The Medical Advisor

Parkinson's disease is a neurological disorder in which neurons and dopamine-producing cells in your brain begin to die. Symptoms progress over time and include tremors, slow movements, rigid limbs, shuffling gait, stooped posture and an inability to move. Patients may also experience a reduced ability to make facial expressions. Image credit: Grok 2 While patients suffer significant physical disability, the condition may also trigger depression, speech impediments and personality changes. There is also an association with dementia. Parkinson’s affects as many as 7 million to 10 million adults worldwide, and approximately 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson's every year. (1) Although incidence of the disease increases with age, an estimated 4% of those with Parkinson's are diagnosed before the age of 50. Men are 1.5 times more likely to have Parkinson's than women, and treatment can be expensive. Medications can an average $2,500 a year, while therapeutic surg...

Autophagy literally means "self-eating" and refers to your body's process of eliminating damaged cells by digesting them. It's an essential cleaning out process that encourages the proliferation of new, healthy cells, and is a foundational aspect of cellular rejuvenation and longevity. Autophagy also destroys foreign invaders such as viruses, bacteria and other pathogens, and detoxifies the cell of harmful materials. Autophagy slows down with age, and autophagy defects are known to contribute to a wide variety of diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The good news is there are a number of different ways to activate and increase this natural process, thereby preventing many health problems before they begin.  Autophagy Activation Is a Powerful Way to Treat Many Diseases Researchers are now also latching on to autophagy as a viable way to treat disease.(1) As explained in the 2012 paper, "Autophagy Modulation as a Potential Thera...

Some people may not realize this, but many people have cancer cells in their bodies without presenting much danger. Fortunately, there are some common foods that can cut off cancer cell’s nutrient supply and starve them to death. Autopsies of individuals who died of trauma often reveal microscopic colonies of cancer cells, also known as in situ tumors. Some people call them “disease-free cancers.” For instance, researchers in Denmark performed autopsies on women aged 40 to 50, who never had cancer during their lifetime, and found that 39 percent of them had small cancerous lesions in their breasts. Only 1 percent of women in this age group would be diagnosed with breast cancer. Examination of some men in their 60s showed that 46 percent of them had histological evidence of prostate cancer, which is consistent with the findings of the autopsy study. However, the prevalence of prostate cancer in men aged 60 to 70 is actually around 1 percent. There is another example, which is even ...