Jaye,
I notice you are taking iradipine. When did you start taking it, and at what dose? I now have 5 examples of PWP who have experienced slow or no progression, who have been taking hypertension drugs. One of them even wrote a book attributiing his non progression to exercise. However, it has now emerged he has been taking 3 different classes of hypertension drugs for years. Another lady I know personally, was diagnosed 6 years ago though had symptoms for years before. She was diagnosed by her doc., a PD specialist and a PD Nurse. She has never needed ANY PD drugs. She has been taking the hypertension drug, Ramipril.
So far I have found 4 hyertension drugs which reduce the permeability of the BBB, Losartan, Captopril, Nifedipine and Flunarizine
This doesn't mean to say the others don't reduce the permeability, the 4 are the only ones I have found data on.
Does anyone take statins, sinvastatin has been reported to help PD, and reduces the permeability of the BBB. Are there any slow progression stories from statin users? However, not all statins improve PD.
There is a recent report about the epilepsy drug, Byetta (Exenatide), helping PD. I have not had the time to check and see whether this is another BBB permeability reducer.
We may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg. Hypertension drugs are the second most widely prescribed drug in the USA. How many people are there taking drugs which have the side effect of reducing BBB permeability, whose PD symptoms are so mild, that they have never been diagnosed.
I have no access to any of these prescription drugs, so will keep on taking curcumin and CDP choline, they also reduce the permeability of the BBB!! A reminder of what opens up the BBB pores, Stress, ageing, pesticides, eg organophosphates ( I made many of them in the lab. when I was a research chemist). Add in Prof. Leenders work showing PWP have defective BBB's, and there is a strong case building up on the role of the BBB in PD.
I have found a professor who is a BBB specialist, and who seems enthusiastic about the idea of the PD connection, and has commented,
"There is accumulating evidence for BBB dysfunction in PD".
Ron