About half of those with Parkinson’s disease struggle with severe fatigue, and traditional sources of medicine don’t often provide relief. MJFF awardee Benzi Kluger, MD, MS, assistant professor of neurology and psychiatry at the University of Colorado is studying whether Eastern medicine, and in particular acupuncture, might help to alleviate this often debilitating side effect.

Parkinson’s patients participating in Kluger’s study will receive acupuncture or a placebo treatment twice a week for a period of six weeks, to begin to measure the procedure’s effects on quality of life and other symptoms of the disease.

Acupuncture Today profiles Kluger’s MJFF-funded study in the upcoming February edition, already available online. There is still much to be learned about how alternative medicine might provide viable options for those living with PD. But Kluger says that already he has seen some dramatic improvements in some of the study’s participants. "People have gone back to doing activities that they haven't done in years," he told the magazine.