Parkinson’s disease or PD, is the second commonest neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer disease. The estimated prevalence of PD is 0.3% in the general population, affecting 1 in 100 persons over age 60, and 3% of those age 80 or more. New cases of PD occur in up to 18 per 100,000 persons in the general population.
Epidemiology
For the nearly 900 million older individuals worldwide, there has been an epidemiologic transition linking chronic illness in older age to increased dietary fat, salt and sugar diets, sedentariness, and tobacco use. This in combination with the transition toward urbanization and its profound demographic impact on traditional societies has been a recipe for epidemic rates of dementia we now observe.
There is a hierarchical control for the control of metabolic glandular function that begins in the brain. This occurs through the secretion of chemical release factors that arrive from the hypothalamus to the pituitary gland via venous portal channels that in turn, secrete chemical messengers to the visceral organs causing them to release appropriate basal and stress levels of hormones.
Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis is a serious and disabling disorder of children and adults. It affects millions of individuals in the United States (U.S.) and globally leading in significant disability, morbidity and occasionally mortality.
With Jane Brown, Psy.D.*
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) afflicts people of all ages and genders, and the severity of injury ranges from concussion to more severe injury, with wide-ranging, variable symptomology and outcomes. Treatment options have generally been lacking for the early syndromes and late presentations of TBI and the associated neurobehavioral and neuropsychiatric symptoms. With increasing recognition of the contribution of neuro-inflammation as a major mediating factor in animal models and human translational studies, there is the prospect for improving the understanding of the mechanisms of TBI, and developing therapeutic strategies to improve the outcomes of the millions of people affected each year.
We are in an era of intense change in the exploration and understanding of the complexity of the human microbiome and the ecosystems that surround us. While we are host to a myriad of microorganisms that have assembled into complex communities outnumbering the human body by a factor of 10-fold. These organisms provide many of the building blocks for shared immunity in our body.