Home Blog From a Wide Array, Choosing the Best Treatment for Parkinson’s Disease | Dr. Natalie Diaz

March 16, 2022

From a Wide Array, Choosing the Best Treatment for Parkinson’s Disease | Dr. Natalie Diaz

by Anthony Effinger

The Think Neuro podcast from Pacific Neuroscience Institute takes you into the clinic, operating room and laboratory with doctors and surgeons who are tackling the most challenging brain diseases and disorders. Host: Anthony Effinger

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Episode 26: Show Notes

When you’re a doctor treating Parkinson’s disease, it’s a matter of picking the most appropriate arrow from your quiver. There is no cure for the disease yet, but there are more than 20 different medications that can improve a patient’s wellbeing. Dr. Natalie Diaz, a neurologist who specializes in movement disorders, is familiar with all of them. Some 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s every year, and more than 10 million people worldwide are living with the disease. The risk of Parkinson’s increases with age, and that’s one of the factors Dr. Diaz considers when recommending treatment. Among the others are symptoms and side effects. In some cases, she may recommend a surgical treatment called deep brain stimulation. Her goal is to keep Parkinson’s and its symptoms at bay for as long as possible, and with so many options, patients can live quite well achieving good quality of life. Listen to this podcast to hear Dr. Diaz talk about how she helps them do it.

About Natalie Diaz, MD

Dr. Natalie Diaz is a board-certified neurologist with fellowship training in movement disorders. Her clinical practice focuses on the evaluation and management of patients with Parkinson’s disease, atypical parkinsonian disorders, Huntington’s disease and other choreiform disorders, dystonia, and ataxia.

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Anthony Effinger

Think Neuro's host is Anthony Effinger, an award-winning journalist who is fascinated with neuroscience and the workings of the brain. Anthony spent 24 years at Bloomberg News, where he covered all aspects of finance, with forays into science and health. In 2006, the Association of Health Care Journalists awarded him first prize for Playing the Odds, an in-depth piece on the changing strategies used to treat prostate cancer. These days, he is a staff writer at Willamette Week, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper in Portland, Oregon, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Last updated: May 19th, 2023