I think we will agree more than not. And so you have a better idea of my thoughts:
1) Science is the gold standard when it is allowed to work properly. But with PD external forces and conditions have to be dealt with.
2) One is the force of money. We represent about five billion dollars a year. To pretend that that much cash does not impact things would be naive. It is a factor at every level, too. From my decision between brand and generic. To a scientist's calculation of how to structure a grant proposal. To a department head's decisions that influence a subordinate's tenure. To public funding allocation at NIH. To Big Pharma boardrooms where the discussion is on duty to shareholders, not to welfare of the patient. To the multi-Orgs where staff's first duty is to raise funding for their own salary each year. Each level influences the science.
3) Another is the force of the marginalization of the patient. With few exceptions, nobody cares what we think and they darn well don't want to hear why we think they are wrong. And as individuals, our voices grow weaker each day.
4) Another is the force of academic conformity. Nobody gets tenure because they discover that a blamed foot injury really is the cause of PD. Truth would be irrelevant.
5) Another is the sheer success of science in gathering data over the last forty years coupled with the failure to interpret it. It is like those NASA warehouses of precious lunar orbital data from the 60s left to rot.
6) Finally, there is the fact that the current orthodoxy on PD is dead wrong and time and money are being wasted. PD is not even a neurological disease! It is an immune-endocrine disorder that, with a little help from the GI system, damages the nervous system under the onslaught of environmental insult mediated by genetics and epigenetics. IMHO, of course.

You see why they don't invite me to their parties.
4)

please don't put words in my mouth, i don't endorse anything you just posted.
you don't think medtronics wouldn't love to sell a super duper accupressure/electrical stimulator gizmo that you attached to your foot if it reversed pd? they have no skin in the drug game. or chiropracters would be embracing this procedure if there was the slightest hope? you also ignore the european/asian/canadian pd research community which is much more collaborative and accepting of alt. pd research. you think german pd community, in germany naturpathy is huge, wouldn't have embraced this procedure if it worked? i don't think it's nearly as much publish or perish outside the u.s.
btw, google exercise and pd., a lot of research. chiropractors have published research. you might think academics don't do that research because it makes no sense?

there is a tremendous amount of research in europe/asia on natural supps.

you ignored my specific questions and responded with a critique of the u.s. commercial/academic pd community.
i don't get it.

Of course, there is always the option of ignoring someone who wants debate but not discussion.

great idea. bye.

Jak, can I just back you up and say I feel exactly the same as you. I've had PD symptoms for 8 years but only just been diagnosed. I believe PD drugs cause people to deteriorate faster. I don't judge anyone for taking them but right now I would be acting against my gut instinct if I took them. I don't understand the hostility directed at people who don't want to take meds. We should all be supporting eachother to do what feels right for ourselves. As you are in Australia have you heard of John Coleman? http://www.parkinsonsrecoveryprogram.com/
I have read his book and it rings true to me.

Welcome and gidday mate

Trixiedee

Maybe because we feel that salt is being rubbed on an open sore? Tough luck SUCKERS???

How can someone with PD and not taking meds be perceived to be rubbing salt in the wounds of a PWP taking meds? We're all suffering from the same thing...

Sometimes at work people bring personal problems to work. Its bad. It happens more easily from behind a screen on a forum. Its bad too.

Life is not easy. You dont expect no discussion on early PD diagnosis on a Neuro form do you? No thats silly. The issue for some is and im being blunt here is that many people are on PD meds and have been for years at increasing doses and hearing about others who are not on them and perhaps have milder PD or wrong diagnosis . com is upsetting. Fine. I understand that but let that be on the table

Jak

You have been made welcome here, and you actually are welcome, we like newcomers, once we were that ourselves. Because we have been taking PD meds it does not mean that our brains have rotted, or that we are somehow less for it. Yes, we have our uphill struggles with PD, but first and foremost we are just people......

You say you are being blunt - Well, I am going to be blunt. We have had many many people come here looking for answers, newly diagnosed, and friends and family of newly diagnosed, and we share with them what we can, because we remember what it was like and we know what is is going to be. Mostly we are very open minded here and say pretty much what we feel, and no hard feelings. Occasionally things get a little bit fierce, but only rarely. On the whole I would say this is a community, a pretty good one...

There are many people here who are regular posters who do not hide 'behind a screen', many know each other and communicate in other ways, and there are some of the finest activists in the PD world here too. I've been coming here or to the forums that preceded this one for around 8 years, and I am still humbled by the big hearted and amazing people who have helped make this forum what it is. There are also many people who do not post, but nevertheless visit, some are like you , new to this place, others have been here a long time, only post when they really feel like it, some of them are dealing with the very thin end of the wedge with PD.........

It is easy to think you know a lot and to think you know better, but this place is quite a good reflection of real life, the more you learn the more you realise how much more there is to know........

I happen to agree with some of the things you say, though I can't say that I agree with the way you are saying them..........

Lindy

Thank you and hello Trixidee. There are a few hostile posts but not most. When you consider what people have and are been thru. They hurt themselves not me PD drugs do have very strong adverse effects. No neuro doc or drug rep can separate the PD symptoms vs PD meds side effects once you are on them.

Jak