Jul 10, 2026
28 Jun 2026 Katrina Thornber American Medical Journal
WOMEN with Parkinson’s disease may be more prone to Alzheimer’s-related brain changes than men, according to autopsy research presented today at the European Academy of Neurology Congress 2026, with female patients carrying markedly more amyloid plaque despite similar cognitive outcomes.
Sex Differences in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Pathology
Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease often co-occur in older adults, yet sex differences in Alzheimer’s-related pathology among people with Parkinson’s disease have been little studied. Researchers set out to address that gap, asking whether women and men with Parkinson’s accumulate amyloid plaque, a defining marker of Alzheimer’s, to differing degrees.
Study Design and Neuropathological Assessment
Investigators from Mayo Clinic Arizona analysed 230 autopsy-confirmed Parkinson’s disease cases from the Arizona Study of Aging and Neurodegenerative Disorders and Brain and Body Donation Program. Participants had undergone annual clinical assessments during life, including cognitive testing, followed by comprehensive neuropathological examination after death. This observational clinicopathological design compared amyloid plaque measures and dementia rates between the sexes.
Amyloid Burden Higher in Women
Across several measures, female patients carried more amyloid than males. Their mean cortical total plaque scores reached 6.5 out of 15, against 4.9 in men (p=0.045), and neuritic plaque density was likewise higher at 1.7 versus 1.3 out of 3 (p=0.035). A high plaque burden was present in 56.8% of women but only 39.7% of men (p=0.015). Crucially, this gap held after accounting for age at death and the APOE ε4 risk gene, leaving women more than twice as likely to fall into the high-burden group (odds ratio 2.18; 95% CI 1.17 to 4.06; p=0.014). Even so, the two sexes showed no significant difference in Alzheimer’s dementia rates or cognitive test scores.
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Jul 9, 2026
Building that table hadn't been easy, but he had something to prove — to himself
Written by Crystal Onyema | July 1, 2026
There are few things more humbling than confidently giving someone credit for a job they didn’t do. That’s what happened to my family when an Ikea table suddenly showed up, fully assembled, in my aunt’s living room. Naturally, we assumed one of my cousins had put it together while everyone else was busy.
Uncle Brandon had been having a tough week. His tremors were more noticeable, his freezing episodes happened more often, and we just couldn’t picture him taking on a project that meant reading instructions, sorting hardware, and putting together so many pieces.
So we started congratulating my cousin, who looked at us with complete confusion. “I didn’t build the table,” he said.
That’s when we heard a familiar voice from the couch. “I did.”
Uncle Brandon never even looked away from the television. He simply cleared his throat and matter-of-factly claimed the credit, as if assembling Ikea furniture was just another Tuesday afternoon.
Proving something to himself
The room got quiet. We all looked at him. “You built it?” He nodded. Apparently, while everyone else was at church, he decided to tackle the project himself.
He later admitted it wasn’t easy. His tremors made him drop screws a few times. Some of the smaller pieces took longer to line up than they used to, and there were moments when he almost gave up. Instead, he kept going.
He said he glanced at the instructions now and then, but most of the work came from muscle memory. For decades, building and fixing things had been second nature to him. Long before Parkinson’s disease, he built furniture, fixed engines, and took on projects most people wouldn’t even try.
He trusted those years of experience. One screw at a time. One piece at a time. And one deep breath at a time.
When he finally tightened the last bolt, it wasn’t just a completed table sitting in the living room. It was proof that he could still finish what he started. Looking back, I don’t think Uncle Brandon was trying to prove anything to us. He was trying to prove something to himself.
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Jul 8, 2026
23 Jun 2026 Jess Nicholson American Medical Journal
OPTHALMIC imaging features linked to cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disease phenotypes, following an integrated multi-omics analysis combining artificial intelligence (AI)-derived imaging embeddings with physiological, radiomic, metabolomic and genomic datasets.
AI-Derived Retinal Features Reveal Links to Systemic Disease Risk
A new research article leveraged UK BioBank data to investigate whether retinal features extracted from optical coherence tomography (OCT) and colour fundus photography (CFP) could serve as high-dimensional biomarkers of systemic disease. Findings indicated that AI-derived retinal representations were associated with both prevalent and incident cardiometabolic and neurodegenerative outcomes, including ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, heart failure, Parkinson’s disease and dementia.
Retinal imaging was processed using a deep-learning based adversarial autoencoder framework, generating 256-dimensional latent embeddings from OCT and CFP data. These embeddings were evaluated against longitudinal disease outcome and multi-layered biological datasets.
Retinal Signatures Reflect Vascular, Metabolic and Neurological Changes
Saliency mapping identified cardiovascular associates were predominantly localised to the choroid and retinal vascular network, while neurodegenerative associations were more strongly linked to the optic nerve head and neurosensory retinal layers.
Metabolomic analysis also found links between retinal features and lipid metabolism, suggesting that changes seen in the eye may reflect shared metabolic processes that contribute to both cardiovascular disease and neurodegeneration.
In addition, analysis of brain imaging data showed that retinal features were associated with differences in brain structure, including regional brain volumes and measures of white matter organisation.
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Jul 7, 2026
23 Jun 2026 Anaya Malik American Medical Journal
PARKINSON disease outcomes may be stronger in early-stage patients who maintain regular long-term aerobic exercise habits.
Parkinson Disease Exercise Linked to Better Function
Regular moderate to high intensity aerobic exercise may help preserve physical function in early-stage Parkinson disease, according to a cross-sectional study comparing active and low-active individuals with Parkinson disease with healthy controls.
The study included 70 low-active individuals with Parkinson disease, 35 highly active individuals with Parkinson disease, and 35 healthy controls. Highly active participants were defined as those reporting moderate to high intensity aerobic exercise at least twice weekly for more than 3 months. Low-active participants reported this level of exercise no more than twice weekly over the same period.
Assessments covered a broad range of motor, physical, cognitive, and patient-reported outcomes. These included the Timed Up and Go Test, Six Spot Step Test, 6-Minute Walk Test, Mini Balance Evaluation Systems Test, lower extremity muscle peak power, aerobic capacity, physical activity, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, Symbol Digit Modalities Test, Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire, Non-Motor Symptoms Questionnaire, Falls Efficacy Scale-International, European Quality of Life Questionnaire, Beck Depression Inventory-II, and the Movement Disorders Society-sponsored revision of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale.
Active Patients Showed Stronger Motor Outcomes
Highly active individuals with Parkinson disease outperformed low-active participants with Parkinson disease across physical function outcomes, motor symptom severity, physical activity levels, and nonmotor symptoms. In several measures of physical and cognitive function, as well as physical activity level, their results were comparable with healthy controls.
By contrast, low-active participants showed impairments in several physical function and activity outcomes compared with healthy controls. Cognitive function outcomes were similar across the two Parkinson disease groups, although healthy controls performed better in processing speed. No significant differences were observed between participant groups for quality of life or depressive symptoms.
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Jul 6, 2026
Foundation plans to use results to guide future education and programs
Written by Andrea Lobo | June 23, 2026
- Top concerns of the Parkinson's community's include disease symptoms and medication knowledge, a survey found.
- Motor (tremor, gait, balance) and nonmotor (sleep, mood, cognitive) symptoms were most concerning.
- Respondents cited the need more information on symptoms/treatments, better care access, and increased research funding.
According to this year’s Parkinson’s Foundation State of the Community Survey, disease symptoms and medication knowledge are top concerns for the Parkinson’s disease community.
More than half of the participants identified motor symptoms (61%), especially tremor, gait, and balance issues, and nonmotor symptoms (52%), including sleep, mood, and cognitive problems, as the most concerning.
Participants also expressed interest in learning more about the disease symptoms, treatment options, and research updates. The foundation plans to use these data to guide future education and programs.
“I believe in narrative medicine, where I encourage patients to share their Parkinson’s story — focusing on the symptoms [that] affect them the most and working together to create a personalized care plan that empowers them to take an active role,” Sneha Mantri, MD, Parkinson’s Foundation chief medical officer, said in a press release.
Barriers include lack of knowledge on available services
This year, more than 9,000 responders, mainly people with Parkinson’s (70%), but also care partners, family members, friends, and health professionals across the U.S. and other countries, participated in the survey in English or Spanish. This represents a 30% jump from 2025. The survey provides a global overview of the community’s experiences and needs, according to the foundation.
Another challenge reported by participants was understanding which questions to ask and symptoms to talk about with their healthcare team. Many considered it difficult to discuss mental and emotional health. Most people also noted only spending 15 to 30 minutes with their provider.
The most commonly reported barriers included a lack of knowledge on available services and how to access them, and difficulties getting appointments or having to travel long distances to get care. For Spanish speakers, barriers included service costs, language issues, and insufficient available services.
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