Altho it may not initiate with an autoimmune event, pd appears to be very autoimmune in nature. Would it be useful to sort out which symptoms are autoimmune and whichare not? i don't like to be manipulated into group activity but the brain power and sheer number of posters might yield something new:

ok i could say so many but would rather others think about it :
[please correct errors in any of the posts.]

protein malfunction [try to find others besides alpha synuclein]
apoptosis
aceptycholine, glutamate, ,mao, and more are toxic in large quantities
gaba and norepinephrine are low, leaving no brakes , not enough adrealin, effecting serotonin.and and cause an abundance of the toxic transmitters.

i'll stop there but are those chemical imbalances all caused from autoimmunity?

Autoimmune conditions tend to clump together - if you get one you are quite likely to have signs of or develop another. I currently have four, vitiligo; a skin thing that makes me develop discoid lesions; psoriasis; and pernicious anaemia. IS PD a fifth? PAS is a medical label for people with an auto-immune syndrome, and doctors at the University of Dundee have done some worok on it. They include PD on their list of conditions........ you mention apoptosis which is what our neurons are susceptible to, in vitiligo the pigment producing cells are also susceptible..........

I too have vitiligo [covering about 70% of my skin now] and an apparently congenital b12 deficiency. Both dopamine and melanin require l-tyrosine for their effective production. The vitiligo began during my second pregnancy. Auto-immune diseases often seem to get triggered by pregnancy.

i have a re-occuring fungus and have had it since my 20s or 30s. not one doctor has ever connected it to anything or showed concern i have a couple of them right now, they resemble ringworm but are not. one doctor just shrugged and said it's some auto-immune thing.

That would enter bacteria into the picture would it not?

forgot to mention that vitiligo is also in my family' my cousin has no pigmentation left.

Paula,

You are spot on! There is mounting evidence that many diseases and chronic health conditions are autoimmune in nature. There is a scientist Olsen just introduced me to, Paul Ewald, an evolutionary biologist who thinks that many complex conditions are result of secondar infections from common bacterial, viral, or fungal infection. What he is saying is so logical and explains away most of the "mystery". I have made connections in separate post, but will link to Olsen's articles because they are fascinating and quite plausible.

http://www.quantumbalancing.com/news...erm_theory.htm

http://bacteriality.com/2008/02/11/ewald/

He is also on TED. Dr. Ewald actually states that one reason medical science and clinical establishment are reluctant to embrace his views because they make money from keeping people sick!

One of the bacteria linked to PD (one causing toxoplasmosis) actually uses dopamine in an effort to thrive. What is really scary is that it alters the brain chemistry of its host for its survival. Usually animals who get sick from it and humans who have bacteria have a long dormancy before symptoms appear. It also explains why PD does not consistently appear in families. I get how the infection theory explains inflammation but do not quite get the connection to alpha-synuclein pathology. In Alzheimer's it is know that the Beta Amyloid protein that misfolds is in its benign form an antimicrobial peptide. Who's to say that alpha-syn doesn't play same rolel for PD? Further, scientists are not ruling out that the microbes are not altering our genes for their needs.

What I find really compelling is that there is evidence of inflammation, pathological cytokine production, as origin of mood disorders like depression and anxiety. Think of how many neurological disorders start this way! That is hinting that we may be on a big autoimmune disorder spectrum.

As for any other associations, I was treated for hypothyroidism in my 20's but TSH levels normalized just prior to diagnosis. All of you mention vitiligo and I read that is the skin showing us there is hidden or underlying disease going on. I copy and pasted this web article:

SUMMARY. There is a significant association between vitiligo and thyroid disease. Thyroglobulin antibodies are significantly associated with vitiligo, whether patients with psoriasis or a general practice population are taken as controls. Similarly complement-fixing antibodies are significantly associated with vitiligo as compared with psoriasis. There is no evidence that thyroid autoimmunity is associated positively or negatively with psoriasis. Alopecia areata, pernicious anaemia and diabetes mellitus are also significantly associated with vitiligo.

an excellent example would be those girls who are all friends and are developing tics and other neurological abnormalities - i think they are from the northeast but not sure. doctors are suggest phsychogenic.....uh oh they'll never find it that way. bacteria seems more believable.

http://todayhealth.today.msnbc.msn.c...ets-resistance

Vitiligo and what I have alopecia universalis are related. I also agree that these disorders clump together. I now have four disorders relating to the immune system. I sure wish some science could figure all this out! ginnie

They need to look at us more. For the clinical trials they want people with specific circumstances that they predefine. It weeds a lot of us out, the ones who are 'atypical' or the ones with pre-existing other conditions that might complicate the statistics. And they mostly have to be de novo, not on medication......... but I'm guessing that it is the people who are anomalous who will carry some of the clues. Wasn't it people with postencephalitic parkinsonism being treated with ldopa that paved the way for our treatments........