Previously I mentioned that I am waiting for the results from the Helsinki FMT/PD trial which has completed last summer, but not yet released their results. I wrote to the spokesperson for the trial last year to get an idea of when the study results would be released and he said they were hoping for the release of study results by Fall of last year. Well clearly that did not happen so I wrote to him again last week to see if he had an update.
He just wrote back and said they are still under review by a journal and he doesn't currently know when it will be released, but he mentioned another FMT/PD study that I had heard of quite awhile back, but had forgotten about, the Belgian study that was recently published.
This randomized, double blind, placebo controlled trial (RCT) used nasojejunal FMT which is delivered via tube through the nose if I remember correctly. This is a bit surprising as in other FMT studies it appeared to be significantly less effective than colonoscopy delivery and possibly even capsule delivery, but this study was started in 2020 which may be the reason for this delivery method.
This RCT had 46 participants that were divided into two groups, those that received healthy donor FMT and those that received their own FMT as the placebo group. FMT was given only once at the beginning of the RCT. The trial was 12 months long and reviews were done at baseline, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months.
Here is a relevant quote from the RCT :
' Our findings suggested a single FMT induced mild, but long-lasting beneficial effects on motor symptoms in patients with early stage PD. '
My takeaway from this is that although these are quite positive results, the FMT delivery method used in this trial has already been shown to be significantly less effective than other delivery methods and thus likely limited the potential beneficial effects of the FMT in this trial. This trial also added further confirmation to the idea that FMT results can be long lasting, even with just one transplant over a period of a year or more. Although this information is useful, the application of FMT more than one time per year seems likely to be more effective and delivery of the FMT through other more effective methods also seems likely to have better effects. The larger participant cohort of this study compared to the previous studies emanating from China tends to add more confirmation to the results obtained in those trials.
FMT continues to suggest that it is a viable, very safe, adjunctive treatment option for PwP and multiple other diseases and health issues as I discussed here :
since it seems like FMT is only approved for Cdiff in the US it seems like it might be hard to access without traveling to an area where it is available
I am aware of one forum member who was able to get FMT in Singapore. China seems to be the most progressive when it comes to FMT. On a related note, the newer version of FMT, WMT, is not available in Singapore yet, as far as I know.
Don't you think all these improvement studies defy the dead cells theory?
I mean if the disease severity is proportional to the number of dead cells, then there can be stopped progression, which means stoppage of further destruction of cells.
My interest in melatonin takes me in a different direction. I think that many people with PD have symptoms years before actually being diagnosed and may not realize what the symptoms are until they finally are diagnosed. I've heard people say that they have had these symptoms for years and some times as much as 10 years or more before being diagnosed. I think melatonin may play a role in why the symptoms can come on very gradually until melatonin levels decline to a level where melatonin can no longer effectively maintain mitochondrial homeostasis and control the elevated ROS and RNS seen in PD, allowing the disease to progress more freely.
Melatonin also helps to maintain the gut microbiome via its potent antioxidative stress effects and anti inflammatory effects while also increasing SCFAs in the gut which also helps maintain the gut microbiome, but again, declining melatonin levels with age plus PD is likely much less effective at maintaining a healthful gut microbiome as witnessed in most people with PD with perturbed gut microbiomes and other age related diseases. This may also help explain why FMT has shown very significant benefit in PwPs via restoration of a more healthful gut microbiome which is then capable of producing more melatonin in the gut via restoration of significantly more healthful levels of SCFAs which in turn increase gut microbiome melatonin levels as well as melatonin receptors which in turn increases more gut SCFAs. This ultimately reduces PD symptoms and improves QOL with FMT.
It is just my opinion, but I feel that given the known and proven effects of melatonin and its receptors, in the brain and gut, it makes sense to me that it should at a bare minimum, significantly slow disease progression as should FMT.
I thought I did understand your question and responded based on that understanding, but apparently I didn't understand your question. You said the following
' I mean if the disease severity is proportional to the number of dead cells, then there can be stopped progression, which means stoppage of further destruction of cells. '
I don't think that stopping progression necessarily equates to complete disease reversal because if there is cellular damage or other types of damage that is not repairable and manifests as symptoms, those symptoms may persist even though disease progression has been arrested. I don't think stopping disease progression always results in complete disease reversal. I think it is possible that if you stop disease progression, you could remain the same as you currently are. That is one reason why I reference melatonin because of its known methods of action have shown the ability to actually repair and protect parts of the human body including the brain. Not all parts, but many. I think that is why melatonin is naturally occurring in humans, animals and plants and its receptors are found throughout the body while melatonin is produced in each mitochondria of cells. I believe melatonin does its best to maintain homeostasis in humans, but the problem is that melatonin levels decline with age and even more so with PD, so with age, melatonin loses this capacity to maintain homeostasis and I believe this is a major contributing factor to age related diseases, of which PD is one.
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