Authors: Drs. Ray Dorsey, Todd Sherer, Michael S. Okun and Bastiaan R. Bloem

Publisher: PublicAffairs

ISBN: 978-1-5417-2452-5

Drs. Ray Dorsey, Todd Sherer, Michael S. Okun, and Bastiaan R. Bloem, one of whom is a neuroscientist, and the other three, neurologists, have devoted most of their professional lives to the studying of Parkinson's disease (PD).

Dr. Sherer's work has entailed research in linking pesticides to Parkinson's, Dr. Okun has first characterized PD as a pandemic and has pioneered new surgical treatments for people with the disease, Dr. Bloem is a leading authority on gait disturbances and falls due to PD, and Dr. Dorsey has used technologies to expand excess to care and development of new methods for measuring disease progression. 

Drawing from their own professional experiences and knowledge, as well as their interviews with people affected by Parkinson's disease, these brilliant scientists have provided readers with a wealth of insights and information in their illuminating tome, A Prescription for Action: Ending Parkinson's Disease.

Many of us have encountered someone who has Parkinson's (PD). It may be someone very close as a husband or wife, a friend, or an acquaintance. The prevalence of PD over the past twenty-five years has increased to the extent that, according to Dr. Okun, it has become a pandemic. His reasoning is based on the fact that it satisfies many of the criteria of a pandemic, which he fully elaborates upon in the book. 

The book divides itself into three parts: 1) A formidable disease: 2) The Pact-Preventing, Advocating, Caring, and Treating: and 3) A Prescription for Action. 

The first section traces the discovery of the disease, which can be attributed to Dr. James Parkinson, who, in 1817, wrote an essay entitled An Essay on the Shaking Palsy.  The article was quite substantive, but its importance would not be recognized for decades. It was fifty years after the essay first appeared that a famous neurologist, Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot, called the malady la Maladie de Parkinson or Parkinson's disease. 

As mentioned in this first section, what scientists could not have known was the role dopamine plays in the brain. It was in the 1950s that Dr. Arvid Carlsson, a Swedish pharmacologist discovered that it was dopamine that enabled nerve cells to communicate with one another. It was a neurotransmitter. This finding eventually led to understanding how a deficiency of dopamine caused many of the symptoms of people with Parkinson's. This eventually led in 1969 to the discovery of Levodopa, which today is the gold standard in treating many of the symptoms that patients experience. 

The exact causes of PD are still a mystery and a puzzle; however, the authors believe that it is a human-made pandemic, and much ink is devoted to explaining how chemicals have contributed a great deal to its onslaught. 

The last part of the first section examines how activism has played a significant role in the fight against such diseases as polio, HIV/AIDS, and breast cancer. They contend that this activism is lacking when it comes to PD. Consequently, a “PACT” to end PD must be formed, and this will prevent the disease, advocate for policies and resources, care for all affected, and treating the condition with new and more effective therapies. 

In the second section, the authors write about the urgency of banning specific pesticides from lowering our risk, how solvents and contaminated groundwater spread the disease, the role of head trauma, exercise, and diet, helping those who bear the PD burden, the promise of new treatments and the policies and research funding needed. 

The third section outlines how we can put an end to Parkinson's and a suggested bold prescription for action.

As mentioned on the back cover of the book, “Brain diseases are now the world's leading source of disability. The fastest-growing of these is Parkinson's: the number of people with Parkinson's doubled to over 6 million over the last 25 years and is projected to double again by 2040.” This is the reality, and if we remain indifferent to this dreadful disease, the cost will be overwhelming to our health system as well as to human suffering. 

The authors are commended for their meticulous research and the demystification of the science behind Parkinson's. Authoritatively and conversationally, they have given readers a richly informative book. Hopefully, it will galvanize the millions of people who are directly or indirectly affected by PD to take action in finding a cure for this terrible disease.