I have just read and re-read through this thread and must admit, much to my embarrassment, most of the comentary is way over my head. On the other hand I think I am reading there may be some school of thought out there that PD and et.al neuro diseases may be connected....somehow....true? With no research background at all, this subject has run through my mind more times than I can remember in the last 5 years since my first PD symptom showed its ugly twitch! The reason I have wondered about this is the fact that my maternal great-grandfather had PD; mother's brother just passed away at 84 of complications of PD; my maternal grandmother had Alzheimers; her sister, my great aunt had Alzheimers; great aunt's son had Alzheimers, my uncle...mother's other brother currently has Alzheimers; my mother is in the advanced stages of Alzheimers NOW; and then there is yours truly.......PD at 60! This mess is all on my mother's side of the family.......who by the way are from Western Europe. And I understand there are three more females ( cousins) in Germany two of whom have Alzheimers and one with PD. As I said, I have no research background, but I cannot help but wonder about some sort of connection with these two neuro problems in my mother's family.

Caya