Thanks to CTenaLouise for the thread titled "Neurogenesis" and the article at http://seedmagazine.com/news/2006/02...p?page=all&p=y

This is the central part of what Anne Frobert and I have been working on for the last year. There is much more, but this is the heart and if you let this article about the research of Elizabeth Gould sink in you will begin to understand the cause(s) of our PD and most importantly, things we can do about it.

In a nutshell, although there are other causes that contribute, PD is a stress-induced illness. Weird stress response is not a symptom but a cause, the primary cause, in fact. And while the damage undeniably involves the nervous system, the causes are the domain of not the neurologist but the endocrinologist. And to make matters even worse, before the problem lands in the camp of neurology, it has to pass through the territory of the immunologist as well. And that is why PD has stymied science for so long. It lies at the juncture of several disciplines whose members do not communicate with one another.

Stress induces a cascade of events whose result is an increase in the level of cortisol in our system. In a normal person cortisol levels rise to a peak in the early morning and drop throughout the day. In a PWP the pattern is disrupted - the morning peak is eliminated and levels "flat line" through the day BUT at an elevated level. We have chronic high cortisol. We are in a perpetual fight or flight response. A lifetime of that takes a toll.

It can begin in the womb as the result of bacterial toxins or maternal stress hormones. It can result from stressful childhoods. It can even result from a young man's experience in a war zone because the brain remains plastic until the late teens at least.

Some of you may remember from the old BT forum that when we polled ourselves that eighty percent of us had unusually stressful childhoods. Chronic stress and a plastic brain is a dangerous combination.

As a species we are designed for acute stress. Sudden and short. We have a much harder time with chronic stress. Constant. Always there. Our fight or flight gets stuck in the on position.

You remember Daffy and I jousting about the role of soot from the Industrial Revolution in PD. I do count soot as a factor. But there was something else that came with the IR. The nature of stress changed from predominantly acute to predominantly chronic. The clock took over our lives. We had a boss looking over our shoulders. Noise. Pollution.

That kind of stress takes a toll not only on ourselves but on our offspring as well. Stress accumulates over generations! The phenomenon is called "hormonal programming." Your mom is stressed out, you are more so, and your child even more so. Carry that out over the generations and the trend is greater and greater problems.

If this is all true, then there are new avenues open to us. Anything that relaxes us is a move in the right direction. Shed the high stress job. Take up fishing. Meditate. Yoga. Tai chi. Music. Whatever works.

Then look for the things that aid repair. But if we don't deal with our stress response, then nothing works.

Forgive the Rev for preaching, but if I didn't care about you I'd just go fishing.

While I know you are talking about biochemical and structural changes within the brain, reverett, I wonder how many of us have experienced immediate, extreme stress responses? There are days I can hardly haul myself out of work with my cane (I wonder how they would take it if a government employee resorted to crawling down the marble hall to the parking garage?) anyway, 45 minutes later, laughing with friends or working in my garden, I don't even need the cane!
And yes, I've had a life and childhood with extreme stress at times.

I think you are really on to something. Thanks for sharing some of your ideas.

...this is why I am still doing ok 12 years into the disease.
I say "sod it" and laugh a lot these days.
Formerly as a perfectionist,a workaholic,an avid worrier,a pereson who didn`t know how to say NO to anyones request,someone who lined up her washing on the line with a set square...and whose hair had to look as if it had been ironed...I guess I`ve now learned how to cope with stress.
A little late but hey...I`m having a fun time right now throwing my cares to the wind.

Look like a bag lady but having a whale of a time.
x

Steffi has remarkably turned a tragedy in her life to an opportunity to make a positive change. Bless her for telling her story. Some of us were damaged so much by bad stress (rather than good stress that you get at a job in an encouraging and caring environment.) Laura is another example of someone who turned a whole life of tragedy, more than anyone I know, into a positive by creating a forum for people with PD to share their artistic side.

There are some circumstances where you just can't quite make the transition. I have recently been diagnosed with organic personality disorder which means I have poor judgement. Between bad genetics and living stressed out during my teen years non-stop due to child abuse, I just can't get as positive an attitude. Too much damage to my brain. But I can research and defend an idea and have the love of a good man.

Rick, I read Tina's posts and have a more hopeful outlook as a result. I hope that if all the tests proved positive, a no patent will be generated so all can benefit from the research you and others have been working on.

Vicky

I''m starting to really enjoy this thread. I just got home after a long day of socialization, which is always challenging. I had first a baby shower to attend and then an adult party at the same house. It was my second party attended there and people were getting to know me and get used to PD symptoms.

There was dancing all night, especially with the women. We had so much fun dancing to the oldies.

Drinking and silliness abounded. But no hostility, no demands, no judging people, lots and lots of laughter and interestingly, a protectiveness from them when I would carelessly turn around on the dance floor and lose my balance.

Baby boomers do rock; they need to relax more.

It's like stress is the only emotion acceptable. I 'd love to see some people take a personal gigantic chill. Stress may have caused PD, but this forum doesn't have to be stress.

So someone witty make an effort; should everything be brought to readers like personal home entertainment?

sorry needs its own thread. oops



paula

A few years ago I would not have had the same outlook.I have come to realise with PD that you cannot plan,you cannot assume,you cannot say how things will be in the future.It has taken me almost 12 years to shake off the "trying to fix the world and all who are in it" tag,
Believe me,I used to shoulder everyones hurts,fears,worries,anxieties and then try to deal with mine.I couoldn`t say NO to anyone so as a result Iendured serious burnout and fatigue.I was a perfectionist but achieved very little because I was too loaded with tasks to accomplish any of them successfully.
I hit the deck BIG TIME and considered all ways out of this life.
When my mum died...I wanted to go too,She was everything to me....but somehow you make it through.I had already nursed my father through a raw and ravaging illness.An orphan. Lost roots...a great gap in my life and I couldn`t imagine life without my two greatest friends.But you do make it.
And I was a primary school teacher,loved my job,loved the kids and spent many an evening weeping over those from a poor home.Having to retire at 40 years of age was another blow.Another change.
Vicky....we all have similar stories but hopefully can use this forum to uphold each other.
I don`t understand your diagnosis but would like to know more.That must be tough for you and I am sorry ..but it sounds as if you have a wonderful husband who is a tower of strength.That is precious.
Take care
x

I have my doubts about your theory.If the general non P.D community was polled how many would say they had a stressful early life?Are there more cases of P.D in communities that have experienced war in the time before or after birth of a certain age group?One has to be very careful not to do what has been done by some well respected great and good pyschologists (I only know about them as child pyschology is my field) and make the facts fit the theory

I think the article on Gould's work can take care of itself.

Oh, darn it, I can't help myself....
But first the idea is not that stress is the cause. Rather it is that stress is ONE of several factors. As the article makes clear, elevated cortisol prevents repair of the brain. As the work of others has shown, PWP have chronic elevated cortisol levels. Add in prenatal endotoxins and you pick up a lowered density of neurons in the substantia nigra and microglial activation destroying what neurons we have. Mix in a little rotenone or mercury with a bit more endotoxin for potentiation and more cell loss. And the stress response keeps the repair systems impotent.

It is true that stressed populations don't all develop PD. But it is also true that PD populations show unique stress profiles in both childhood experience and adult reaction. In fact, it seems that the stress vulnerability is one of the key features of PD, even though the current model barely recognizes it. In our own little community, 80% reported high stress childhoods. Stress knocks our legs out from under us daily. The Amsterdam poll of 500 last year showed stress response as the second most bothersome aspect of PD.

What other part of our symptoms are so much our own? Movement problems can be a result of half a dozen conditions as can cognitive and so on. But I haven't run across any other disorder where trying to get to a ringing phone in time can render the victim temporarily helpless.

As to the dopamine/acetylcholine theory, that is quickly becoming history. It is simply the ending symptom of the longer chain described above with added links for inflammation, toxins, BBB disruption, autoimmune factors, and others. Langston's paper "More Than a Movement Disorder" and P.M. Carvey's work on multiple factors and the NIH sponsored work of Liu Bin on inflammation are the current state of the art.

Anomolies abound, but it isn't like the earlier explanations had none. Nor is stress's role as villain a big surprise. Heck, it is killing half of western society.

And while I don't want to get into a game of "my citation is bigger than your citation," I wonder about Daffy's statement about enzyme levels and stress.

As to l-dopa and adrenaline- Adrenaline is at the heart of the stress response, but simply having a precursor present does not mean the body is going to start pumping it out. However, having a plentiful supply once the response is triggered could explain why some researchers see l-dopa as a mixed blessing in the long haul. Does it feed the flames?

The Facts are: that stress plays a role from the womb to the grave and that different people react differently to it. Chronic stress differs from acute. Other factors are present in a contributory role. And so on.

If you haven't done so, read the paper at the start of this. These are major league researchers. And their theories cured a PD rat in five weeks.

Now all that being said, I am going to try hard to ignore the sound of quacking so as to preserve the peace of the community.

The primary problem in Parkinson's Disease is insufficient dopamine. Stress can at most exploit low dopamine levels by exacerbating symptoms. However, it can not in itself reduce dopamine levels in the dopaminergic neurons.

This can be verified by checking the enzyme studies for the two enzymes involved in dopamine formation (tyrosine 3-monooxygenase and L-aromatic amno acid decarboxylase). Their activity has been found not to be regulated by stress via adrenaline levels.

The intereraction between acteylcholine and dopamine regulating muscle contraction certainly isn't history. It's biochemical fact. That is why the major drug types for Parkinson's Disease are based on this fact by being either dopaminergic or anti-cholinergic.

If you ask most people whether they had stress during their childhood they will say yes. Those with Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Epilepsy, Diabetes, the Common Cold, just about anyone. That doesn't mean that stress causes them.

For a sceintific theory to be correct, it must be consistent with the facts. Stress causing Parkinson's Disease simply doesn't do that. Stress at most can merely exacerbate Parkinson's Disease symptoms when Parkinson's Disease already exists.

If there was any one attributable cause of PD it would have been identified & addressed by now. We're all different & have our own histories, sensitivities & tolerances.
I do believe stress may trigger or exacerbate PD & almost any other health condition. The more objective line of diagnosis is logical to me (graduate Biologist & Education many yrs ago).
I had a happy, relatively stress-free childhood in industrial East Manchester UK. I believe I am a victim of organo-phosphate poisoning having married a farmer in the 70s.
I manage PD using all available approaches - conventional medicine/therapy, Yoga, acupuncture, relaxation, visualisation etc.
Hint of the day:
"There's more to life than Parkinson's"
Angela