The Unlikely Buddha

Parkinson's disease, a relentless neurodegenerative force, begins far earlier than its hallmark tremors and rigidity suggest.  Recent studies illuminate prodromal signals like olfactory loss and REM sleep behavior disorder as harbingers appearing decades before motor symptoms.  Genetic mutations play a role in a minority of cases, while the majority stem from tangled environmental, gut, and brain interactions—now fueling AI-driven longitudinal insights and a surge of late-stage therapies promising true disease modification. Prodromal Pathways: Smell, Sleep, and Silent Onset The earliest detectable signs of Parkinson's often evade clinical notice.  Loss of smell—hyposmia or anosmia—affects up to 90-96% of patients by diagnosis but emerges years prior, tied to alpha-synuclein pathology in the olfactory bulb.  Concurrently, REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD), where dream-enactment violence replaces normal muscle atonia, flags prodromal risk with extraordinary precision: ...