One of the benefits of being older is getting to say whatever you want whenever you want in front of whoever! I'm not there....yet, but a friend is. Recently I was told by this friend (in front of a doctor, of course) that doctors were unnecessary unless you needed to fix something that was physically broken in the body.

It got me to thinking...do any meds that anyone takes, for anything, MS, PD, cancer, lupus, even migraine, etc., ever get the person to feeling like "normal"? Not that I know of. Perhaps this is because something is broken, physically. If you had a broken arm, there is no drug in the world that can fix it, only a cast, and rest.

I can't even say I think the brain is the origin of PD symptoms anymore. I think the thyroid, the adrenals, cellular function everywhere, and of course the brain are all very involved. But what if the brain was broken, much like Jannetta claims, a blood vessel impinging on a key group of neural fibers? No drug in the world, or cocktail thereof, can fix that. And I am really beginning to wonder if those neural cells are actually dead, because if they were, the patient who had surgery under Jannetta's hand would not have been PD-free days, yes days, after surgery. If those cells were dead, they'd be dead, and she'd still have PD symptoms after the surgery...but she didn't. Maybe those cells were sick, weak, atrophied even, and the blood flow being restored rescussitated those weak cells and the pressure being removed off the neural fibers moved things back to the normal side.

I don't know, it just makes me wonder, as I read so many people sharing their experiences with these drugs. I've never read of someone saying their meds made them feel great. And we all know about the side effects, a whole 'nother issue.

Anyone know of any studies where they have looked at the physical characteristics of living PD brains (other than looking for MS lesions, tumors, etc.)? Or is this just too far out there?

They are only just starting to get scanning techniques that will scan the brain while it is working. When these are tightened up a little, i.e. they become cheaper and the doctors learn to understand what they are seeing, then I think some of our burning questions will get answered. The big problem that I see with this is how to differentiate what is happening in the brain and filter out the 'noise' of all the other activity that is going on. I think there maybe surprises to be had.