I've been working on a time-line for the development and progression of my symptoms. In looking at the time-line, I realized that the onset of the stiffness and rigidity (my first symptoms) seem to coincide with the onset of sleep apnea. Well, sleep apnea causes hypoxemia (inadequate oxygenation of the blood). I started wondering if the lack of oxygen in the blood could have somehow played a role in the degeneration of the cells that produce dopamine. I know that sleep apnea causes some seriously painful headaches.

Does anyone know of any studies that suggest or support that hypoxia, especially chronic hypoxia, may contribute to PD?

Karl

Hi Karl,
I was interested in your post since I have sleep apnea, so bad my wife says I stop breathing for minutes. I think I have got her worried I am not going to restart!!!!
I was curious since I had not realized that sleep apnea causes hypoxemia, so I did a search. When you Google "hypoxemea Parkinson's", I got over half a million references. It seems there is a definite link between PD and hypoxemia.
Best wishes
Ron

I read somewhere that older folk in general often have hypoxia due to shallow breathing. Given our diaphraghm rigidity and lack of exercise, it is bound to be a factor.

Dear gang;

The research in China and the UK is much more advanced than America. They have clearly recognized that the person who has Parkin mutations symptoms are clearly recognized as different than Young onset juvenile Parkinson's disease from ideopathic Parkinson's disease.

America, who has been focusing on fighting about embryonic stem cells, suddenly is discovering the UK is on the right path. Now suddenly American reseachers have stopped batteling for money for embryonic stem cell research to genetic research. What I question is why America has to redo the Europeon nations research instead of helping to work with the other countries to find a cure? Why spend so much money and time remaking the research?

Vicky

....could explain a lot.

The symptoms of PD are noticable when there is already loss of 60-80% of the dopamine cells.

If your apnea coincided with the other symptoms, it argues for it being a symptom rather than the cause. Hypoxia may accelerate the process however.

Sleep breathing disorders in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease
Our results suggest that sleep breathing disorders, predominantly obstructive, seem to be common in PD and those events correlate with the severity of the disease.

Ronhutton, isn't hypoxia associated with BBB damage?