In Eastern traditions there is the ancient idea of the chakras - dense clusters of nerve tissue at seven places along the spinal cord from the crown of the skull to the peritoneum or "straddle" in Western medicine (West Texas, anyway). This last one is known as the "root" chakra and it is, evolutionarily speaking, considered to be the control center of the most basic survival drives. The second chakra up the chain corresponds to the genitals and is almost as powerful.

So we can see that this area "hosts" two of the most powerful nerve complexes of our body. Not only do you have the basic survival and reproductive drives, there is also all that "ju-ju" that Freud and Jung touched on. In a sense, your entire being rests on this foundation.

It would be incredibly silly to say that this all has nothing to do with PD. The effect is probably found on both micro and macro levels. I will give one example that I have noticed repeatedly-

Though "slow" my GI tract still works, albeit at its own pace. When it signals "time" it is hard to ignore. But this signal often comes at a time in the med cycle when things are stuck in a waiting pattern at all levels from walking to head scratching.

However, if the GI tract is demanding attention during all this and I do somehow make it to the loo, something amazing happens, and it does so almost every time. After the grunting and groaning have died away into silence, I find that I am completely on! This morning was typical in that I had been up and frustrated for five hours when nature would no longer be denied. Five minutes later I emerged a new man.

Again, this is the normal pattern. Something gets stimulated by the uproar? Is there something major here just under our noses? I won't go any further, but this is no coincidence.