Impairment to cognitive function is often comorbid with Parkinson’s disease. That is to say: it’s not a symptom of Parkinson’s, but it often occurs in the same people. This may seem natural: after all, both are strongly associated with aging.

However, recent (last month, at time of writing) research has brought to light a very specific way in which medication for Parkinson’s may impair the ability to make sound decisions.

Obviously, this is a big deal, because it can affect healthcare decisions, financial decisions, and more—greatly impacting quality of life.

See also: Age-related differences in financial decision-making and social influence

(in which older people were found more likely to be influenced by the impulsive financial preferences of others than their younger counterparts, when other factors are controlled for)

As for how this pans out when it comes to Parkinson’s meds…

Pramipexole (PPX)

This drug can, due to an overlap in molecular shape, mimic dopamine in the brains of people who don’t have enough—such as those with Parkinson’s disease. This (as you might expect) helps alleviate Parkinson’s symptoms.

However, researchers found that mice treated with PPX and given a touch-screen based gambling game picked the high-risk, high reward option much more often. In the hopes of winning strawberry milkshake (the reward), they got themselves subjected to a lot of blindingly-bright flashing lights (the risk, to which untreated mice were much more averse, as this is very stressful for a mouse).

You may be wondering: did the mice have Parkinson’s?

The answer: kind of; they had been subjected to injections with 6-hydroxydopamine, which damages dopamine-producing neurons similarly to Parkinson’s.

This result was somewhat surprising, because one would expect that a mouse whose depleted dopamine was being mimicked by a stand-in (thus, doing much of the job of dopamine) would be less swayed by the allure of gambling (a high-dopamine activity), since gambling is typically most attractive to those who are desperate to find a crumb of dopamine somewhere.

They did find out why this happened, by the way, the PPX hyperactivated the external globus pallidus (also called GPe, and notwithstanding the name, this is located deep inside the brain). Chemically inhibiting this area of the brain reduced the risk-taking activity of the mice.

This has important implications for Parkinson’s patients, because:

• on an individual level, it means this is a side effect of PPX to be aware of
• on a research-and-development level, it means drugs need to be developed that specifically target the GPe, to avoid/mitigate this side effect.

You can read the study in full here:

Pramipexole Hyperactivates the External Globus Pallidus and Impairs Decision-Making in a Mouse Model of Parkinson’s Disease

Don’t want to get Parkinson’s in the first place?

While nothing is a magic bullet, there are things that can greatly increase or decrease Parkinson’s risk. Here’s a big one, as found recently (last week, at the time of writing):

Air Pollution and Parkinson’s Disease in a Population-Based Study

Also: knowing about its onset sooner rather than later is scary, but beneficial. So, with that in mind…

Recognize The Early Symptoms Of Parkinson’s Disease

Finally, because Parkinson’s disease is theorized to be caused by a dysfunction of alpha-synuclein clearance (much like the dysfunction of beta-amyloid clearance, in the case of Alzheimer’s disease), this means that having a healthy glymphatic system (glial cells doing the same clean-up job as the lymphatic system, but in the brain) is critical:

How To Clean Your Brain (Glymphatic Health Primer)

Take care!

Which Osteoporosis Medication, If Any, Is Right For You?

We’ve written about osteoporosis before, so here’s a quick recap first in case you missed these:

• The Bare-bones Truth About Osteoporosis
• Exercises To Do (And Exercises To Avoid) If You Have Osteoporosis
• We Are Such Stuff As Fish Are Made Of
• Vit D + Calcium: Too Much Of A Good Thing?

All of those look and diet and/or exercise, with “diet” including supplementation. But what of medications?

So many choices (not all of them right for everyone)

The UK’s Royal Osteoporosis Society says of the very many osteoporosis meds available:

❝In terms of effectiveness, they all reduce your risk of broken bones by roughly the same amount.

Which treatment is right for you will depend on a number of things.❞

…before then going on to list a pageful of things it will depend on, and giving no specific information about what prescriptions or proscriptions may be made based on those factors.

Source: Royal Osteoporosis Society | Which medication should I take?

We’ll try to do better than that here, though we have less space. So let’s get down to it…

First line drug offerings

After diet/supplementation and (if applicable) hormones, the first line of actual drug offerings are generally biphosphates.

Biphosphates work by slowing down your osteoclasts—the cells that break down your bones. They may sound like terrible things to have in the body at all, but remember, your body is always rebuilding itself and destruction is a necessary act to facilitate creation. However, sometimes things can get out of balance, and biphosphates help tip things back into balance.

Common biphosphates include Alendronate/Fosamax, Risedronate/Actonel, Ibandronate/Boniva, and Zolendronic acid/Reclast.

A common downside is that they aren’t absorbed well by the stomach (despite being mostly oral administration, though IV versions exist too) and can cause heartburn / general stomach upset.

An uncommon downside is that messing with the body’s ability to break down bones can cause bones to be rebuilt-in-place slightly incorrectly, which can—paradoxically—cause fractures. But that’s rare and is more common if the drugs are taken in much higher doses (as for bone cancer rather than osteoporosis).

Bone-builders

If you already have low bone density (so you’re fighting to rebuild your bones, not just slow deterioration), then you may need more of a boost.

Bone-building medications include Teriparatide/Forteo, Abaloparatide/Tymlos, and Romosozumab/Evenity.

These are usually given by injection, usually for a course of one or two years.

Once the bone has been built up, it’ll probably be recommended that you switch to a biphosphate or other bone-stabilizing medication.

Estrogen-like effects, without estrogen

If your osteoporosis (or osteoporosis risk) comes from being post-menopausal, estrogen is a very common (and effective!) prescription. However, some people may wish to avoid it, if for example you have a heightened breast cancer risk, which estrogen can exacerbate.

So, medications that have estrogen-like effects post-menopause, but without actually increasing estrogen levels, include: Raloxifene/Evista, and also all the meds we mentioned in the bone-building category above.

Raloxifene/Evista specifically mimics the action of estrogen on bones, while at the same time blocking the effect of estrogen on other tissues.

Learn more…

Want a more thorough grounding than we have room for here? You might find the following resource useful:

List of 82 Osteoporosis Medications Compared (this has a big table which is sortable by various variables)

Take care!