Ron posted long ago that in his considerable experience in the lab, they focused on the theory that answered the most questions about the problem they were trying to solve. Too bad pharma doesn't seem to be using this approach, but I digress.

Here on this forum we've posted lots of questions about PD, and as time has gone on I've wondered, like most, what could possibly answer those questions. I was going to post this on Ron's thread about Dr. Jannetta's MVD surgery, but didn't want to hijack his thread (plus I happen to totally disagree that MVD is more invasive and/or dangerous than DBS). So....

I recently learned that our veins and arteries not only get more brittle as we age, we all know this, but that they get LONGER. Increasingly longer and more brittle blood vessels, and there are tons of them in the brain, vying for space in a fixed, inflexible environment, such as a skull, will necessarily cause problems. You have a fixed volume of space and no room, really, for expansion.

I also recently read that depending on where one has vascular compression in the brain, that will dictate what symptoms he/she may exhibit. Makes sense.

So, if PD is caused in whole or part by some sort of vascular tension/malfunction in the brain, to me this answers many questions:

1. why mostly older people get it (more longer blood vessels as we age)
2. why symptoms vary so much (different compression points, and of differing intensities)
3. why stress flares symptoms up for all PWP
4. why increasingly younger people are getting PD (our diet is all wrong, from birth to grave we are eating starch, starch, and more starch which does not keep blood vessels supple and smooth, among other problems)
5. why PD does not improve, and actually gets worse...the cells are in a drought, not enough blood/oxygen/nutrients being delivered due to vascular malfunction, and the area stricken by the drought only gets larger as the PWP gets older and his/her blood vessels get longer and more brittle, exacerbating the problem and increasing the number and severity of symptoms (it gets worse, at least, until you improve the circulatory issues, allowing more life-giving blood/oxygen to the drought-stricken area, I believe this is what happened to Dr. Jannetta's patient)
6. why sinemet temporarily helps (the dopamine-producing cells are starved since they are not getting enough oxygen...sinemet provides something the brain on its own is not producing enough of)

I could go on. But I will add this: my mom recently passed at 76, no PD, her mother a few years ago at 93 I believe it was, also no PD, and all of my mom's five siblings are alive and PD-free so far, all are over age 70. My mom's family was a farm family and ate what they could grow, and were rarely if ever sick. Sure they ate potatoes and bread, but nothing like the diet my generation and the ones following me grew up eating. I believe all the starch, and lack of fresh vegetables somehow causes blood vessels to become prematurely brittle and longer, which results in younger people getting PD. All the vaccinations forced upon us don't help, but I really think the lack of copious amounts of vegetables is critical. I wonder how many vegetarians have PD and if so, what their stories are?

Keep in mind Dr. Wahl, the doctor with MS who is in remission...she attributes her recovery to the enormous quantities of healthy vegetables she eats every day, no sugars, and little to no grains.

So I guess my theory is that vascular malfunction of some sort is causative in PD, and that the vascular malfunction is in turn caused by pretty much a complete disregard of how we really should be eating as humans. I love a good steak and potato meal myself, but in reality, this is not a sustainable way to eat, and not a meal I could ever track, capture, kill, and prepare myself on a regular basis.

Disclaimer: these are just my humble musings, I'm no doctor or scientist and don't even have any type of medical background.

Hi lurking,
Well done, a well thought out theory. You quoted my rule that the theory that answers the most questions wins, and yours certainly is near the front row. As I read it, I looked for the answer to why some folk reach 100 PD free and others like MJF get it in their 20's. Your explanation of wrong diet is a good one, but some young onset people are known to get PD in their teens. Is there enough time for overcrowding to be caused of the veins etc in the skull.
It would be very interesting to get figures if they exist of vegetarians versus meat eaters getting PD. I must admit I had plenty of vegetables in earlier life, a faster life and fast food later on. I was diagnosed at 55.
Also would a post mortem show overcrowding in the skull? Has it been seen I wonder.
Ron

Chimes with the purple leg thing that some of us get too, which as far as I have been able to tell is a kind of vasculitis, and goes hand in hand with postural hypotension, sorry about the mixed metaphor. So if something is accelerating the process you describe....... makes a kind of sense to me, too..... oh, I have been mainly vegetarian for many years, only rarely eating white meat.......

It is hard to see PD as arising from any single cause. The patterns just aren't right. For example, if the cause is mercury in vaccines, then we would expect to find a "bulge" in the data with most PWP having been vzccinated and a similar lack of cases among those who have not.

Geographical distribution has produced a very few clues such as more cases in the Dakotas and fewer in India, but all tantalize while keeping their treasures hidden.

Socio-economic factors don't offer any "eureka" moments, either. I, personally, believe that the changes wrought by the Industrial Revolution played a role as wheat varieties were standardized, sugar became cheap, artificial light and shift work disrupted circadian rhythms, dust in the workplace became a given, the family support system was destroyed, etc.

We must be looking for multiple factors working together. Maybe mercury does play a role, but only if stress produced levels of hormones are just so. A large number of possible combinations yielding a common outcome could account for a lot.

Maybe we can gain something by leapfrogging over the question of cause and considering the processes. Inflammation of the brain, for example, becomes more common as we age, is worsened by infection, rotenone, mercury, stress, etc.

I am currently pursuing the role of blood pressure in the brain. It can surge quickly and fade away just as fast, leaving the BBB in tatters. I have found that my worst freezing is when my BP is high. Tissues balloon and recede as it fluctuates.

Ron, I've read that most autopsies "ruin", for lack of a better word, the brain such that it is impossible to see whether there is any vascular compression. You would probably have to clearly specify you wanted that looked for in autopsy in advance, and who knows to ask for that-most people who do get an autopsy are family members of the patient and are looking for the almighty "Lewy Bodies" to confirm the PD diagnosis.

But....with all this incredible technology we have, I just can't help but think that we have no excuse to not at least look for this. That's why Jannetta's findings were so amazing to me-78% of the people he looked at with PD had penduncle compression. This is the largest correlation I've seen in PD-not even 78% of PWP have tremor, for Pete's sake!

I am very curious to see what Jannetta's next report reveals.

From the article:

"One reason that arterial compression of the cerebral peduncle was never noted may be because of the technique of the standard post mortem examination of the brain. For the post mortem exam, the calvarium is removed with a power saw. The dura mater is removed. The forebrain is then raised up off the frontal-temporal fossa and the region of the midbrain transected using a scalpel or scissors. This, the area of the vascular compression, is unfortunately stretched, distorted and at times transected.

Subtle neurovascular relationships are lost. The autopsy technique of removal of the hindbrain also has denied careful study of neurovascular
relationships of the pons and medulla even if the brain has been removed in one piece. In any case, arterial relationships have generally been found by pathologists."

if your theory was correct wouldn't we see clusters of p.d., especially in smaller communities where people ate the same foods and especially in germany, norway, etc. where there is a lot more fat in the diet and lots of small rural communities but good healthcare records?
plus i would think you would see more pd running in families.

I dunno. How's that for an answer? If folks in a small community are eating mostly the same foods and those foods are healthy, like in my mom's community where she grew up, I don't think we would see a correlation because no one from there has PD that I know of. They may be fatter now, have heart issues, diabetes, maybe some blood pressure issues here and there, but I've not heard of anyone getting PD. And they are living long enough that we would have seen some cases of PD by now, if anyone was going to get it.

But I don't think we should disregard the effect(s) of genes or the environment, although to date I'm not aware of any striking correlation between PD and one over the other (rural vs. urban, for example) or geographical region. All of us are different and tolerate/process foods and the quantities of those foods differently.

Fats are not bad! This is another area where we have been misled. I've read roughly thirty percent of our diet should be fat, that is a lot. Where we go wrong is eating the wrong kinds of fat: margarine, reduced fat ice cream and cheeses, modified fats, trans fats, all of these I call frankenfoods, instead of nuts, olive oil, butter, cream, and more butter (just kidding). Sooo many books and magazines out there today are touting the benefits of healthy fats, particularly the kind found in the main foods of the countries you mention: mackerel, sardines, all of those oily fishes are very high in those healthy omega fats if you can stand to eat them.

I've read for some time that diets low in fat are not necessarily the healthiest and cause dry and brittle everything: hair, skin, nails....surely it stands to reason that lack of sufficient healthy fats can cause similar brittleness inside the body, as in our blood vessels?

I'm not saying I think vascular malfunction totally explains all cases and aspects of PD. I'm just saying this theory answers a lot of questions about PD, for me. It also seems to be a real solution that gets at a problem, instead of just treating symptoms. We'll be asking for this test at our next neuro exam. I bet our neuro will have never heard of any of this.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and comments.

Hi Lurking,
You say that " most autopsies "ruin", for lack of a better word, the brain" but is this true. in london there is a brain bank which relies on PWP donating their brain when they die to research. Non PD folk also donate as standards. i have visited the research labs, and believe me they are careful workers. If overcrowding occured regularly in PD brains, for sure they would see it. Possibly we could ask them the question? They are at

MRC London Brain Bank for Neurodegenerative Diseases

July 2011 - The brain bank has been experiencing some problems with incoming calls. If your enquiry is urgent please email claire.troakes@kcl.ac.uk

i found when I searched that there are brain banks in most big cities in all countries.
Ron

Rick, my blood pressure has been a little high when they come in first thing in the morning before meds. Then it gets lower throughout the day. The doctor said he does notice an increase in the morning but would not treat it because parkinson meds lower our blood pressure.

it occurred to me that i am almost always on when getting blood pressure checked.