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Daffy Duck · 11-03-2006, 06:37 PM

STRANGE FACTS ABOUT PARKINSON'S DISEASE

1. Many people in the Pacific island of Guam have developed Parkinson's Disease, due to feasting on flying foxes, a species of bat that can be as big as six feet across. This is because the bats eat cycad seeds which contain a potent neurotoxin.

2. For reasons unknown, Bulgarian Gypsies appear to be almost immune to developing Parkinson's Disease. All other Bulgarians are ten times more likely to get Parkinson's Disease.

3. In 1875, Henri Huchard had a patient that had all of the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease who was only three years old.

4. The Parsi, a Zorastrian community in Bombay, India have almost the world's highest prevalence of Parkinson's Disease due to the poisonng effects of a ritual in which they burn Aspand seeds in order to rid their children of the Evil Eye - a sickness transmitted by someone who is envious, jealous, or covetous.

5. Although L-dopa is widely used to raise L-dopa levels, no other common substance reduces L-dopa formation more than L-dopa itself.

6. Anti-cholinergics, used to treat Parkinson's Disease, are found in nature as Deadly Nightshade, a plant that is so poisonous that just one leaf could kill an adult.

7. Although it is claimed that Parkinson's Disease becomes more likely with age, amongst the very oldest of people, those between 110 and 120 years old, Parkinson's Disease is virtually unknown.

8. L-dopa, in seed form, was being used in India to treat the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease over 6000 years ago.

9. James Parkinson, who Parkinson's Disease was named after, never knew that Parkinson's Disease was called Parkinson's Disease.

10. There are two films of Adolf Hitler's last public appearance, one that was shown in which he displayed no symptoms of Parkinson's Disease, and another that was not shown in which he was displaying the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease.