[Conductor71]

My take on Parkinson's with research and scientists that substantiate my ideas- this is super long but all is relevant. If this is even remotely on target then the medical community has failed us big time.

Is there really an Idiopathic Parkinson's Disease? The very word means of spontaneous unknown origin. I am going to propose an idea I wanted to substantiate. I don't believe there is such a thing as Idiopathic Parkinson Disease. Patients already express this though living it; there is no one elusive, mysterious, spontaneous cause for PD. We all manifest and experience it differently because we have different pathways and triggers.

What doctors label as IPD really begins as a reaction to a brain trauma; that trauma can be from infection, a toxin, or genetic (think mitochondrial dysfunction). That reaction starts as an immune defense but for unknown reasons cannot be switched off. It's target may be long gone but left in its place are T1 cells that induce apoptosis or programmed cell death on your brain's own healthy neurons due to a case of cellular misidentity. If caught early, the process can be stopped or even reversed, but if left unchecked becomes pathogenic. That process and our inability to stop it results in what our neurologists label as Idiopathic PD. If we look at PD in this way; it highlights even more how deficit our current treatments and strategies are for starters and should serve as impetus for sea change in our diagnosis, therapies and quality of life. Right now we are offered nothing other than platitudes and a pat on the back because in labeling us with an idiopathic disease, doctors can wash their hands of us. They get a lot of financial return from watching us tap our fingers and walk in the hall every six months.

Whoa, this sounds way too simplistic to be viable, yet there are newer sporadic cases of an old PD spectre that keep tapping me on the shoulder, letting me know that viral Parkinsonism can easily become Idiopathic PD when the infectious phase is long over. We have all heard of the deadly flu pandemic of 1918 that killed millions and left at least 60 survivors with a strange Encephalopathy Lethargica or Sleeping Sickness. Some 60 or so survivors later awoke to Parkinson's (hence the book "Awakenings").

Fast forward. Twenty new cases of that same Lethargica virus are reported in 2003. Parkinsonism still makes an appearance post infection in all cases. Here is how things played out:

Ten patients had a monophasic illness, seven had a relapsing polyphasic course, two had static disease and one had progressive disease until death. After a mean follow‐up of 5 months (range 2–14 months), only five patients have made a complete recovery to date. Of the 15 patients with continuing impairments, six have a persisting movement disorder and ten have a disabling neuropsychiatric disturbance (one patient has both movement and psychiatric disorders).

Only five people made a complete recovery! The rest still have Parkinsonsim to varying degrees.

Another flu strain link:

A young woman just 22 years old enters the hospital with a severe case of the 2009 H1N1 strain and emerges with a unilateral resting tremor and masked face with no change after six months time. This is the first reported case of Parkinson's with the H1N1 scare. It's also noted that the H1N1 is a variant or strain of the Lethargica virus. No one has bothered to test this poor young woman for anti-bodies of any variety. Welcome to the world of PD, my friend.

It is apparently controversial or taboo to assert that PD is auto immune by linking the 1918 flu strain as a causative for Parkinson's because an effort was made to find that Influenza RNA in survivors and all tested negative. Further studies have shown that Parkinson's patients today test negative for significant flu RNA negating the idea that PD begins for some as an auto-immune reaction to a viral infection. Yet, this also ignores the fact that many viruses have a Hit and Run effect in our nervous system. It primes for disease; a second flu bout or infection or an exposure to a neurotoxin or a traumatic emotional event and we arrive at what doctors call Idiopathic Parkinson's.

On the other hand, animal studies show that the influenza virus can prime our brains for Parkinson's by causing alpha-synuclein aggregation. The case studies showing "hyperactive" grey matter in 40% of the Letharagica brains show this happens in humans, but no one is taking the next step to see if they indeed have this alpha-synuclein formation as well.

Yet, no RNA de facto means no definitive link between the two despite elimination of any other causative factor. Look at the stats and the clinical outcome of the contemporary cases: only 65% have strep virus RNA that "prove" the Parkinsonism is an auto-immune reaction, while 95% exhibit cardinal signs of PD. So how do we explain the discrepancy? Clearly in the majority of cases, auto-immunity is key. So why is the idea that PD may be an auto-immune expression so taboo or controversial?