An Insight into the Conventional and Ayurvedic Therapies for the Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease

Abstract

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder that has been the center of the vast majority of researches. The development of various environmental and transgenic animal models of PD has provided evidence for discovering new drug therapies. The management of PD has always been challenging due to the progressive neurodegeneration, numerous genetic and environmental risk factors, and a broad spectrum of Motor Symptoms (MS) and Non Motor Symptoms (NMS). Therapies such as levodopa etc., result in long term side-effects. In the last twenty years, more researches have been done on Ayurvedic herbal preparations showing their neuroprotective properties with minimal side-effects. Some of the most common herbal preparations are Bacopa monnieri, Mucuna Pruriens (MP), Withania Somnifera (WS) etc., which delay and slow down the neurodegeneration. The article focuses on the importance of ayurvedic therapies in management and treatment of PD.

Keywords

• cognitive behaviour
• levodopa
• neurodegeneration
• neuroprotective drugs
• pharmacotherapies