Your world with Dr. Beatrice Hyppolite
Hello,
I am Dr. Marie Beatrice Hyppolite. I hold a doctorate in Health Science with emphasis on Global Health and master’s degree in social work. I have over 14 years of experience in the field of health and human services.
This podcast is primarily focused on mental health and the quality-of-life elements that affect it such as divorce, death, domestic violence, trauma, toxic relationships, and single parenthood to name a few. It is no secret that mental health challenges continue to profoundly impact modern society although not enough discussion is given due to stigma. Research has shown an increase of 25 % in mental health crises after COVID-19. It is important to have honest, uncomfortable conversations about mental health while being supportive. Although we are interdependent, change begins with the individual, hence “your world.”
I welcome you to join me on my journey and look forward to your responses.
Your world with Dr. Beatrice Hyppolite
The Dopamine Connection: Neurodegenerative Diseases Explained
What happens when our brain's natural dopamine production goes awry? Dr. Florenal Joseph takes us deep into the fascinating world of Parkinson's disease and related neurodegenerative disorders in this enlightening conversation about brain health, cutting-edge research, and common misconceptions.
The discussion begins with a compelling look at how substances like alcohol affect our neurological systems. While moderate alcohol consumption can be beneficial and even necessary for certain bodily functions, Dr. Florenal explains how abuse disrupts dopamine production by damaging the brain's neuronal cells. This connection between substance use and brain function serves as a gateway to understanding the mechanisms behind Parkinson's disease, where dopamine-producing cells in the substantia nigra region become damaged and unable to fulfill their essential functions.
Dr. Florenal shines a spotlight on cutting-edge therapeutic approaches, particularly deep brain stimulation, where electrodes placed in the brain stimulate neuronal cells to secrete dopamine. Perhaps most exciting is his detailed explanation of revolutionary research focused on cell repair mechanisms – investigating how damaged neurons might potentially repair themselves rather than simply managing symptoms. With research teams at Harvard and SUNY Downstate making significant strides, there's cautious hope for future breakthroughs despite the staggering $25 billion annual cost of Parkinson's research.
The conversation delivers a crucial clarification that many listeners will find valuable: dementia isn't a specific disease but rather an umbrella term encompassing conditions like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, and Huntington's disease – all characterized by impairment of dopaminergic cells. This distinction, illustrated through relatable analogies about proteins and lipids, helps demystify commonly misunderstood medical terminology.
Join us for this illuminating journey through neuroscience, where Dr. Florenal's expertise transforms complex medical concepts into accessible insights about the brain's remarkable functions and the tireless efforts of researchers working to combat these devastating conditions.
Hello everyone. I'm Dr Beatrice Ippolit and this is your World, mentioning about diet or what you eat. Large consumption of alcohol for the drug abusers, so is that something that needs to be taken into consideration as well?
Speaker 2:That is a very good point, because you mentioned something about the dopamine.
Speaker 2:Exactly. That's a very good point that you raised. Let me tell you I had these discussions with one of my friends. We were talking about the alcohol consumption. I am not sitting here to tell people not to drink alcohol. That's not what I'm doing. Our body needs alcohol. We need that as a chemical. It can help in digestion, for instance.
Speaker 2:The problem is when you're abusing it, and it's not only alcohol. Anything you're abusing will have negative impact on you. Anything. It's not only alcohol, even the food, the tea you're having here, this great tea that I'm having here. Thank you for it. If you abuse that tea, it can have some negative impact on your health. So it's the same for alcohol.
Speaker 2:If you're abusing alcohol, you're abusing drugs. You're taking more than you should be taking now. You rely only on that. That can impact your system. But forget alcohol. I'm not getting into those details. When you take the alcohol, it can impact your movement when you get it out of control because those hydroxyl from the alcohol that you're getting, they can bind to other molecules in your system. That can trigger some negative results that you can have. So when you take it, a little shot of alcohol is good, but when you keep abusing it. It's not good for system because it can impact your brain and when it's impact your brand, the signal cannot be set properly what alcohol or drugs can do to the dopamine in your brain look, we said those are no transmitters.
Speaker 2:Dopamines are neurotransmitters. That means they are being secreted by the neuronal cells. So when you're taking alcohol you're abusing it. I would rather say it like that You're abusing alcohol, you take more than you should be taking. What it will do, it will impact those neuronal cells in your brain when it impacts those cells. So it's not even the Parkinson's disease per se. You are not being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. But when you drink alcohol, if I sit there, I go to your bar here, the beautiful bar, I see you get there. There's a variety of drinks If I sit there and start drinking alcohol without control, that will impact my neuronal cells. So those neuronal cells will not be able to do to fulfill the function which is, among all, secreting dopamine. And we said dopamine is extremely important as a neurotransmitter. So if it cannot secret it, I will not be able to function properly.
Speaker 1:So when you take it you're abusing it, whether it's alcohol or any type of drugs it will have this kind of impact on your, on your back can you discuss the correct therapeutic options for parkinson's disease, including dopamine replacement therapy and a deep brain simulation?
Speaker 2:now we're getting to the uh, how can we try to get those diseases under control? There are many things we can do. When I say we, I'm not a medical doctor. What I do, I do research. I try to find a cure, but not to give the cure To treat it. I'm looking for the cure, not treating the patient for the disease. If I get anything that comes out of it, you get it. Now you can treat the patient with it.
Speaker 2:Therapy is important in anything and to me you don't have to have Parkinson's disease to follow a certain type of regimen of therapy Anything, because when you try to do something that is good for your body, it can impact other parts of your body. So therapy is one of them. Now the closest one is like those deep stimulations. They can put some electrodes in your brain so they can stimulate the secretion of those dopamines. They activate those neuronal cells to secrete dopamine by stimulations. What they do? They have to secrete dopamine by stimulations. What they do? They have to put some electrodes in your brain. Those are the kind of experiment that we do in the labs by stimulating those cells to secrete those dopamine.
Speaker 2:Other things we do, especially in my lab, as I was telling you doesn't have a process, because those damaging cells, when you have those neuronal cells that are damaged, they can't fulfill their functions, they cannot secrete dopamine because they are damaged. Does it have a way? Those cells now, when they get damaged, instead of dying, does it have a way they can repair themselves? And that's a very important field of research. It's a very, very important field of research. By finding a way we can help those cells to repair themselves and that's a very important field of research.
Speaker 2:It's a very, very important field of research. By finding a way we can help those cells to repair themselves. If we know the mechanisms by which they get damaged, we probably can figure out how they can repair themselves, because we know that what happens in other cells when they get damaged, some other cells that can get damaged, like if I'm talking about the skin cells, for instance, it's not a problem because those cells they can replace themselves very rapidly. They are multiplying through mitosis, which is a very, very good way of the cells to replenish themselves. But unfortunately, with the neuronal cells it's not the same thing. So if we can help the cells to repair themselves, that will be great and that can prevent those kind of neuronal, I would say neurodegenerative diseases.
Speaker 1:In terms of research. Is there any work that is being conducted at this level? We have some work.
Speaker 2:We have very good advance. We have moved quite well in that field. There's a group at Harvard who was working on cell repair how the cells can repair themselves, of course and there's a group also at SUNY Downstate who's working on that. Dr William Kirikou is working on that. This kind of work. He's doing this kind of finding all the players that can get involved into repairing themselves. Again, as I, I'm talking about because that was my research project where I was working one of those protein that is involved actually in parkinson's disease. It's a, it's an ATPase that I was working with. I mentioned mentioned it earlier the famous Park 9, right, the famous Park 9. That's very important there. So there is advance. We are advancing in this way, finding a way to help ourselves to repair themselves. Yeah, there's some good. Science is not slipping. We're still working. Hopefully we can have more money to fund our research instead of getting money away from us okay.
Speaker 1:So talking about money, last time, you know, we spoke about alzheimer's. You mentioned that, you know so it's a very costly disease. I don't remember the numbers it's okay but you say that the government spent a lot of money, billions of billions of dollars, to take care of that disease. So how costly Parkinson's is compared to Alzheimer's.
Speaker 2:To me, a disease is a disease, of course, whether it's Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease and, I would say, all the new generative diseases, huntington, als. They are a burden because you need to find cure for them and research is not cheap. I always tell people research is not cheap. Parkinson's disease that costs billions of dollars. If I tried to put a number on it, probably I would go around $25 billion. It's a very costly disease. Yearly, approximately On a yearly basis, it's about $25 billion being spent on finding a cure to Parkinson's disease. And again, I tried to put a number on it. But it can be more than that Because research is not cheap at all. Even the stimulations that we're talking about. We're talking about electrodes to put on your brain to stimulate those cells. It's not a simple thing. The surgery itself, if somebody wants to. You have Parkinson's disease, you're diagnosed with that and a surgeon is coming to do a kind of brain surgery. That will cost a lot of like hundreds of thousands of dollars just for one surgery.
Speaker 1:Oh, so if you were to have a surgery for Parkinson's?
Speaker 2:If you were to look into your brain to see what's going?
Speaker 1:on there, oh, to look into your brain.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can have those kind of deep scanning. You're talking about a DT scan. That's one of the process. You can just get deep into the scan to see what's going on To see what's going on Because the substantia nigra, it's really deep inside of your brain.
Speaker 2:So to get into that, to look at it, it's not a simple kind of stimulation or surgery that you'll be doing. It costs money. So, to get back to the questions you asked, it costs a lot of money to do research, including researching on Parkinson's disease, and I would put the number of about $25 million on a yearly basis.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's fair enough. So if we were to stay on research, what are the most promising areas of research in Parkinson's disease and how do you see the field developing in the next five to 10 years?
Speaker 2:What is great about this and I really love the American community in this when there is a problem, a kind of disease that affects society at large, we have a lot of people try to come forth and see how they can find a way to support each other. For example, with Parkinson's disease, we have the Parkinson's Foundation where we have that. People who have a lot of money they come together, they raise money and all of those who are victims of this disease they can come and try to get comfort or try to find a cure. They raise funds and invest in finding a cure for that disease. So the fill is still emerging. As I said, we get about it's almost a million people diagnosed in the United States with Parkinson's disease 900,000. It will be, let's say, in about five years it's projected to be about 1.2 million. So it's a good number. But we have the Parkinson Foundation that is there to help those people. Not only they are raising funds, but also they are supporting each other. They are supporting each other in this field and mostly it's a lot of people get a lot of money, so they don't mind spending the money and they don't mind to find a way to help. So the field is emerging and we have scientists who are also focusing on finding a cure to this disease.
Speaker 2:So in five years I don't know where will we stand. In ten years, I don't know where what we will get. But the only thing I can say for sure we are not sleeping. Researchers are not sleeping. They are still working on a daily basis, nights and days, to find some something to help with this kind of disease. Like any other researchers, like an oncologist, they are doing the same thing. Immunologists, they are doing the same thing. They are working nights and days, and my daily work now put me in touch with oncologists, immunologists, molecular biologists, basic scientists. We speak every day and I can see how they are working hard to find cures for diseases. Probably while you're sleeping, we are still working to find something good for you.
Speaker 1:Okay. So I'm glad that you know we have people like you working on our behalf. I like the way you say when we are sleeping sleeping because sometimes you know you have this new medication, you have these new things coming sometimes you hear it you're like, oh, I didn't know about this, when was that happened? So it's like, oh yeah, there was a research that was conducted and the result came out Right, you know. So it's like we have scientists like you, you know, who basically work day and night.
Speaker 2:There are countless clinical trials that are being run right now on a daily basis and night and day, as I like to say, countless clinical trials that are being run right now to find a cure for any type of disease you might have.
Speaker 1:So and I thank you for your service.
Speaker 2:Ah, you know it's a duty, it's one of my duties. We have to work on those to help society to move forward. That's why we need to recognize those people who are tired of still working Like everybody else, in whatever field you are in your field, you're doing everything you can for your people, for your patients. It's the same thing. It's our job. That's what we chose to be. We chose to become a scientist. We chose to be scientists, so we have to work on behalf of the populations. We choose to be scientists, so we have to work on behalf of the populations, and that means we have to work for the greater good and the greater good. It's like there's something that happens and we can say okay, try this. That's what we are doing.
Speaker 1:Yes, one thing you know, so I like about research. So it's like we don't know what the power room is, but we want to find out.
Speaker 2:That's why we call it out, that's why we call it research. That's why we call it research Like we are still curious to find out what's going on. That's what guides us Exactly, and there are some research.
Speaker 1:You know that took a very long time before, like 10, 15, 20 years before they really can come out with something to say, you know what. So we conducted that research, research, you know, and this is what the results are 2019.
Speaker 2:Covid hate. It's a pandemic people work about. On that we had a cure. We have vaccines. Those pharmaceutical companies they find cure, so they find a way to get this under control. But we don't stop working on COVID-19. We're still working on COVID-19.
Speaker 1:They have a long way to go with COVID-19, because it's like even myself, I took two shots of that vaccine. I don't know what the heck was that in that vaccine, but I know people who have took the vaccine. I have a friend of mine who's still paralyzed until today after she took the vaccine. So I don't know if there were other pre-existing conditions that she was dealing with. This I don't know. So I try on a daily basis to offer my support as much as I can, but it's sad to watch her and she was in the medical field as a physician assistant to see her not being able to do the work that she loves after she took that vaccine. So it was like heartbreaking. So it's like and we don't know. So it's like it's some things I'm still waiting for research to say okay. So I know don't get me wrong, me wrong the vaccine have saved lives. A lot of lives were saved. I'm not gonna take that away.
Speaker 2:However, a lot of people until today are dealing with consequences from the vaccine and research haven't said anything, actually one if I say something, if I just divert a little bit from the topic of the day to talk about this. Look, I am not a microbiologist, I'm a basic scientist, a microbiologist. However, what I can say and I'm glad you said that vaccines save lives, vaccines in general- save lives lives.
Speaker 2:I want people to hear it now there are people who don't believe that vaccine saves lives. They anti-vax people, they, they. They keep talking about vaccines, keep talking bad about vaccines. Saves lives great. And now COVID-19. It's the same thing. You may take aenol and that Tylenol can have an adverse effect on you. A Tylenol Anything you're taking, can have an effect based on your preconditions, your health situation. It can be just as simple as a Tylenol. So what happens with COVID-19 vaccines and I applaud all the scientists who work in that field to get those vaccines the pharmaceutical companies? I applaud them all for finding, in a very short period of time, a way to get this virus under control.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that virus was out of control.
Speaker 2:Yeah get it under control and if it was not those tireless works, probably we don't know where the world would have been at this moment. So that's the big picture of. Of course, anything, as I said, you're taking can have some adverse effect on your system, including the vaccines for COVID-19. When you took it, some people they may react negatively with those vaccines. Some can be reacting positively, as it's the case for the majority of us. I am so sorry for those who had a bad reaction towards the vaccines. I'm very sorry about that.
Speaker 2:I have friends of mine who until now they have very bad, negative, actually very negative effects when they took the vaccine.
Speaker 1:There are some people who even lost their lives after taking the vaccine. I understand when you do research or certain things, so it's like you know it's not gonna be effective. You know 100% for everybody that you know like 0.0 yeah that's what we call, I think, background noise in research. That's right, we got this back.
Speaker 2:If I'm analyzing, comparing how many like billions of people who were affected or in this world, and hundreds of millions of people took the vaccines and from that, hundreds of not every life matters. I don't want anyone to think that I'm just saying that life doesn't matter. Every single life matters. But if you consider hundreds of millions of people to the vaccines and their lives were saved, and we have 100 people, or 1,000 people, unfortunately, who had a bad reaction towards vaccines, I would consider that as background noise. If I'm analyzing the data, yeah, I would say that, although the lies matter to me, whomever died from it, I would say I'm so sorry about that, but when we consider the greater goods, those who benefited from this, it's really, really important.
Speaker 1:But I'm still waiting to see a good research outcome on that we are looking at what we call today long COVID.
Speaker 2:Long COVID is what happens after COVID. What's going on right now? Covid it's what happens after COVID. What's going on right now? There are studies, longitudinal studies, that are being conducted to see those people took the vaccines Now, analyzing those people. What's going on there. Until today they took the vaccines. What is happening with them right now? They are following up with those people to see what's going on. A lot of research is still being conducted in that field so that we can get plausible answers to those kind of questions.
Speaker 1:I would love for those research to be done or conducted on a large sample size.
Speaker 2:Great, that is good, that's true.
Speaker 1:The larger is your sample size, the better is your research outcome.
Speaker 2:The statistics can be more powerful. The larger is your sample size, the better is your research outcome.
Speaker 2:The statistics can be more powerful the larger is your sample. But we know when we have the populations you can choose your population of interest from the bigger populations and there are rules to choose that as well. So we follow the rules, we follow the scientific process and the scientific method to do that. So definitely the result can be extrapolated to a bigger population. As soon as we will finish with this kind of okay, let's get back to parkinson.
Speaker 1:Though kovid is still a health issue. Let's go back to parkinson. Research indicate that severe alcohol use may cause dementia. Is this the same for parkinson, though? You mention alcohol and drug abuse? Yeah, but the fact that research mentioned that can be a trigger for dementia, I just want to make sure that if it is the same for Parkinson's, Let me clarify something here, as you're talking about dementia, because I heard that many, many times.
Speaker 2:When people are talking, they talk about dementia, they talk about Parkinson's, they talk about Alzheimer's. I want to clarify this. We have a series of neurodegenerative diseases, of neurodegenerative diseases, all of those neurodegenerative diseases. Those are diseases where your dopaminergic cells, the neuronal cells that secret dopamines, they are affected, they are impaired, and that impairment can lead to either Alzheimer's disease, parkinson's disease, alzheimer's disease, parkinson's disease, als all of those, all these groups of diseases that Josh talked about Alzheimer's, als, parkinson's they are all grouped into that category we call dementia.
Speaker 2:So dementia is an umbrella under which you find those diseases Alzheimer's, parkinson's's, als, including Huntington disease so you have dementia, and those are subtypes yeah, exactly, they are on beneath of this.
Speaker 2:It's like you have the umbrella here and you have those on beneath of this umbrella. I wanted to clarify this in general for people. When they are talking, they know dementia is not a specific disease compared to Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, all those they are under dementia, okay. So I hope that's clear for everybody who are listening, because you know, the goal is to help people to understand, to educate. That's the goal of the show. That's why I love this, your World. It talks about everything. I loved it because we are educating. We need people to understand. They don't say in, they don't speak anyhow no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:That's a good point, because even you know, like you know, so some people, they may talk about Alzheimer, but as they believe that Alzheimer is the same as dementia or, as I'm raising, this is, dementia is another disease, parkinson is another one. So I'm glad that you were able to bring that clarification for everybody, myself including I usually talk to my students like that.
Speaker 2:I always try to stress on that. When we're talking, when I'm studying the macromolecules, that means one of the macromolecules I talked about. It's protein. And when I'm talking about protein, I get to a class of protein that we call enzymes. I always tell them all enzymes are protein, but not all proteins are enzymes it's the same thing.
Speaker 2:When we're talking about fat and lipids, people have the tendency to consider all lipids as fats, but that's not true. All fats are lipids. It's a class of lipids, but not all lipids are fats, because we have the sterols, like cholesterols, estrogen, testosterone. Those are lipids, but they are not fats, so I just love to clarify those. Of course, if I'm talking about the oil triacylglyceride, those are lipids as well. They are categorized as under fat.
Speaker 2:If I take butter, that's fat, those are lipids. But that doesn't mean if I'm talking about cholesterol, I would say that's fat. No, that's not it. It's different. All lipids are not fat, all fats are lipids. The same way, all enzymes are protein, but not all proteins are enzymes. I like to clarify this.
Speaker 1:Okay, people. You just heard Dr Joseph Dementia is the umbrella. Heard, Dr Joseph dementia is the umbrella and underneath of dementia, we have Alzheimer. Parkinson, als, all of those. Yeah, that's right. Thank you, Professor.