Reversing Parkinson's disease with fast walking: GDNF

education in today's video we're going 0:04 to be talking about reversing 0:05 Parkinson's disease through fast walking 0:08 as well as what the heck is gdnf 0:11 be sure to stay tuned for the rest of 0:13 the video and look for a special message 0:14 from me in which I will ask for some 0:17 interaction from you in the comments so 0:20 stay tuned let's roll the rest of the 0:22 video 0:27 thank you 0:28 [Music] Background 0:37 okay so the title of this video probably 0:40 grabbed you at least I hope it did 0:42 because this topic definitely grabbed me 0:44 about a week ago and I wanted to share 0:48 what I found and kind of what spurred 0:51 the topic in the first place I have a 0:53 Facebook group called Parkinson's 0:54 Warriors International and uh one of my 0:57 members somebody I connected with online 0:59 as a gentleman named John pepper who has 1:02 Parkinson's disease I'm not breaking any 1:04 kind of confidentiality there because 1:06 this gentleman is a public figure who 1:09 has written blog articles and published 1:12 many YouTube videos on the topic of 1:15 reversing Parkinson's disease his claim 1:18 to fame is that fast walking has kept 1:21 his Parkinson's symptoms at Bay and or 1:24 prevented progression of PD since the 1:27 early 1990s in a recent video which you 1:30 probably saw in the teaser short that I 1:33 posted earlier today he discussed fast 1:36 walking 1:37 and also the connection with a 1:41 particular molecule on the body called 1:44 gdnf so first of all I'd like to talk a 1:48 little bit about what gdnf actually is 1:50 and secondly I'd like to talk about its 1:53 role in Parkinson's disease and or in 1:58 preventing or improving the symptoms of 2:01 the disease first of all gdnf stands for What is GDNF 2:04 glial cell derived neurotropic Factor 2:07 gdnf is a protein that essentially 2:11 supports cells in the brain if you break 2:14 down the term first we have glial cell 2:16 derived so glial cells are supportive 2:20 cells in the brain essentially wherever 2:22 you find brain cells neurons axons 2:25 oligodendrocytes astrocytes all those 2:28 other types of of neural tissue or 2:31 neural cells rather you're going to have 2:34 glial cells involved in their protection 2:38 and in their support so because of that 2:41 we get the term neurotropic neurotropic Neurotropic 2:44 essentially means feeding or nourishing 2:47 the nerves so neurotropic refers to the 2:51 ability of these glial cell derived 2:53 cells or factors of proteins to help to 2:57 nurture and protect nerve tissue now 3:00 there's been said to be a connection 3:02 between gdnf and particularly the 3:06 dopaminergic nerve tissue and the Brain 3:07 frame which would be associated with 3:10 Parkinson's disease because it is a by 3:13 Nature a dopaminergic issue the premise 3:16 of the video that John recorded was 3:19 basically that gdnf has been shown to 3:22 increase after fast walking or other 3:25 forms of high intensity exercise 3:27 particularly aerobics 3:29 in his video he cites a study that was 3:32 published by the Mayo Clinic in 2019. 3:35 another aspect of this video I was 3:37 hoping to accomplish was to kind of 3:39 highlight what research if any that 3:42 there is behind this claim now I'll be 3:45 honest with you I have not been able to 3:47 find a specific study published by Mayo 3:50 specifically on this topic however there 3:53 is some recent research that alludes to 3:55 the fact that there may be something to 3:57 this 3:58 but as you'll see there's not really any 4:01 specific or definitive proof or claim in 4:05 research clinically that shows that gdnf 4:08 absolutely will increase with exercise 4:11 further that it will help to prevent the 4:15 decline of Parkinson's disease or indeed 4:17 reverse it now before I continue I just 4:20 want to make a statement that this is 4:22 not meant to detract from John pepper 4:25 and his work as an individual with 4:27 Parkinson's who has gone through a 4:30 specific experience related to fast 4:32 walking and other exercise in so-called 4:36 reversal Parkinson's disease he has an 4:39 anecdotal evidence of his ability to 4:42 keep the disease at bay through his 4:44 habits and activities that is not to say 4:46 that it is proof that it will work in 4:48 all persons with Parkinson's disease 4:51 any more than high-dose thiamine or 4:54 vitamin B1 might work for persons with 4:56 Parkinson's disease 4:58 as with everything with Parkinson's and 5:00 other conditions results May Vary so 5:03 take what you find online with a grain 5:04 of salt 5:05 and including this video if I'm wrong Research 5:08 and you find something in the research 5:10 that disproves what I'm saying today 5:12 please share it with me because I 5:14 definitely want to do another follow-up 5:16 on this 5:17 and and talk about it but as of now as 5:21 of the research the I should say the 5:24 review of current research that I've 5:26 done 5:27 I'm not finding anything to really 5:30 support this what I can tell you is thus 5:32 far in the research animal models have 5:35 most definitely proven gdnf can be 5:38 increased as a result of exercise a more 5:41 recent study and this is really the only 5:43 definitive one that I can find on human 5:45 beings this was completed in 2021 or 5:50 published I should say in 2021 in the 5:52 Journal of experimental gerontology 5:54 this specifically looked at the and this 5:57 is the title of the of the article is 6:00 effects of task oriented training 6:02 combined with aerobic training on serum 6:05 bdnf that's brain derived neurotropic 6:07 Factor gdnf igf-1 vegf tnf Alpha and il1 6:13 beta levels in people with Parkinson's 6:15 disease a randomized controlled study so 6:18 in this study they had 40 people 6:21 randomized into eight weeks of either an 6:24 exercise group or a control group the 6:26 exercise group combined to task oriented 6:29 training with aerobic exercise and the 6:32 control group had an aerobic exercise by 6:35 itself 6:36 out of the 40 originally in the study 29 6:38 completed it now unfortunately in this 6:41 study after intervention no significant 6:43 difference was observed between the 6:45 groups regarding any levels of the 6:48 factors we just discussed earlier 6:49 further the group cure Parkinson's out 6:53 of the UK published the results of the 6:56 Bristol gdnf study in 2019 the gdnf 7:01 study had two phases of which the second 7:04 phase showed that clinic-based methods 7:07 of assessment indicated no significant 7:09 effect between treatment and Placebo 7:12 groups in that study they weren't 7:13 necessarily looking at serum levels of 7:15 gdnf or levels in any particular area 7:17 rather changes in the brain tissue 7:20 itself further if you do specifically 7:22 look at Publications by Mayo Clinic 7:25 which you will find is a literature 7:27 review published in 2018 written by Dr J 7:31 Eric alscog who is actually in the 7:34 movement disorder clinic at Mayo the 7:38 long and the short of the literature 7:39 review is that even though scientific 7:43 evidence proves that ongoing aerobic 7:45 exercise can be a means to slow impede 7:47 progression there is not any specific 7:50 evidence cited to the effect that gdnf 7:53 in particular is increased with that 7:55 exercise though he does state that 7:58 animal Studies have shown an increase in 8:00 gdnf and bdnf so with these results tell 8:04 me is that we know exercise particularly 8:07 aerobic exercise can help curb the 8:10 symptoms of Parkinson's disease or at 8:12 least greatly improve them 8:14 whether it prevents them or not is 8:16 another story 8:17 however one thing that I can say is that 8:20 there's nothing that I can find in the 8:22 literature that states that fast walking 8:25 particularly 8:27 is the answer to this problem what I can 8:30 tell you is that other forms of exercise 8:32 such as high intensity interval training 8:35 cycling 8:36 running walking essentially the 8:38 overarching category of aerobic exercise 8:40 it definitely has positive effects it's 8:43 just we don't really have any evidence 8:46 that I can find that there's a specific 8:48 type of aerobic exercise that really 8:50 does the trick 8:51 obviously in John's case fast walking 8:53 has had a tremendous impact on him and I 8:55 applaud his efforts to educate people on 8:58 this and to encourage people to do the 8:59 same what I would also encourage though 9:01 is that we take it with a grain of salt 9:04 and know that results May Vary it may or 9:07 may not work for you and if it doesn't 9:10 try something that does work for you I 9:12 hope you've enjoyed this video I hope 9:14 you saw my secret message and let me 9:15 know in the comments below I'll know if 9:18 you saw it 9:19 thanks for watching as always be 9:21 empowered I'll catch you in the next 9:22 video