thank you, lindy - much appreciated!

Boann
I know if anyone will research this topic well, it will be you.
There is a wealth of info on Sinemet CR (control-released).
Research s ays only in early d x of PD I,s it recommended to use CR form of Sinemet.

Check this link http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?t...r_uid=21663381

Peg

http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs...54.2011.578779

It is devastating when we lose one of the potent 'voices in the dark' who become a part of our mutual support system, and companions on our journey. I've been totally unable to voice my sadness over losing Rick in my day to day life, people wouldn't understand why or how a person I never got to meet became so important to me.

Lindy[/QUOTE]

I've found it helpful to have local friends read our wordsmith, Bob Dawson's descriptive obituary on the other thread. As often with his posts, Bob has a way of saying what's in my heart, and doing so beautifully.

Katherine

thank you, peg! it will be a big undertaking - a lot of things to consider, and need to get access to journals.

Boann

Check out the link that badboy99 provided (Informal Health Care). It is excellent, and it is backed by some names of the premiere researchers.

Thank you, bad boy! ( luv that screen name)
Peg

This article by Laura Marsh found at Clognition (thank you Carey) is also relevant.

http://www.clognition.org/Psych_PD.pdf

Everything is relelvant!

I fond this post by Rick. It sounds so familiar to my life.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...intalk+real%3F

Peg

This is yet another article with some treatment options. Unfortunately, most doctor don't even go into psychological side of PD.

http://www.bcmj.org/article/depressi...insons-disease

[QUOTE=pegleg;1080720]Everything is relelvant!

I fond this post by Rick. It sounds so familiar to my life.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...intalk+real%3F

Peg[/

This is an excerpt from an article mainly about Tourettes Syndrome but draws interesting parallels to other neurological conditions written by Randy Eady. The take away fro me here is the question of how I can deliberately use social engagement to rewire my nervous system.....for full article go here :

https://www.facebook.com/notes/ancie...82219081834083


A Clue in Brain Blood Supply & Polyvagal Theory
A kink of the vertebral and basilar arteries in the absence of blood supply and oxygen to the brain, cerebellum and the basal ganglia of the brain is the cause of Cerebellar Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (CTOS) and its neurological complications, among which are: ipsilateral paralysis, Parkinson's disease symptoms, Alzheimer's and other functionally exhibited CNS encumbrances such as tourette's



What Can Go Wrong
We want our nervous system to operate using the social exchange most of the time. It is our most evolved way of being. It is restful and healthy because it allows our gut and other organs to do their job uninterrupted.

However, some of us are programmed from an early age to work from a combat mode. Think of people who are sensory sensitive and recoil from sound, touch, smell or taste. Think of people having a diagnosis of autism (in this case, the face to heart connection may be not working or even overloaded). Think of people with borderline personality, depression and perhaps other disorders, too. When we are not able to work from our social engagement strategy, then we revert to a modified adrenal strategy, which puts us in high alert. If we use too much of the fight/flight or startle strategies, we may end up with "gut issues" because the colon shuts down the happy digestive hormone (serotonin) and the gut comes to a halt and we stop digesting food properly in this state of stress.

The Polyvagal Theory has gained great acceptance over the years as “bits and bobs” of it are shown to hold-up quite well under laboratory findings.

From a psychological viewpoint, it provides us with a rich understanding of self-regulation in the body and my help discern why aspects of Tourrette's can be self-regulated under certain circumstances. From a sensory processing viewpoint, it informs our understanding of sensory modulation. From a physiologic perspective this theory informs development, emotions, trauma and many additional anthropological topics. It also helps us understand how trauma is registered and stored in body memory.

Sensory Connection ~ Ancient Walking to Primal Rhythms & Startle-Reflex Therapeutics
Two researchers looked at a biological marker of the social exchange system, respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), in typical children and in children with sensory modulation issues. RSA is the measure of high-frequency fluctuation in the heart between heart beats. It is a window into the social exchange system. The researchers found that children with sensory modulation issues have a lower level of RSA than their peers, meaning that these children are better prepared to put the brakes on social strategies and instead use fight-or-flight strategies.

As part of the study, the children were (each in turn) given a sensory or motor challenge: chairs they were seated on tilted backwards unexpectedly.

The level of RSA was monitored in each child throughout the incident. The RSA of typical children dropped quickly and then stayed low for a short time. The children with poor sensory modulation skills had a very brief drop of RSA and a quick rebound to their RSA baseline.

This implies children with sensory modulation symptoms use different strategies to handle safety-related situations than their peers.

While, at this time, it is harder to draw greater conclusions (since we do not have an easy-access window into the fight/flight system or the startle response system) -- our therapy practice has been employing unique, foot-focused therapy tools (8-Board, AcuStim and Stone-embedded walkways) to develop protocols that can both calm and stimulate cognitive activity levels (in relation to peripheral perception cues). For example, we can observe anticipated movements, range of motion restrictions and blockage areas (blind-spots) in peripheral vision acuity to gain a better understanding of how natural movement therapy techniques can adjunct with convention cognitive learning practices and therapy. The article titled: Parasympathetic functions in children with sensory processing disorder can be found at the reference below.

Emotions
Perhaps the most intriguing new work making use of the Polyvagal Theory is the work of A. D. (Bud) Craig. Mapping our emotions, this is what he found in this research regarding Emotional moments across time: a possible neural basis for time perception in the anterior insula (Read about it here.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2685814/

Emotions arise from feelings in our organs and gut. Ask a good neuro-biologist today, what's the difference between the immune system and the nervous system? Many neurobiologists who keep up with their literature will tell you that there isn't a distinct difference. Your immune cells are like a circulating nervous system.

Your nervous system in fact is a circulating dynamic system. In fact if you say "I have a gut feeling about such and such," you're not only speaking metaphorically but you might be speaking literally because your gut makes the same chemicals that your brain makes when it's thinking. These feelings are sent via the vagus nerve to the Anterior Insular Cortex (AIC) in the brain. (There's a lot going on in the vagus nerve - think of it as a cable with lots of separate wires.) The AIC captures feelings over time and stores them as snapshots of feelings. This is our working emotional memory. These feelings are massaged and integrated with the social exchange to give us both an emotional response to the world around us as well as a safety-driven strategy.

Think of this: I’m relaxing in a lounge chair on the beach. I feel quite secure. Suddenly, a beach ball hits me upside-the-head. My fight or flight instinct kicks in and the sympathetic nervous system stops everything that's happening (i.e. digestion) in my organs and gut. The gut passes the feeling of stoppage as "alarm" to the brain. This translates in the brain to fear and my body is set in motion. I quickly turn and see it's a ball and that a child is nearby and smiling at me. My social engagement strategy puts the breaks on my alarm response and also calms my heart. I smile at the child. This sends a sense of relief to my gut and it in turn sends a "warm" feeling to the AIC. My heart is still pounding from the surprise, but my response is guided by compassion.

In the above scenario, we specifically looked at a situation with a challenge to safety. Though, in fact, we spend much of our time worrying about safety.

Unless I am completely safe, listening to quiet music in a locked room, I will most likely have safety challenges to respond to. The challenge may be from the scary book I am reading, or from the sense of anxiety I feel when I spill water on the floor. Almost any activity will involve the combined interaction of the various strategies. The bottom line: we are constantly adjusting ourselves to meet the world. Polyvagal Theory gives us a look at how this works.

While this is fairly complex material -- and the theory is still being refined -- it continues to impact research. As I mentioned at the beginning, Polyvagal Theory adds a new dimension to how we see autism, sensory issues and other disorders and will, I think, inform our interventions for those disorders in a significant way, particularly when blended with movement therapeutics and empirical assessments such as the 8-board and Strength Deployment Inventory.

References:
Porges, S. W. (2008, February). The Polyvagal Perspective. NIH Public Access, PMC1868418
Schaaf, R. C., Benevides, T., Blanche, E. I., Brett-Green, B. A., Burke, J. P., Cohn, E.S., Koomar, J., Lane, S. J., Miller, L. J., May-Benson, T.A., Parham, D., Reynolds, S., Schoen, S. A. Parasympathetic Functions in children with sensory processing disorder. Front Integr Neurosci. 2010; 4: 4. Published online 2010 March 9. doi: 10.3389/fnint.2010.00004
Craig, A. D. (2009). Emotional moments across time: A possible neural basis for time perception in the anterior insula. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. 364,1933-1942.