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ex-Member
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 110
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ex-Member
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 110
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Gypsys and Ethiopians
If stress was the REAL cause of Parkinson's Disease, then the most stressed of people would have Parkinson's Disease but they don't.
Persistent famines, warfare, dire poverty, lawlessness, severe malnutrition, is what the Ethiopians have to deal with, yet Ethiopians have the world's LOWEST prevalence of Parkinson's Disease.
The lowest prevalence of Parkinson's Disease in Europe is amongst the Bulgarian Gypsies yet they have the greatest amount of stress to deal with due to their high crime rates, poverty, ill health, malnutrition, and grossly inadequate healthcare and social services.
The biochemical fault that has persistently been found to coincide with Parkinson's Disease is the low levels of the enzymes required for the formation of dopamine. Stress does not affect these enzyme levels at all.
L-dopa can potently relieve symptoms of Parkinson's Disease due to its ability to form dopamine. Due to also being the precursor of adrenaline, L-dopa has the capacity to increase stress. If the theory was right L-dopa would increase symptoms, but it does the opposite.
So the claim that stress is the REAL cause of Parkinson's Disease is plainly inconsistent with the facts.
Acetylcholine increases muscle contraction. Dopamine reduces muscle contraction. Parkinson's Disease occurs when there is not enough dopamine to counter the effect of increased muscle contraction.
The reason why there appears to be a coincidence between stress and Parkinsons' Disease symptoms is that when somebody is stressed they produce adrenaline. Adrenaline increases the effect of acetylcholine and thereby temporarily increases Parkinson's Disease symptoms due to increasing muscle contraction.
So rather than stress being the cause of Parkinson's Disease, stress merely exacerbates Parkinson's Disease symptoms.
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