Sorry I'm late to join this one, but I'm not a Spring baby, born 26th October in the UK.
However, when I see which way this thread is going, I had to make time.
We have a real blend of talents here, and united, we make a formidable force. There is every possibility that we could unearth the lead to a cure, or at least a treatment without so many side effects.
There are so many leads. For example, I have raised previously the cases of PDers who take high blood pressure drugs, not requiring any PD meds. I was at a PD dinner in London last week, and there were 2 people out of 8 on our table, who had been diagnosed with PD, years ago, yet neither had ever needed any PD meds. Both were taking high BP drugs. How many more are there who have never been diagnosed but would have developed PD with the hypertension drugs? THere is a paper from Purdue UNiversity in J. Neuroscience, published on April 17th 2006, that showed hypertension drugs reversed cell death. Other examples are the part played by the BBB, and so on.
We have this unique blend of doctors, scientists, generalists with a wide spectrum of general knowledge, and united by our illness. Lets see what we can achieve.
Ron