I had a talk with Dr. Jennings (www.parkinsonstmj.com) who says that most PD is caused by trigeminal nerve dysfunction usually secondary to jaw malalignment.
See http://www.dentalphysician.com/www07...dparadigm.html

The hypertonic nerve increases substance P that manifests in, among many other things, over activation of the microglial cells in the brain. So it is usually a bite disturbance that causes the brain inflammation that progresses PD.

Is the hypothesis accurate? If you search Youtube for Parkinson's tmj you will find several amazing videos. Here is one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=no0ifu7Yzo4

More can be found at www.tmjstack.com

I saw Dr. Jennings who promptly diagnosed a bite abnormality then talked for an hour on the many problems associated with it. He dragged out books and a stack of papers to support his assertions. Despite being known since the 70's no one in the medical field has payed attention to it except in Japan where a lot of research is done. It was all quite fascinating.

Then he put sticks in my mouth and tested me. It got immediate results as he could not easily push me over anymore and I walked almost normally, something I haven't done in a long time despite trying a lot of things.

I am having a mouthpiece made and using it improves symptoms over time as shown in the videos. I still can't believe that it is so simple but I am greatly encouraged. We'll see how it goes.

I found some articles by Dr. Jennings, etc. which explain a little bit of the ideas.

Here's an old article so it doesn't mention PD specifically though that is currently an active area of interest.

http://williamritter.com/CM_Research...0The%20Jaw.pdf

Among many other effects, too much substance P depresses nerve growth factor leading to neurodegeneration. Here is a full list of its effects.

http://web.me.com/thriiive/Summit_9/...20main03-3.pdf

Here is another older article. He is now of the opinion that in almost every case, PD is actually the result of a TMJ disorder.

http://web.me.com/thriiive/Summit_9/...ONTMJpub-1.pdf

Here is an article from Japan with an interesting experiment. Grinding the teeth down on one side of a dog's jaw yielded PD type symptoms on the opposite side.

http://parkinsonstmj.com/wp-content/...in-dogs019.pdf

I hope this works for you Gerry

I do just want to mention that we had some flurry over this in the Tourette community as well a few years back, as some dentists claim this is THE cure for TS.
A lot of people spent a good deal of $ and not a single one has reported a "cure" for their TS tics from it yet...at least not in the large group I heard from.

I am not saying that this is not very beneficial for people who have TMJ problems.....just that it does not appear to be THE cure for TS, PD and every movement disorder known to man (as some are claiming )

My friend Jan is now finding a progressive improvement with dialing down her adrenaline / addressing autonomic nervous system problems, as a result of Oral System Balance treatment from Dr. Farrand Robson, a progressive custom-fit oral orthotic. This certainly appears to allow a rebalancing of neurotransmitters.

Good wishes,
Trisha