Welcome YogaLife,

Glad to see a curious newbie posting on the forum but sorry to read that your hub has PD. I am fairly new here and YO. You'll find that we're sometimes fairly quiet out here and at other times quite spirited and full of debate; you will find that always, we are seeking answers and asking the questions no one wants to ask at the neuro's office.

First, before we start tossing lots of research citations back and forth, it is worth keeping in mind that very little epidemiological research has ever been conducted on PWP. That means the CDC and WHO have not thought it was important enough to collect stats. So whenever you see a number of how many people have PD or how many will have, look at where the author gets those numbers. Nine out of ten times no reference is provided. Our Congress currently passed legislation to start collecting data in a National Disease Registry. See the Parkinson Action Network website for more info.(PAN

Given this sad state of affairs and that we have usually small sample sizes to begin within in researching. Given that we can usually always find at least one study to negate or contradict five others, I take very little of what I read in epidemiological aspects of PD as valid or reliable research. I look at it as if there are at least 10 people experiencing something or there is widespread (meaning the literature supports it outside just the US) correlations made between say occupations and PD or air pollution and PD, then I conclude that there might be something there there. Not very scientific but then neither is taking a study based on dubious base numbers statistically reliable.

You'll find the same results when researching PD as an occupational hazard of welding. Welding produces manganese particulates that very easily pass through the Blood Brain Barrier. There are reams of research proving that Manganese exposure can cause Parkinsonism. Usually reversible if caught early enough, there are many studies that then report manganese exposure in workplace (aka welding) as a risk factor. Then you get one report saying "no" and supposedly it negates 10 others. Further, manganese poisoning as an origin of Parkinsonism is so widely accepted as truth, that I daresay you can locate one text book on PD or Movement Disorders that quote the few dissenting articles.

One other interesting thing on manganese. We breathe in manganese particulates every day in the form of MMT. It is a chemical added to gasoline as anti-knock matter that replaced lead. It was banned in 1977 but the Afton Corp. fought it (in the meantime conducting no studies on effects of chronic exposure)and it has been used again since 1995 despite the EPA's supposed regulation of such stuff (they meekly encourage Afton to conduct studies). Meanwhile studies are starting to show correlation between air pollution and prevalence of PD in highly polluted areas like Mexico City; even in the US there is a recent study that shows PD more prevalent in urban areas. Researchers at University of California (Riverside, I think) have a special lab dedicated to studying neurological effects MMT, so the environmental part of PD that always, always mentions only pesticides as a causative are giving us a very limited perspective.

You mentioned that there is a lot we do not know. I will say I think we lack very little in knowing, just the opposite; so much research continues to be generated that it repeats. I think the most answers are already out there, but you have no one group or person to meta -analyze the data we already have. We have no one attempting to put the pieces together.

You'll find some of us here have our pet theories (backed by research) that we explore and share. Obviously, MMT is one of mine. I also firmly believe that viral infection is a main causative of PD and that what we have is auto immune based. Yet we continue on searching for some sort of one big common cause which is pointless because it is now acknowledged that PD is most likely the end result of several different things; like physical trauma, viral or bacterial infection, or toxin exposure, that interact with a genetic predisposition. The important thing is that we now generally know what is happening at the molecular level and a vaccine is now being developed that sat the very least may halt progression of the disease. Google Affiris, U Nebraska vaccine, or Biogen. I am hopeful that we are as close to a cure as we'll ever know. Bummer for those people who think a vaccine gave them PD.

Laura