US researchers have reported that they have found ghrelin, a hormone produced in the stomach that regulates appetite and how the body deposits fat, could be used to increase resistance against Parkinson’s disease.
 
The study was done by Dr Tamas Horvath, chair and professor of comparative medicine and professor of neurobiology and obstetrics and gynecology at the Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues and was published earlier this month in the journal of Neuroscience.
 
This disease is a disorder where dopamine neurons in an area of the midbrain called substantia nigra that is responsible for dopamine production begin to die off.
 
As less dopamine is produced, the symptoms become more severe, so that eventually people with the disease have trouble walking, restricted movement, get tremors in their head and limbs, lose appetite, can’t eat properly, and have periods of immobility or ‘freezing’.
 
The authors reported that gherlin receptors at sites outside of the hypothalamus also “promote circuit activity associated with learning and memory, and reward seeking behavior.”
 
Recent studies have also shown that the body mass index (BMS), fat stored in the body and diabetes is related to Parkinson’s disease.