Incredible footage of Parkinson's sufferer struggling to make a cup of tea shows transformative effect of breakthrough drug READ MORE: High-tech spoon zaps tastebuds of dementia patients back to life By John Ely Deputy Health Editor For Mailonline Published: 10:22 EDT, 7 August 2024 | Updated: 10:25 EDT, 7 August 2024 e-mail View comments Incredible footage has revealed how one man's life has been utterly transformed by a new breakthrough drug that curbs debilitating Parkinson's tremors. The clip, shared by the NHS on Instagram, shows the astonishing difference in the 52 year-old's ability to make a cup of tea before and after taking the medication. The first half of the clip shows the patient, Damien Gath, suffering extreme shakes and spasms while walking to the kitchen counter and pouring water from the kettle into a cup.
But the second half of the video, taken days after starting treatment, shows him completing the task with virtually no tremor at all. The key to this incredible transformation lies in the black rectangular device worn on Mr Gath's — a portable pump that slowly releases a drug called foslevodopa- foscarbidopa (or Produodopa) that was recently approved by NHS chiefs for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. It works increasing the amount of a hormone called dopamine in the brain, which is involved with movement and mood.
In Parkinson's disease, which affects 145,000 Brits, brain cells responsible for making the hormone die off, leading to a deficiency. Whi.