I believe that stress can be a contributory factor. As in other disorders. There is the chronic childhood disorder, mesenteric adenitis, an inflammation of the tissues of the abdomen, which is an auto-immune disorder, treatable with the right anti-inflammatories but seldom improved with 'better' diet. It is profoundly affected by emotional stress. There are many others, and it is hard to separate where physical causes end and mental/emotional causes start. But we are whole beings, and should not rule out stress as a factor. One person's stress is another persons challenge. In the case of stress that is shared and sharable with others perhaps it's effects are more diluted by social support, than when it is shouldered on one's own with no outlet.

It is well known that the immune system for instance takes a huge hit when under emotional stress.........

People can be unaware of the level of stress they are under until is is removed. This is the point at which illness can occur, when stress is alleviated, other damage becomes apparent...... Ordinary events show this, you don't need science to prove it, it is observable in peoples lives.......

I had to check three because all three might apply.

I was diagnosed with cancer three years before PD. I wonder sometimes if the chemo had anything to do with it.

But then it could be the whole past decade that I don't even want to talk about.

pd rarely occurs under 40. why? young people don't have emotional traumas, brain injuries? a lot of football players experience head trauma, do they develop pd more often and at earlier ages? i'm not disagreeing that an event can cause loss of nigral stratium cells which can manifest in pd once you lose 80% of your cells but it's interesting why pd is a middle age/elderly disease. do we have less ability to protect those neurons as we age? do some of us just have less neurons to lose? is there a pool of stem cells that runs out? if it were as simple as stress i'd think you'd see pd in younger people and in more people.

i just think that as we approach middle age, stress increases as we take on more responsibility with careers, family, finances and it's easy to correlate that with pd which might just be manifesting itself at the same time as we cross that threshold of nigral cell loss that exhibits pd symptoms. and again, do people in stressful jobs - flight controllers, policemen, etc. have a higher incidence of pd?

i just think evolution would have selected against individuals that would suffer pd from emotional stress, neanderthals and cromagnons had to have a little more stress than we do on a daily basis.

stress depressing our immune systems and resulting in pd? there sure are a lot of people with suppressed immune systems, transplants, those undergoing radiation, chemo, japanese atomic bomb survivors, do they get more pd? then you have the recent bird and swine flu epidemics, i imagine those viruses get into the brain, any more pd there? what about identical twins, one has pd, the other doesn't, what's different in their lives?

just putting in my 2 cents. sure stress might be a factor but i think a very small one.

I am just saying that can stress be one of our "triggers" if we look at the multiple hit explanation for onset of PD, and in some depending on how they process stress, it may be more of an influencing. As Olsen posted, there may be a genetic factor centered on how stress effects us.

So in looking at the new research published on smokers they have discovered that smoking attenuates responses to negative stimuli. So when a smoker is having a cig, he has a normal response to negative images and when he is craving a cig he does not respond to negative visual stimuli. This means the smoker isn't constantly pumping out cortisol or having PTSD like responses to workplace stress like being leveled for half the day by panic attacks that rapidly cycle leaving me unable to walk. Had a bit of social anxiety due to tremor early on but nothing like this. The really odd bit is that i would feel profoundly relaxed then panic attack would take over.


As Lindy said, sometimes stress just builds and when you take the lid off the pan...I ended up spending most of last summer in the offices of various medical specialists who could not even venture to say that sounds like a panic attack despite my detailed observations on involvement the parasympathetic nervous system and subsequent extended flight or fight response in where I cannot walk. Sinemet does not touch it but a beta blocker will keep it in check. Maybe this is an entirely different thing from PD? Why is it then that another forum member has exact same thing going on?

Stress produces cytokines which are implicated in the pathogenesis of PD. IS this how smoking is neuroprotective? Essentially dampens the amygdala.


Incidentally, this over-reaction I am having may be PTSD related to workplace stress over being targeted as weak, no longer able to do my job, and a financial burden by my employer. A K-12 district populated by shiny, happy people in $800,000 homes. I was wonderful, until I got sick. I have been mobbed with a new supervisor as the lead bully. The best part is according to my lawyer, I have no EEOC or ADA claim. They have played this game before and most likely win each time. We have a governor who just abolished our teacher tenure act so they can either just fire me now, let me work under extremely stressful conditions then fire me at the end of the year, or I make the decision to quit out of fear I will end up in a wheelchair due to stress.

What is a PD gal with moxie to do? Special thank you to Rick for reminding me I have the nothing to lose factor going for me. My immediate ideas? Exploit being a YO mom with PD and toddler in an open letter video to our dear governor? Plaster it every i can? OR see if our resident shark lawyer who has political aspirations and who only takes on high profile (he defended jack kevorkian aka dr. death) cases again exploiting the health? Any opinions either way?

-Laura

I do believe stress forces PD, among many other diseases, to rear its ugly head. Are we genetically predisposed? Probably. Are environmental factors a huge part in causing PD? I think so. These things (i.e. pollution, pesticides, toxins, the absence of essential nutrients in our soil because man has tried so hard to get rid of the pest that threatens his sustenance, his livelihood; and making big bucks, of course) must all play a part in keeping us unprotected and defenseless against disease. But, man is programmed to make things right, make life better. Oops, I'm drifting off the subject.
And, wouldn't major trauma be the ultimate of stress factors?
So, if we put all of your answers together, then we would probably have THE answer. All of these are likely factors in the physical and mental development of PD. Of course, the gene would have to be in place first, right?? And, abusing your body with lack of sleep, alcoholism, overeating, not eating enough, etc.. are also stress factors.
Another thought (and another subject) is what about the cause of the "Palsy" before modern civilization, before chemicals were put in/on the ground, in the animals? They suffered great stresses, also.

I do appreciate this thread and all the input. I appreciate Reverett's openness, and Marcia not wanting to talk about that decade of pain, and Laura sharing her fight with those who threaten her livelihood/secure future because of ignorance and total lack of compassion(do they not have at least one loved one or close friend with a debilitating/progressive disease?).
The only things I know for sure in all of this is that I was extremely stressed over huge family issues that caused a lot of bad feelings right before I noticed a tremor in my left hand. Five years later, three traumatic things happened all within 2 weeks and the PD decided my left side was lonely and wanted the right side to make it complete. Pain set in a year and a half later. And now after 2 1/2 years of severe dystonial pain and weakness, progression is rapid. Ironically, the rapid progression is more than likely caused by the stress and grief from the pain that comes along with PD, and an adverse drug reaction months ago that I won't get into on this thread.

Laura, I say do whatever you have to do to protect yourself, your son, your livelihood, your future. We do have rights in this country. We have a constitution written and signed by men who wanted freedom and protection from bullies.

Everyone here has something to contribute no matter the differences in opinions. I'm benefiting from you all. This life isn't what we expected or what we had in mind when we were dreaming of our futures. But, each of you are helping PWP's know they are not alone in this fight. I would have never thought PD could be so complex.

Sorry this is so long. I'm not likely to say this much again.


Tonya

Tonya,
Know you are among friends here, this is a great group of pwp, some who have shared for many years, and some who have been advocating and raising awareness for a very long time. Personally I do not know what I would have done without this forum, and some of the people who post here are now not just abstract voices, they have become very dear friends.

It is great that you have posted, and please continue to do so... you have raised something very interesting, that our collective voice brings us closer to the answers........

Thank you for sharing your experience of stress with us. There are a lot of people here who will have gone through similar, and it is this sharing that helps us feel less isolated and stronger to deal with PD.......

Your post is a valuable contribution.

Best wishes
Lindy

Lindy

There is both acute and chronic. The first has epinephrine (adrenaline) in the center of the chemical mix and the latter has cortisol. There are others such as aldosterone and norepinephrine. All come from the adrenals. Others come from other parts of the endocrine system such as the pituitary. These are all linked together via feedback loops and are constantly reacting to one another. IMHO it is the most mind boggling of the body's dances - even more than the nervous system.

When things get out of kilter, it is important to realize that chronic and acute stress are two entirely different things. We are designed to deal with acute stress but chronic is a problem. And chronic has risen constantly since the Industrial Revolution.

This is due, in part, to another facet of stress - our own power to change the situation. The rat who is convinced that he cannot escape the shocks gives up and lies there in his pain. His cocktail is different than the rat who thinks "Ouch! I'm outa' here!". The first experience is called "learned helplessness" and is a chronic stress. The second is an acute "kick the door down" reaction. Cortisol and adrenaline.

When your house is burning you are flooded with adrenaline and you act. When you kiss a loved one on their death bed after many years of caring and cortisol, you know a profound helplessness. It is this chronic stress that sets us up for permanent change triggered by an oncoming adrenaline-fueled trigger. It happens suddenly as these things go. "Thresholds" shift and new rules come into play.

Most people experience the acute trauma of a loved one's auto accident and bear up well. Like the rat kicking down the walls, they bring an energy to the equation that promotes healing.

A lot of people experience the chronic horror that comes with the knowledge that their loved one is not going to heal and is going to lay there for the next 40 years. A lot of people can't cope with that and, although they try, ultimately two paths diverge from a divorce. And, from an evolutionary viewpoint, it must be admitted that it is better that one survive than none.

A few people (that's us) experience that chronic horror but react differently. For good or ill, they see a duty to stay at that bedside or in that marriage.

But what happens when that last group is not the stalwart standing strong, but is instead the victim of life's unrelenting "slings and arrows". We all have limits even for self sacrifice. The middle group recognizes theirs when their stress gauges sound out a warning. When do we in group three recognize ours? Not in time, obviously. No, we go down under a hail of stones and arrows because we didn't get the signal to "step out the back Jack" as Paul Simon says.

We fail to exercise self preservation and opt for self sacrifice. Sometimes consciously. Sometimes not. It is stupid from a self-centered view. It is noble from another. "No greater love..."

I would say that I was dealing with chronic stress before my PD symptoms began. I was raised in a home with an abusive, alcoholic dad and my mom lived with her head in the sand half of the time. I experienced traumatic stress and chronic stress and was actually diagnosed with PTSD because of my childhood. Yeah...it's a little scary when your dad points a rifle at you, your mom, and your brother when you are trying to escape yet another drunken rage. I watched my mom get thrown around and I got thrown around. That was my life for at least 10 of my 18 years at home. BTW...10 of those years were spent living near a toxic waste dump. I got married at 18 and had our first baby four years later. We began having marriage problems and I left our family home. We wound up losing our house. We reunited and had our second baby. Oh, I should probably mention that I experienced two very problematic high risk pregnancies complicated by gestational diabetes and pre-term labor. I spent weeks of my life in the hospital trying to keep the babies from being born too early. When my youngest was two, I was actually diagnosed with autoimmune type 1 diabetes. I learned to deal with that. Then, my youngest son began having speech delays. Testing for that and speech therapy for him began. I began to experience depression and anxiety for the first time in my life and began taking Paxil. The grocery strike hit in California and my husband had to find a new job. He found a job and got us through it. We began having problems in our neighborhood, local schools, freeway shootings every other day, etc. We got sick of it. We moved to a different state and struggled financially because my husband had to start out at the bottom of the pay schedule here. At the time we felt the move was worth it. We felt that it was more important that our sons would be able to grow up in a realtively nice, safe place. I began working and didn't like it. I opened my own daycare and loved it. My son was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADD. There was a lot of heartache and stress surrounding his issues. It took a lot out of me! Then, at the age of 31 I had to have my uterus removed because of adenomyosis and fibroids. I had always wanted more children and the reality of my hysterectomy hit me hard. I am 36 today and still struggle with the fact that we didn't have more children. Anyways, it was three months after my uterus was removed when I started noticing the cogwheeling. I went to my primary doctor, then a Rheumatologist that told me what cogwheeling was and that it was most often associated with PD. Then, I went to the Neuro and he told me that there was a 50-90% chance I had PD. I tried Requip, then Mirapex. They did help, but not as much as my doctor was expecting them to. I sought two other opinions. One said physiologic tremor and the other said ET. The ET meds didn't work. In the middle of all of this, I was still juggling my son and my daycare. It was shortly after that that I decided to close down my daycare. It was becoming more and more difficult to meet my son's needs with the extra little ones in the house. I went through a program to become a nursing assistant and did that for a little while until I got hurt. Then, I had emergency surgery to remove a torsed ovary. After I healed I decided to work part time as a Nanny. I loved it. It was the perfect balance for me. I was really struggling with pain and stiffness horribly though. It was so bad that I thought about flipping my car on an empty freeway and doing myself in. Finally, I tried Sinemet in March of 2010 and my stiffness went away and I could move again. I was diagnosed with levodopa responsive parkinsonism.

After reading all of that, it sounds pretty sad. You only asked about the stress, so that is all I wrote about. I just wanted to add that I also have had many good times and many blessings in my life.

[QUOTE=Conductor71;785137]I am just saying that can stress be one of our "triggers" if we look at the multiple hit explanation for onset of PD, and in some depending on how they process stress, it may be more of an influencing. As Olsen posted, there may be a genetic factor centered on how stress effects us.

So in looking at the new research published on smokers they have discovered that smoking attenuates responses to negative stimuli. So when a smoker is having a cig, he has a normal response to negative images and when he is craving a cig he does not respond to negative visual stimuli. This means the smoker isn't constantly pumping out cortisol or having PTSD like responses to workplace stress like being leveled for half the day by panic attacks that rapidly cycle leaving me unable to walk. Had a bit of social anxiety due to tremor early on but nothing like this. The really odd bit is that i would feel profoundly relaxed then panic attack would take over.


As Lindy said, sometimes stress just builds and when you take the lid off the pan...I ended up spending most of last summer in the offices of various medical specialists who could not even venture to say that sounds like a panic attack despite my detailed observations on involvement the parasympathetic nervous system and subsequent extended flight or fight response in where I cannot walk. Sinemet does not touch it but a beta blocker will keep it in check. Maybe this is an entirely different thing from PD? Why is it then that another forum member has exact same thing going on?

Stress produces cytokines which are implicated in the pathogenesis of PD. IS this how smoking is neuroprotective? Essentially dampens the amygdala.


Incidentally, this over-reaction I am having may be PTSD related to workplace stress over being targeted as weak, no longer able to do my job, and a financial burden by my employer. A K-12 district populated by shiny, happy people in $800,000 homes. I was wonderful, until I got sick. I have been mobbed with a new supervisor as the lead bully. The best part is according to my lawyer, I have no EEOC or ADA claim. They have played this game before and most likely win each time. We have a governor who just abolished our teacher tenure act so they can either just fire me now, let me work under extremely stressful conditions then fire me at the end of the year, or I make the decision to quit out of fear I will end up in a wheelchair due to stress.

What is a PD gal with moxie to do? Special thank you to Rick for reminding me I have the nothing to lose factor going for me. My immediate ideas? Exploit being a YO mom with PD and toddler in an open letter video to our dear governor? Plaster it every i can? OR see if our resident shark lawyer who has political aspirations and who only takes on high profile (he defended jack kevorkian aka dr. death) cases again exploiting the health? Any opinions either way?

-Laura


You could be describing me. over the past few years, I have been having increasing periods of being unable to walk. I know it is absolutely related to my stress level. Even following DBS the inability to be mobile continues to increase.I notice that sometimes if I can lie down or take a nap I am do a bit better. It is apparent that if I "think" too much when I am struggling to move, I can easily freeze. I have had fear of flying in the past which I now realize might have been panic attacks. I have had fear of public speaking as well.I think more than 3 of us are out there) Is it possible that the Sinemet actually causes an increased stress response in us, which is counterproductive? FG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holmes_...e_stress_scale

Adults

To measure stress according to the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, the number of "Life Change Units" that apply to events in the past year of an individual's life are added and the final score will give a rough estimate of how stress affects health.



Life event

Life change units



Death of a spouse

100



Divorce

73



Marital separation

65



Imprisonment

63



Death of a close family member

63



Personal injury or illness

53



Marriage

50



Dismissal from work

47



Marital reconciliation

45



Retirement

45



Change in health of family member

44



Pregnancy

40



Sexual difficulties

39



Gain a new family member

39



Business readjustment

39



Change in financial state

38



Death of a close friend

37



Change to different line of work

36



Change in frequency of arguments

35



Major mortgage

32



Foreclosure of mortgage or loan

30



Change in responsibilities at work

29



Child leaving home

29



Trouble with in-laws

29



Outstanding personal achievement

28



Spouse starts or stops work

26



Begin or end school

26



Change in living conditions

25



Revision of personal habits

24



Trouble with boss

23



Change in working hours or conditions

20



Change in residence

20



Change in schools

20



Change in recreation

19



Change in church activities

19



Change in social activities

18



Minor mortgage or loan

17



Change in sleeping habits

16



Change in number of family reunions

15



Change in eating habits

15



Vacation

13



Christmas

12



Minor violation of law

11


Score of 300+: At risk of illness.

Score of 150-299+: Risk of illness is moderate (reduced by 30% from the above risk).

Score 150-: Only have a slight risk of illness.