Neuro-Inflammation

My program director gave a talk recently on Parkinson's disease. It was a good talk, the kind that reminds you how much territory a single neurological condition covers: the dopamine, the tremor, the rigidity, the gait, the autonomic dysfunction, the sleep problems. I left thinking I had a reasonably solid grasp of the disease. Then, literally later that same day, I saw a Parkinson's patient in resident clinic. He was there for his routine motor symptom follow-up following t

Something happened in my resident neurology clinic recently that I have been thinking about ever since. A patient came in to discuss Leqembi and Kisunla — the two newer anti-amyloid medications that represent the first drugs in history to actually slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease rather than just manage its symptoms. The conversation was going well. Then I looked at the genetic results in the chart. This patient carried two copies of the APOE-E4 gene — what we ca

There is a conversation I have had a few times in the last several months in my resident clinic that I believe is worth blogging about. A family comes in — often adult children accompanying a parent in their mid-to-late eighties — and they describe a pattern that has been quietly unfolding for years. The memory has been slipping. Slowly. Names, recent conversations, why they walked into a room. But the person sitting across from me can still tell me where they vacationed in 1

In the field of neurology, we are often forced to manage expectations as much as we manage symptoms. For decades, the search for effective Alzheimer’s treatments has been marked by more setbacks than breakthroughs. However, a new area of study is gaining significant momentum in the research community, centered on a surprising class of medications: those originally designed to treat Type 2 Diabetes (DM2). While the headlines are full of "new hope," as a provider, it is my res