuronal cells10.3% vs. 1.3%, p = 0.017; anti-brain lysate 9.1% vs. 1.3%, p = 0.032; anti-dsDNA 10.3% vs. 2.6%, p = 0.049). Clinical manifestations of Parkinson's disease, particularly dyskinesia and depression, were found to be associated with the presence of these autoantibodies.

You may be asking yourself, 'What good is it to have a predictive marker if you can't change that risk factor?' The good news is that we can help to change these risk factors. By investigating what factors are driving inflammation (homocysteine/auto-immunity) we can make lifestyle interventions that will stop or reduce this immune mediated mechanism of destruction. By reducing these inflammatory reactions you will not only lower your risk for developing one of these crippling conditions, but you will also find yourself feeling much better day in and day out. 

The most important message to take away from this week's blog is that if you are struggling with any type of chronic health issue, for which you have received no relief, you need to take action now. Many times individuals make excuses for why they have different health issues, but this lack of initiative can be allowing disease to further progress in your body. If you have poor digestion, chronic pain, insomnia, neuropathy, headaches, etc. find a qualified practitioner that can help you assess your immune system and that will look at these inflammatory markers to help you discover what is really going on. 

For more information please feel free to visit my website at www.moundsviewchiro.com or contact my office at 763-398-7770 to set up a free 5 minute phone consultation that will allow me to answer your specific questions.

Thanks and God Bless!

Joshua Huffman, D.C., D.A.C.N.B., D.A.A.I.M.