[Stitcher]

I circulated this article to the Pipeliners last night.

Light shed on Parkinson's culprit - Iron
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Ne...r/02100701.asp

Paula's comment about the article begged the question...Does the "environmental poison" (my name for it) each on of us was exposed to at some point in our lives have anything to do the "degree" of PD symptoms that we each have and the label "designer disease" that has been attached to PD;e.g. dystonia, tremor, bradykinesia?

As a child I was raised in Central Florida until I married an moved to Texas. Central Florida is the home of Open Pit mining of Phosphate, within 10 miles of my home. In the 50s and 60s, like more Floridians, we didn't have A/C in our home, so the windows were open most of the year.

I would consider my exposure to be mild, but Paula's exposure to steel mills would be considered serious. Hence, her PD symptoms are severe compared to mine, even after 19 years for me, but less than 10 for her.

Interestingly, my husband, who as a teenager cleaned out the caked on rock from the rock crushers with a sledgehammer five days a week, developed Leukemia in his 40s and died in 1995 after a bone marrow transplant. There is no Leukemia in the family tree...now or in the past.

The only other exposure I can even begin to consider is that we lived in the middle of a huge rice paddy in norther Japan from 1972 to 1974. But, other than the rats that infested the paddy, I can't think of anything else that was used that would be a culprit.

What do you think?

[jeanb]

I spent my early years on a farm in Iowa - probably exposed to chemicals there.

Also living on military base in NY, our house backed onto a wetland area and they would spray for bugs every evening.

Could be a connection!

[indigogo]

I drank well water as a child, and was exposed to farm chemicals every summer working in the fields for spending money.

Maybe the difference in our PD symptoms and progressions is not only due to length and intensity of exposure, but also exposure to different substances.

Regardless of cause, genetic or otherwise, I think the only thing a good doctor can do is to treat every person with PD as a complete individual with their own specific disease. Piling on the sinemet is like using a sledge hammer - there are so many other approaches to take today, especially with the newly diagnosed.

I'm beginning to think that courses of treatment are also to blame, especially where dyskinesias are concerned. Young people who want to suppress their symptoms for a long period of time to keep jobs are especially vulnerable to medication overdosing.

[paula_w]

Hi Carolyn,

I have had it for at least 18 years, diagnosed for 15. But i grew up where they drank Iron City Beer - kinda says something doesn't it? My guess is there are endless varieties of toxins and genetic mutations from them.

paula

[Stitcher]

Last week I spend three days in Omaha, NE. While there I discovered that Nebraska, farming country, has the highest incidence of PD than any other state. It also only have ONE movement disorder neurologist!!

Paula, so you weren't expose to mills. Just drank the beer?

[jcitron]

Carolyn (that's my mum's name too),

You've brought up an interesting point here. I was thinking about this since I was diagnosed last November with an atypical form of PD. I was exposed to Chlordane when I was growing up. This was the pesticide of choice during the 1960s to kill ants and wasps. My house used to be infested with ants during the summer, and my dad would sprinkle the powder generously around the house, and spray the foundation with a liquid form. As kid, I would drink from the garden hose, which was used to spray the poison. So I think this played a big part into my PD.

From 1982-1993, I worked as an electronics technician and repaired circuit boards. I was exposed to solder, desols, and other chemicals directly in the workplace. To add insult to injury, these manufacturing companies weren't located in fancy industrial parks either. Two of the companies resided in old textile mills that were renovated for new use. The renovations were nothing more than replacing the windows, and varnishing the floors. Another company I worked for was in Wilmington right on the Woburn line near one of the worst SuperFund sites in the US!

So having said this, I really wonder what kind of effects all of this could have had on me, or on other people for that matter.

John

[indigogo]

It's overwhelming and scary to think of all that we've been casually and unknowingly exposed to just by living our lives!

It goes beyond PD - what about cancer and other neurological diseases? We've benefitted from progress - but that progress certainly came with a high price.

[olsen]

I am with you carey. my children have labeled me a "luddite" for bemoaning the environmental pollution created by all those products that make our lives easier. madelyn

[reverett123]

The search for a single cause (simple) keeps leading us in circles with little progress.

Instead, consider the possibility that PD arises from a two-stage process. There is reason to believe that something happens (first stage) that makes us vulnerable to the causative agent in our individual case (second stage).

Stay with me now. Obviously, some of us get PD while others who live next door don't. So it isn't entirely environmental. By the same token, some of us get it when our siblings don't. So it isn't entirely genetics.

But there is reason to believe that certain things can trigger it - mercury, chlordane, farm life, stress, viruses, etc. All can be blamed.

Try this idea- In the womb we were exposed at a critical point to both bacterial toxins (LPS) and maternal stress hormones. We were then born hypersensitive to both LPS and cortisol. The sensitivity to LPS led our immune systems to a ststae of chronic low-level inflammation. The inflammation, in turn, triggered our bodies primary defense - the production of anti-inflammatory cortisol. Our bodies have walked a tight wire from the start of trying to make enough cortisol without making too much. This balancing act becomes harder to maintain as we age.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our sensitivity to LPS has effects beyond inflammation, particularly if we are in a high exposure environment such as house dust and agricultural dust. For example, LPS synergizes with pesticides to make it more destructive. Also with mercury, aluminum, and manganese. All are suspects in PD. Another interesting factoid is that estrogen counters some of the effects which explains why men get PD more often than women.

The idea of a single cause is seductive but it is one reason research gets no where.

[SherylJ]

I doubt there is anyone who grew up in America who wasn't exposed to one kind of environmental chemical or pollutant or another. This speaks to Carey's point that perhaps "the difference in our PD symptoms and progressions is not only due to length and intensity of exposure, but also exposure to different substances." Some people breathed coal dust their whose lives, others worked in the mills with hot, molten steel; our soldiers were showered with Agent Orange... none of these things can be good for one's health.

I grew up on Long Island, which has an unusually high incidence of breast cancer. I've been gone35 years and last I checked, no one had figured out what the environmental trigger might be.

While it is important to ask these questions and get the answers, I wonder how helpful it will be in the end. Will the government insist that industry stop pollluting and clean up the mess it's already made (and how many more lives will the fumes of 9-11 claim), or will we be too busy drilling for oil in Alaska? Our track record is less than stellar, I'm afraid.

Sheryl