There is no cure, but a new, nonsurgical therapy is helping patients with Parkinson's and other movement disorders find relief.
For five years, 61 year old Doug Eshelman had to fight to stand, walk, or even sit. He wasn't in control, Parkinson's was.
"Well, I tripped a lot. Because I dragged my right leg, I just subconsciously you just don't pick it up so I dragged it, and I mean I could literally trip over a line on a basketball court," Doug Eshelman, diagnosed with Parkinson's, told Ivanhoe.
Help came from something he never expected.
"Doctor said I want to try Botox on you, and we laughed. We thought Botox was basically a cosmetic drug," Eshelman recalled.
At the Muhammad Ali Parkinson's Center, patients with Parkinson's and other muscular disorders get multiple targeted injections of botulism toxin, guided by electro myography.
The neurotoxin in Botox can release the grip of muscle spasms, tremors and pain.
"The Botox, what it does is it goes into the nerve terminals and then makes those nerve terminals fire less, and by firing less the muscles or the limbs return to their original or more normal position," Guillermo Moguel-Cobos, M.D., neurologist at Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center Barrow Neurological Institute, said.
"He gave me nine shots in my leg and within a week, that inside muscle relaxed and my leg went back into place and I walked fine. Sometimes I cry when I think about it, like right now. It's my whole life is back," Eshelman concluded. An active man taking control of his Parkinson's…one step at a time.
Botox is FDA approved to treat Parkinson's patients and injections are administered about every 90 days. It's not a cure, but doctors say by relieving some of the worst symptoms, Botox therapy can help patients avoid surgery.
If you would like more information, please contact:
Andrea Omer
Communications Specialist
St. Joseph Hospital and Medical Center
Andrea.Omer@chw.edu
