Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — A diagnosis of Parkinson's disease is often traumatic and life changing. Now, a first-of-its-kind database in Utah could answer some of the tough questions about Parkinson's.
Kim Smith is the director of BYU's Peery Institute of Financial Services. He is living with Parkinson's and says, "You wonder why I was the lucky one you know. Why I drew the short straw? And no one, no one knows."
Smith never suspected Parkinson's was behind his lack of balance, coordination and energy. He was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease a decade ago.
"I'd always had plenty of energy to work really hard, and so this was just a wondering what's going on," Smith says.
Before Parkinson's Smith thrived on the stress of his Wall Street job at Goldman Sachs. He described it as a "very high energy place, very high commitment." But after the diagnosis, Smith says, "It just seemed like I really wasn't sure if I could do what they needed me to do."
So Smith retired from Goldman Sachs after almost 30 years at the firm and took a faculty position at BYU. He also began to aggressively treat his Parkinson's with medication, sleep and exercise.
"The exercise is like medicine, the sleep is like medicine. If I sleep well, it makes the medicine more effective," says Smith.
Now, data on Smith's family and medical history, treatment and lifestyle will be input into Utah's first-of-its-kind computerized Parkinson's disease registry. The registry is designed to get to the bottom of statistics generated by the University of Utah's Department of Neurology that show 2 percent of Utahns over the age of 65 have Parkinson's compared to 1 percent of the population nationally.
We wanted to get to the bottom of Parkinson's disease in terms of what causes it. Is it genetic, is it environment? It's likely a combination of both.
–Dr. Stefan Pulst, Neurology Department U. School of Medicine
Dr. Stefan Pulst is chairman of the Neurology Department at the U. School of Medicine and led the effort to earn legislative approval and financial backing for the registry.
"We wanted to get to the bottom of Parkinson's disease in terms of what causes it," he says. "Is it genetic, is it environment? It's likely a combination of both."
The search for answers got lawyer Lou Callister involved in the effort to fund a registry. His wife has Parkinson's and he says, "I really thought there would be a lot of answers, and I was surprised how few there were."
Callister was surprised but also very motivated to get businesses to back this unique exploration of the brain. He felt, "We've got to find out, this brain and how it is affected and how it works."
Pulst agrees, saying, "What we cannot do at the moment and what is really the goal for future research is to modify the disease's progression."
The progression can make the beginning of a walk more challenging than the middle and end for Smith. "In the beginning, I'll be quite awkward, and the longer we walk the smoother I'll get," says Smith.
He hopes his treatment and lifestyle, including regular walks with BYU students, will slow the progression of his Parkinson's, possibly long enough for doctors to find better treatments or even a cure. Smith says, "I think there's enough energy in the Parkinson's research area and the treatment that we're expecting. I think we're realistically expecting good things to happen."
Right now, it is estimated that about 10,000 Utahns have Parkinson's. At age 65, the general population has a 1 percent chance of having the disease. If someone has an immediate family member with Parkinson's, though, the number rises to 2 percent.
