Expert: Michalene Peticca - 11/19/2009

Question
1. is there a known cure for these diseases?
2. if there is no cure, or if there is a cure, are there some things that helps to keep these diseases from getting worse? Is happiness one of them?
3. How important is happiness to the people who have this disease, or to anyone?
4. Does human interaction(like activities, playing music, talking)especially from youth help the citizens who have these diseases.
5. Do you think it is important for youth to take action and volunteer to work with the people(play music for them, talk with them, do activities with them, help them, etc...) who are affected by these diseases (ex. like at a nursing home)?
6. What do you think is the best cure for them?

Answer
Hello Shehee,

Thank you for writing.  I will answer your questions numerically to correspond:

1. No, there is no known cure at this time
2. Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease are Types of Dementia diseases.  They affect the brain either through deterioration of brain matter or "breaking" of brain synapses and a variety of brain chemical imbalances.  Various medications can slow the process of the brain damage by both these diseases, but will not cure it.   Happiness? good question....if you can relate the effects of happiness to an upsurge of a particular brain chemical...say serontonin (?) then perhaps you may have an excellent research opportunity.
3. That is a very good question....i would say that is an individual measurement...how important is happiness to you?
4.  Absolutely.  We see less decline in mental functioning, more focused behavior, longer life span and longer time frames to be able to perform their own personal care before the disease deteriorates this ability.
5.  I would highly suggest this for youth.  Not only because this population is growing rapidly within our culture, but it also offers the opportunity of Tolerance for geriatric diseases.  I'm also a firm believer in "living history".   Our elders have so much knowledge to pass along to our younger generations.  I've worked in this field for over 25 years and i am so much "richer" in terms of personal understanding of others because of all the geriatric people i have worked with in those years.
6.  Love

Best Regards,
Michalene Peticca, MA