http://english.manoramaonline.com/cg...Id=-1073865025

So I ordered a pallet of Bubblelicious today

I've been chewing gum for the past year because it relieves my severe jaw tremor, after reading an article which I think I saw referenced here. Unfortunately, I also suffer from dry mouth, probably due to a med, and chewing gum irritates my already irritated mouth. Also, most gums use artificially sweeteners, which I avoid because I don't think they're good for you. Takes some looking to find gum without it.

Be aware if you are careful about aspartame- it is in so many kinds of gum. On the other hand, if you find gum with only xylitol as the sweetener, it tends to have a laxative effect- which is probably okay with most of us!
I believe Dentine Classic is aspartame free and probably some others you can get online or at a health food store.

It can also speed up aspiration if you have swallowing issues or dry mouth from meds.

c'mon, lighten up!
i posted that mainly since it seemed amusing, not for everyone go start chewing gum.

I did not at all mean that literally.

That was lightened up; I thought after reading Dianna's thread we could use a little levity here. I was just kidding. Guess I did not choose the right emoticon.
Sorry if I offended anyone.

Laura

I've been getting more and more interested in the "fringe" areas of PD and becoming more and more convinced that our paths lead in that direction. After enjoying the chuckle that cane with the above, I slowly realized that there was something important there.

Chewing is a very complicated thing to think about. It is one of the most common of our activities. It involves the TMJ at the rear of the jaw. That is one of those "busy" areas that seem to crop up regularly with PD - brains sending signals along neurons that dart bravely through the clashing of the bony plates of the jaw, for example.

But that is just the beginning. To take this further and relate it to PD is going to require that we work on this a little more. Consider one nerve fiber dodging this obstacle course - the vagus nerve. Maybe you have heard of it, but probably not. The vagus is on the fringe that I introduced in my first paragraph. It is actually a pair of nerves (the tenth cranial pair) originating at the rear of the skull, dropping down to the abdomen and hooking up to virtually any part of you that you can imagine along the way. And when it ends in the pelvic area it manages to hook up (or enervate) our legs for good measure.

It ties together our innards. All those "messy" parts that become increasingly impaired as we "progress". It can bring constipation, gastroparesis, impotence, hypersexuality, as well as other familar names to the PD community. And those names and what they represent have had their importance recognized for at least five thousand years in the East and include the networks of the first chakra (constipation), the second (sexuality), the third (gastric function), the fourth (heart), the fifth (throat, voice), the sixth (third eye, awareness), and the seventh (crown, understanding).

The seven "knots" of that rope reflect the wisdom of the oldest culture that our species has ever known. It is not simple - it would be an insult to everyone of us to pretend that it was. It is presented simply, however, in order that it be possible to pass it on to others - to teach them the nature of the Blinkin' Universe. We can be arrogant and dismiss it i we wish. After all, it doesn't need us. But we should only make such a decision after we undertand. The symbology in this forthright knotted rope is like the massive complexity of a computer chip revealing itself as we look closer and learn to focus.

I have gone on about this more than I intended - but it is the Universe, after all. Continued in Part 2

The point that I am trying to make, admittedly with limited success thus far, is that maybe it is as we have discussed before and that we are dealing with something that is, at the same time, larger yet simpler than we imagine. I believe that PD sits on the faultline between paradigms and that we have to widen our own quests to reflect that. And chewing gum is the key. (Do you hear the laughter of the Yogis in the distance? )

OK. Enough laughter and frivalous play. Here it is in the nutshell we have been waiting for -

PD is a dysfunction of the vagus nerve and is mapped out for us in the legacy left to us by the culture of the Indus Valley, the same culture that is credited with first describing it and treating it and it is only our own obstinance that keeps us from recognizing that.

The vagus nerve winds around our bodies and ties everything together. It does not function properly in PWP due to our personal relationship with the Universe. It is intimately involved in the maintenance of homeostasis (balance), the concept that many would argue lies at the center of the East. As our dsease "progresses" balance becomes harder and harder to achieve. One therapy is the stimulation of that very nerve. And the study that started this off demonstrates that chewing gum can stimulate that nerve and stimulating the nerve can help PD.

Will this cure it? No, not until we find what lies beneath. But we need a new way to look at things and this might do it.

This may be weird, but maybe it's my PD - I used to be able to chew gum for a long time to freshen up etc. Now after a few minutes of chewing, I get a strong gag reflex and have to immediately take it out! And that's no fun