Some of you may remember the postings of Anne Frobert, the French MD and PWP who was experimenting with banding. She and I have been collaborating for about six months now to draw together four years of her work into a comprehensive picture of PD. And I really think she has managed to work it out. I am going to post various components of this complex picture over the coming weeks but, to avoid overwhelming everyone on the subject, I will try to do it in a more or less orderly fashion. The reason I am introducing this thread at this time is to make the point that the various threads that have sprung up are not mutually exclusive. They may all be right.

This relatively new way of looking at PD (and maybe other diseases as well) has been called the Multi Hits Theory and is an important departure from the previous thinking. It is complex but its very complexity opens up new avenues of treatment.

To introduce this new way of looking at PD and how it differs from the present approach, I use two analogies. Please bear with me because it is the type of thing that, while the details are complex, the overview is simple. But I need to practice these analogies.

The Old Way: We all live in a deep valley beside the Parkinson's River. It is a mighty river and no one knows where it begins but there are stories of a great spring at the foot of the mountain far up the valley. Some say it is called Mercury. Others Aluminum, Genetics, Pesticides, etc. All we really know is that the river floods and washes away our lives. There is much talk of going somewhere up the valley and digging a canal to carry the flood away, but the river is so strong and the valley so deep that every attempt has failed.

The New Way: Again, we live in a valley, river, yada yada. But in this analogy the valley floor is broad and the river flows through a vast marsh where we all live. Exploring this marsh we find that all around the head of the valley numerous small springs emerge and their streams meander down the valley floor. The springs have various names - Aluminum, Genetics, yada yada. Their waters flow lazily, looping back and forth, sometimes intersecting and then parting, some running long distances alone, but all ultimately converging on the river channel. There is flooding here, too, but depending on where one lives in relation to the various streams, some are washed away very often while others live long lives with few problems. The tribal leaders agree that this should be dealt with and send explorers out. They find that there are places where the valley wall is low enough and the individual streams small enough, that several small canals are feasible to carry the floods harmlessly away.

I'm sorry if this seems obvious. But the entire research community, with a few hardy exceptions, seems to be intent on finding that one darned spring to dig that one darn canal. While we are getting washed away.

This view answers many questions, such as why we are so individualized. And why so many different explanations seem to fit or to fit almost. And like the marshy valley, there are critical points where intervention can make a big difference. Control of inflammation and stress are two easy ones and there are at least half-a-dozen others. If more of the scientific effort can be directed away from the search for a single magic bullet toward this broader view the results could be dramatic.