to learn if the nutritional supplement creatine can slow the progression of Parkinson¹s Disease.
Headquartered in Manhasset and part of the North Shore-LIJ Health System, the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research is among the top six percent of all institutions that receive funding from the National Institutes of Health.
Parkinson¹s Disease is a degenerative disorder of the brain in which patients develop symptoms such as progressive tremor, slowness of movements, and stiffness of muscles. It affects at least one million people in the United States.
While creatine is not an approved therapy for the disease, the potential benefit of it was identified by Parkinson¹s researchers through a new rapid method for screening potential compounds. The trial, which began on March 22, is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.
The institute¹s primary investigator in this study is Andrew Feigin, MD, director of neuroscience experimental therapeutics, and associate director of the Harvey Cushing Institutes of Neuroscience Movement Disorders Institute at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. Feigin has been doing research on creatine and Parkinson¹s since 2002.
"We are excited to be part of this innovative study aimed at modifying the progression of Parkinson¹s disease," said Feigin. "North Shore University Hospital is one of only two sites in New York State participating in this important study. This represents a unique opportunity for patients with PD in our area to get involved in clinical research."
"This study is an important step. We are pleased to have so many sites participating in this study, which may help us move more quickly toward developing a therapy that could change the course of this devastating disease," said Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., director of the NIH. "The goal is to improve the quality of life for people with Parkinson's for a longer period of time than is possible with existing therapies."
The double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase three study is one of the largest Parkinson¹s Disease clinical trials to date. The trial is the first large study in a series of NIH sponsored clinical trials called NIH Exploratory Trials in Parkinson¹s Disease.
The NIH has organized this large network of sites to allow researchers to work with Parkinson¹s Disease patients over a long period of time, with a goal of finding effective and lasting treatments. Although certain drugs, such as levodopa, can reduce the symptoms of the disease, there are no proven treatments that can slow the progressive deterioration in function.
The study will enroll people who have been diagnosed with PD within the past five years and who have been treated for two years or less with levodopa or other drugs that increase the levels of dopamine in the brain. Many of the symptoms of the disease result from the loss of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that helps to control movement. Half of the participants will receive creatine and half will receive a placebo.
Individuals with Parkinson¹s Disease who are interested in participating in the study at North Shore University Hospital can call (516) 562-2905.
Winthrop Hospital offers nutrition counseling for women with recent
gestational diabetes
Winthrop University Hospital¹s Diabetes Education Center recently announced that it will offer a free telephone-based nutrition education program for women with recent gestational diabetes, a form of diabetes that some women develop during pregnancy. The center received a $5,000 grant from the Long Island Fund for Women and Girls to support the program.
The grant will support training of the center¹s certified diabetes educators in specialized telephone counseling techniques, and help them develop teaching tools that can be mailed to the patients for use during the telephone sessions.
Scheduled to begin in the spring, the program will focus on helping women with recent gestational diabetes prevent or delay the development of type 2 diabetes. Even though the disease usually resolves at the conclusion of the pregnancy, women who have had gestational diabetes have a 45 to 65 percent chance of developing type 2 diabetes later in life.
³There is strong scientific evidence that weight loss and exercise can preserve the function of insulin-producing cells in women with recent gestational diabetes,² said Virginia Peragallo-Dittko, director of the Diabetes Education Center at Winthrop Hospital. ³This grant will enable us to develop a unique program, the first of its kind on Long Island.²
The program¹s nutritional counseling will address foods relevant to each patient¹s cultural background. Additionally, non-English-speaking patients will be counseled through the use of Winthrop¹s live, telephone-based CyraCom language translation service, which provides medical interpreters for 150 languages. The service is also designed to allow continuous, ongoing communication between two people through an interpreter.
For more information about the program, call Winthrop¹s Diabetes Education Center at (516) 663-2350.
