Originally Posted by Fiona

Okay, no - none of you are alone. My take on it, as you may know, is similar to those stated above. But I think Big Pharma may have recognized the potential boomer market very well, but wouldn't they rather maintain that population on "medicine" so they keep them as lifelong consumers rather than cure them, so that the cash cows flee their barns? Just thinking over the bsic principals of business investment, how could they not be thinking that way? It would be irresponsible to their shareholders. (Broken Model Alert!)

Especially after the Amgen travesty - where it looked like a real cure was possible - but now they refuse to release the rights to anyone else to try to make it work??? So there's where I agree with you, Charlie - like where have any of the major PD organizations been vocal on that one? But again, these industry interests are huge and powerful, and very hard to counter, especially when they manipulate scientific data in their own interests...

On the positive side, tho, at least for now - there are still things that could have potential. Ibogaine stimulates GDNF production in the brain - maybe it could be worked with. BUT it's illegal in the US and other places and no one has done the research. So if one is only comfortable (and I quite understand why....) with waiting for the official research to be done, it ain't gonna happen. But if one is willing or able to take a chance on more anecdotally- or instinctually based information, I think the possibilities remain for real medicine perhaps....

And on the positive side also, even tho exercise and positive thinking don't feel effective the same way taking a pill does - like you feel it in the next half hour or not - and who would blame us for thinking that way because that's the way our meds work - nonetheless I think they can be strong adjudicators in "rewiring" brain function. It's just more gradual and long-term, so we don't recognize it in the same way.

But yeah, I am all over the idea of a situation where a PD person could get help with nutrition (not just don't eat protein during the day, thank you very much!), plus supportive massage, plus a physical trainer who doesn't just see the body as a machine but knows Feldenkrais and Trager, plus daily aquatherapy, plus music therapy, plus sunlight and being in the garden, plus finding a way to connect to others so that we feel our experiences mean something in the world and could actually be helpful to people who are facing adversity so that we could find a way for our stories to have value......

I seriously am thinking of trying to start a center like this somewhere in South America where the dollar (at least at this moment) can do more for us Northerners, but in a way that would also benefit the local economy of wherever it was, pay the staff more than they could usually make in their communities, plus providing some discounted services to needy PD patients in the local community....Any one got some investor buddies who might see the potential in this one?