In this episode we're turning our attention to a long overlooked area of Parkinson's research; oral health. Despite its importance, little is known about how oral health issues affect quality of life for people living with the condition.

Jessie Tebbutt, NIHR Doctoral Clinical Fellow in Special Care Dentistry at the University of Sheffield, has been exploring the existing evidence on the oral health experiences of those with Parkinson's, and identifying key gaps in the current knowledge with a view to helping shape future research priorities. 

In this episode we delve deep into science to hear about Professor Ian Ganley's ground-breaking research in the field of mitophagy, one of the body's self cleaning mechanisms that could play a key role in the development of Parkinson's. Not only is Professor Ganley making strides forward in what we know about the process, but his team have invented a prize winning new tool that has revolutionised the pace of progress in this immensely promising area of research worldwide.

Further reading:

https://www.ppu.mrc.ac.uk/research/principal-investigator/ian-ganley

Prof. Ganley's paper on the effects of LRRK2 mutations in mitophagy:

https://elifesciences.org/articles/67604

This month the NoSPRIG Parkinson’s research podcast is taking an unusual step away from science and into the arts. We’re joined by Dr Bethany Whiteside, Senior Lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, to find out about her research into specially adapted dance for people with Parkinson’s. 

Pain is the subject of this month's episode, something that can affect people with Parkinson's in a huge variety of different ways. Dr Jenni Naisby, Assistant Professor of Physiotherapy at Northumbria University has been collecting a vast array or personal experiences of pain in her research looking into how the condition can affect pain processing at multiple levels of the central nervous system, and then find ways of classifying it by its mechanisms. By understanding how pain behaves she hopes to find better ways of treating it. 

If you would like to read Jenni's latest research, which is funded by the Medical Research Foundation, you can find it below. 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3233/JPD-230227

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/08919887211023592

In this special episode to mark World Parkinson's Day, we focus on something every person with Parkinson's can do to help in the quest to find new treatments and ultimately a cure. One of the biggest obstacles facing research is finding enough volunteers representing as diverse a population as possible, to help with studies and trials. 

We also hear first hand, the emotional story of how a patient participation role has led to a new treatment that is transforming the lives of people with Parkinson's. 

 Joining Dr Julie Jones and Helga Macfarlane in the studio are two people with vast but very different experience in the field of PPI:

Claire Bale is Associate Director of Research and Involvement at Parkinson's UK,  and Sue Whipps, a long standing patient participant along with her husband John, who has Parkinson's.

This month we focus on bone health with the help of our guest Dr Alistair Mackett, a Consultant Geriatrician specialising in Parkinson's at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge and Regional Clinical Lead for the East of England Parkinson's Excellence Network.  People with Parkinson's are far more likely to to have poor bone health and a far higher risk of fracture than the rest of the population. We find out why, how this can be prevented and what treatments are available.

Parkinson’s Excellence Network https://www.parkinsons.org.uk/professionals/parkinsons-uk-excellence-network ,

Parkinson's UK Bone Health

https://www.parkinsons.org.uk/information-and-support/your-magazine/experts/bone-health-and-parkinsons

Guests:

Dr Bhanu Ramaswamy OBE, Independent Physiotherapy Consultant and Honorary Visiting Fellow, Sheffield Hallam University.

Dr Alison Williams, Person with Parkinson's, Academic, Artist and Parkinson's Public Speaker

This month's podcast sees us shift from the usual focus on quantitative evidence-based research to qualitative research surrounding the subject of self-management in Parkinson's.  We find out what this can mean for different people and what research tells us about it.

The benefits of exercise for people with Parkinson's are well known, but if you're struggling to stick to your New Year's resolution to be more active, this episode should give you all the motivation you need! Ledia Alushi Agley's doctoral research at the University of Cambridge, involving more than four hundred participants, saw her co-design a physical health programme for those newly diagnosed with Parkinson's. She shares with us some of the fascinating findings of her study. which also explores current clinical practice in relation to exercise, and the views of healthcare professionals.

In this special extended podcast we have three guests in our virtual studio to examine whether we're getting the messaging about Parkinson's right, be it reporting research findings or at a patient appointment.  With the help of Prof David Dexter, Director of Research at Parkinson's UK and Professor of Neuropharmacology at Imperial College London, Dr Angus Macleod, Honorary Consultant Neurologist at NHS Grampian and Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, and former broadcast and print journalist Iain Stephen Morrison, who is the Media and Communications Officer for Parkinson's UK in Scotland, we discuss the difficulties of painting a realistic picture whilst remaining mindful of feelings and still preserving hope. We tackle some difficult topics including prognosis and the mixed messaging surrounding whether one dies with or from Parkinson's, and examine bias in research participation, publicity and public awareness campaigns. 

Research already carried out by Rachael and her team discovered that people with Parkinson's are far more likely to experience delirium in hospital leading to far poorer outcomes on release. Now they are examining why this is and how this might be avoided. In this episode Julie and Helga find out more about this complex issue and the challenges of researching it.