Westborough – A presentation on the latest research on how to decrease tremors and preserve dopamine-producing brain cells will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Friday, Sept.28, at a gathering of the area Parkinson’s Support Group at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church 183 W. Main St., Westborough.
The presentation will be given by nutritional biochemist Steve Blake, author of “Parkinson’s Disease: Dietary Regulation of Dopamine.”
Dopamine is the neurotransmitter which the healthy brain needs to facilitate smooth muscle contractions and coordinate movement, as well as to regulate internal functions such as respiration, heartbeat and digestion. Its absence over time results in the familiar symptoms of Parkinson’s – tremor, stiffness, loss of balance, mask face, difficulty swallowing and almost inaudible speech.
To date, there is no cure for Parkinson’s. But diet can have an impact on the body’s ability to make dopamine. Blake will explain which vitamins stimulate brain neuron growth.
Blake and his wife Catherine, research director and president of the Neuroscience Nutrition Foundation, just returned from China, where they will create an anti-aging program at a mega-hospital. They designed and ran the Hawaii Dementia Prevention Trial, a clinical study at the Hawaii Alzheimer’s Disease Center.
