Parkinson's Disease

Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder that does not impact mental faculties, but instead destroys motor neurons over a period of years/decades. Ultimately there are many different causes of neuronal death, but I believe the underlying reason behind this is an increase in Fe²⁺, iron that has one extra electron than normal in the body. Fe²⁺ is able to form a complex with the copper that is in our brains (the copper there is good, it helps with oxygen transfer and a plethora of other necessary functions) which create free radicals. These free radicals are molecules that either have a free valence electron (normally molecules have “shells” of electrons which once they are filled to a certain extent become inert, and a free valence electron is an otherwise empty portion of the shell) which is frequently lost to surrounding molecules. These affected molecules in turn affect other molecules in their vicinity causing cells to die, proteins to misfold, and generally horrible things to happen within a cell.
In the spirit of full disclosure my area of focus lies in inorganic chemistry (the study of metals), which biases my opinion of what I think is happening. These complexes occur frequently in Parkinson’s affected brains, and thusly appear to be a primary cause of the disease (though the scientific consensus is out). Doing more research into controlling the Fe²⁺ and copper complex is important medically. This will help control the degradation of the motor neurons and possibly allow for some level of reversal of the mental degradation.
Ultimately Parkinson’s is a disease that we don’t know what causes it, and that is one of the scariest aspects of the disease. Hopefully in the future research into the dysregulation of the iron will lead to better medication and a further understanding of the underlying causes of the disease. I don’t know if we will ever cure it, since Parkinson’s appears to be related to aging, but having a functional cure of minimal degradation of motor neurons and helping with some of the nonphysical symptoms of Parkinson’s disease would be ideal.
Maybe one day, disease related to aging will be eliminated or completely under control… But until then chelating drugs appear to be an effective method of controlling/minimizing the damaging effects of Parkinson’s.