This is a big part of pd.....and our worst symptom in many ways - physically and emotionally, psychologically, cognitively. It appears to be excitotoxicty but not just with glutamate prolonged firing but also with all the excitatory tranmsitters (that we usually discus -s). The overfiring is somewhat corrected if you can get the right med and with research -food too -for you and all the combinations thereof.

I thought acetylcholine was bad ( it is if too much of it collects) but so is glutamate. Both can interfere with dopamine - we knew that - and GABA is low as a result of all this. GABA transmitters are the brakes and they get used up and worn out from all the prolonged firing .

Norepinephrine is disappearing along with dopamine. Meds can correct that some at least. norepinephrine is thought to be neuroprotective and by the way paxil, for all the bad things thought about it was just revealed to help pd but i can't remember why...i'll try to remember to look it up. anyone know? very recent.

i 'm going to ignore dementia. if we get dementia we'll know it. it will be at the very end if at all. i'm already used to people thinking i'm drinking or so mentally ill that they start calling me "dear" and speaking loudly [employees at the airport, for ex.] but sinemet speech is pretty bad and they tend to not get what i am saying to realize that i'm not as far gone as i look and sound. i do not feel it necessary to give up an anticholinergic and the relief it brings b ecause of worries of future dementia. That's my opinion of course i'm not a doctor.

My daughter said she was so proud of me for not just absolutely freakin out from being on so many drugs. I would be if i didn't know about them tho. Now i have to know what medications do and check the transmitter action and contraindications. I don't trust agonists and think they should eventually be discontinued at advanced stages. Too much and one of the results of agonists for me is dyskinesia. Sinemet alone does not . i get end of dose dyskinesia..know i need to take one immediately. sinemet doesn't need a booster and eventually I always ended up with a feeling in my chest that did freak me out a few times; is there anyone who has never gone to the ER with chest pain and it was anxiety or acid reflux?i think agonists do it too.

ok vitamin D - without mentioning any names or pressuring anyone; i know it's still in discussion, is the perfect example to try in our own study. There are limitless querys we co uld check into with a database but the holidays are upon us so i'm not going to push anyone.

Several of you are talking about food as meds and that makes so much sense but one article says high fat, the other says no dairy, the other says no wheat, another says no red meat or cheese. it's time this all came together in a meaningful way. we could pioneeer this and hopefully work towards global connections. Then we can look for patterns demographically and every other way.

i'm finishing up with a comment about the episode of the Good Wife and michael's role. There was a scene in the courtroom that had it all going at once. i didn't listen to it all the first time i watched it and finally watched it today again closely. A doctor is on the stand talkiing about serotonin uptake inhibitors and 5-HTHT i think they just slightly changed it but maybe there is a double HT i have read it as 5-HT. The doctor was visibly proud of himself as he discussed neurotransmitters in language that he knew no one would understand.

The attorneys were excited to get enough money from the lawsuit against a pharma to add another floor to their law firm. The plaintiff they used as a test case for a class action lawsuit was told at the last minute and neither side had fully disclosed enough information. the girl really didn't want to be the first case.

michael chewed her up and spit her out, her mother had killed her father and then herself while taking a drug that sounded much like eldepryl. it was called ellephile or something like that. so michael destroys her case or at least heavily damages it with insinuations that her father was having an affair and it wasn't the medicine.

So the law firm pushes a reluctant docter to testify about the medicine and here's where the scene is that i'm talking about - mike interrupts with his chair moving and bumpng and squeaking, then after given a dirty look he proceeded to pour himself a glass of water from a full large pitcher..we all know how challenging that can be. Full dyskinesia going and the eyes are wide ....so familiar to us all...just trying to pour a glass of water. only in this program he was using it to his advantage.

The lawyers were feeling confident when they put the doctor on the stand. the plaintiff had her own secret tho and it was a big one. she had clearly stated she didn't want to be the test case.

so there it is all in one scene. a duped plaintiff who they
"used as a test case for the money." They didn't know enough about her and she got hurt. They didn't feel her pain or even try to see it. she was not the focus. it was all about winning the case. Meanwhile, michael has fun being the pharma creep and showing pd in wonderfuly clumsy, clutsy ways.

so the symbolism really hit today as i watched more closely. you had a plaintiff who was not paid enough attention to by greedy lawyers working for a big settlement, a doctor spitting out medical terms that no one uinderstood and kept being pressed to say it in lay terms and felt superioir and smarter than anyone else -visibly so the attitude could be delivered .

There are all the players. They didn't know their plaintiff and were looking at a law firm addition and a figure they needed. As it turned out the lawyer for the pharma [michael] had a plan and he outlawyered the law firm using deception of course.

so that's michael telling the story his way. it is brilliant, even if unintentional but i don't think so.

so everyone who has something to offer about food as med and vit D ....we are all learning that right here. when doctors talk about transmitters to us, we need to not be intimidated, because we will know not only what it means, but how it translates into lay and clinical settings.

sorry its sinemet ramble hour and i just watched it closely today.

i think if we are going to use food as meds, that it becomes pretty important to have enough people looking at it objectively and recording it.

Michael it would be nice if you respond in some way to speak to that . Who wrote the script? We aren't going to bite, but perhaps thru debi you could provide a few words of acknowledgement .

happy hanukkah season