last week found that a spinal cord implant could help advanced Parkinson's patients get back on their feet.Earlier this year neurosurgeon Jocelyne Bloch and Gregoire Courtine revealed that such an implant had enabled three paralyzed people to walk again.
While the woman did not have Parkinson's, she had such similar symptoms – including orthostatic hypotension – that she was initially diagnosed with the disease. "She is not cured, she would not run a marathon, but this surgery has clearly improved her quality of life," Bloch told AFP. It is not yet certain that the form of orthostatic hypotension seen in Parkinson's patients can be fixed solely by stimulating the regulator the implant targets.Insomnia is another common scourge of the 10 million Parkinson's sufferers globally, more than three-quarters of whom have sleep-related symptoms, according to the Parkinson's Foundation.