By Will Nicholas
It’s the world’s fastest growing neurological disorder, but a landmark plan could help put Australia on the frontline in the battle against the disease.
More than 200,000 Australians live with Parkinson’s disease – more than breast cancer or multiple sclerosis.
The condition’s worldwide prevalence doubled in the 25 years to 2015, currently sitting at around 10 million, and it’s tipped to double again by 2040.
The National Parkinson’s Action Plan, launched on Tuesday, aims to guide the federal government onto a warpath against the disease by streamlining Australia’s health and research capacities.
While Parkinson’s has ballooned due to ageing populations, Sydney woman Emma Tinkler, who was diagnosed at 45, is among those fighting the stereotype it’s an older person’s illness.
“Parkinson’s has that stigma of a shaky old white guy”, she said.
“Sometimes I can walk down the street and I’m striding along and you wouldn’t even look twice at me.”
Like many Parkinson’s patients, Ms Tinkler initially struggled to receive a diagnosis, costing her a year of timely treatment.
Neuroscience researcher Carolyn Sue, who helped shepherd the action plan, said ensuring earlier diagnosis was one of the strategy’s key priorities.
“Those symptoms that are less visible … loss of sleep, sleep fragmentation, bowel problems, mood disorders, loss of smell … this action plan calls for increased awareness of those symptoms so that our patients can be diagnosed earlier.”
The only known causes of Parkinson’s disease are genetic, but epidemiological research has suggested exposure to pesticides and other toxins is a risk factor.
Professor Sue said environmental and lifestyle factors could form pieces of the puzzle, but more research was needed before they were considered fully-fledged causes.
“There’s not one single factor that contributes to the whole spectrum of Parkinson’s disease,” she said.
“More research needs to be done, which is exactly what the action plan calls for.”
The plan recommends backing tighter regulations on certain pesticides and industrial solvents linked to Parkinson’s.
Richard Wylie, executive director of the National Parkinson’s Alliance, the peak body behind the strategy, says Australia is already well resourced to take up the fight, but needs to mobilise.
A former advertiser turned public health expert, Mr Wylie took up Parkinson’s advocacy after losing his father to a rare and very aggressive form of the condition called progressive supranuclear palsy.
“The action plan calls on the government to really back our winners and continue backing research,” he said.
“It’s really conducting the orchestra around people with Parkinson’s.”
Should the government heed its direction, advocates say the plan could land Australia on the cutting edge of global Parkinson’s research and quality of life improvements for patients, citing breakthroughs allowing medicines to replace or protect parts of the brain usually lost to the disease.
Whatever happen’s next, Ms Tinkler says the unity and goodwill behind the plan is plenty to get excited about.
“It gives me goosebumps,” she said.
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