I’ve read the postings dealing with protect neurons from Parkinson’s, genes for 3 enzymes required for dopamine synthesis injected into striatum, and Comprehensive model is first to map protein folding at atomic level.
All three articles were most interesting. While some of the information is hard for me to understand, I get the general idea. Not to take away from the serious nature and all of the hard work that went in these reports, I ran across this article some time ago.

CAN POWDERED CHICKEN FEET REGENERATE NEURONS?

Villti Ulfur
Because chicken feet have the potential to regenerate, including nerves, bone, and muscle, ground-up preparations of this poultry waste product (in the past, called Revital) can be used to promote regeneration and healing in spinal cord injury (SCI). Given its potential, it was unfortunate that the FDA stopped these efforts, spearheaded by veterinarian Dr. Harry Robertson several decades ago. Preparation: Obtaining the source material is easy because chicken feet are discarded as waste products. The key to preparing this regenerative material is removing all water at low temperature. Most dehydration methods will work because the proteins are stable, The Process:Basically, the dehydration process causes the water from the wound when the powdered chicken’s feet preparation is applied to join chemically and ionically with the amino acids. This creates an electrical change by which a brief period of nerve bridging takes place. When the preparation is repeatedly applied, this bridging allows the formation of new nerves according to the already present DNA. Due to the breakdown of the preparation in the binding process, there is no immunological rejection.Nerves are the most difficult of the various tissue components to re-grow. For example, it is much easier to re-grow bone than nerve, not so much because of speed but rather direction. Although it is possible to re-grow nerves without sufficient genetic encoding by using overriding electrical fields, such an alternative will not provide full function and is less desirable. Through electrical interconnectively, the natural means are preferable.The uncomplicated application procedure was simply to pack the preparation into an open wound, which would then heal from the inside out. There was no infection, and there was full restoration in animals. Ideally, the preparation should be packed into the open wound as soon as possible after the injury. If this is not possible, an intervention is an option, even to cut open and apply this preparation with the deliberate intent of increasing the body’s ability to repair from the inside. Potential Role of Folic Acid:In addition, however, the chicken feet preparation can be eaten as capsules or as mixed with other foods, an area that Robertson did not explore. Although many people would consider eating the feet themselves repugnant, some cultures do this and find this consumption regenerative and helpful. This beneficial aspect relates to folic acid, an important nutrient involved in DNA synthesis and a many other physiological roles. For example, scientists have shown it to be important in preventing neural tube defects. It is one of the most important and flexible components of humic acids, key substances of soils and compost that have the ability to absorb and work with minerals and other substances. Overall, folic acid plays a critical role in regulation of healing in the body. Because there are small amounts of the nutrient in chicken feet due to soil contact, folic acid was consumed when native tribes ate chicken feet. Conclusion: It is time for us to open-mindedly revisit this simple, nerve-regenerating therapy. Clearly, it would be relatively easy for scientists to checkout the its potential using existing animal models and assessments for SCI. There is nothing to lose except our belief that solutions for complicated problems must also be complicated.
http://www.healingtherapies.info/ChickenFeet.htm


So I ask, is it any wonder a cure hasn’t been found? Or, could it be so simple?


GregD

Greg, is vilti ulfer a chicken farmer??? I am aware of many people who eat pig's feet and hog's head cheese (actually I am related to many people who eat both), so taking a capsule of chicken feet powder does not seem so repulsive to me, though I am certain my husband would never try it. the real problem is that I do not think a researcher could obtain funding... being cut open to have chicken feet powder sprinked on the substantia nigra is going to be a real hard sell. madelyn

I only glanced over the article, not because it sounded toooo off the wall, but just because I don't have much time. My comment is: I believe there are cultures where they do eat the feet of the chicken. Anyone know which cultures? I know I've seen them in the odds and ends section of the meat dept. I live in Canada and we are very multicultural and cater to the cultural differences. It would be interesting to know what the incidence of PD is in that part of the woods. As for me, I am really begininning to believe that what you believe has more to do with how you respond to any type of medicine or therapy than any other elelment. The cure is perhaps where you find it. Don't confuse "simple" with "easy" is something I learned a long time ago. Maybe I'm just waxing philosophical...I dunno. So, yes Greg -It could be that simple.

Olsen,

ho...ho...assuming that was supposed to be funny.....

greg the more we know the less we know....ya know?


paula

hi Paula--yes that was supposed to be funny--but true about the pig's feet and hog's head cheese (though i do not think it is really a hog's head).

I recently read a profile of a guy who has spent his life researching tribal secret remedies and has had a couple of them put into clinical trials. i remember one of the substances--roots of trees, bark of trees or some indigenous plant--being studied by a major research institution and put into a clinical trial for cancer therapy. and i know tamoxifen -long term therapy to prevent cancer reoccurance in estrogen positive breast cancers (though has recently been supplanted by a new drug) comes from the bark of a tree in south america. and digoxin, an old standby cardiac drug is made from the beautiful foxglove.
I wish i had paid attention to my grandmothers' old remedies; I am certain some of them were effective. and with all my jesting, I am going to ask my mother if she remembers anything about chicken feet being used as medical remedies. I do remember chicken feet are used in voodoo rituals (I attended college in New Orleans)--or maybe that's in the movies.
and who knows what will be found to be curative in PD--coffee and dextromothorphan are thought to be adenosine A2a receptor inhibitors and thus helpful in PD, and not to forget curcumin which Rod Hutton has been reporting on (recently with reverett) for quite some time now.
madelyn

try re-reading it but instead of chicken feet, substitutue "neutrophilic collagen substrate"

There you go that would sell!

Paula

forgive my cynicism, but only if the collagen substrate could be synthesized and thus patented..and the natural chicken feet substance would be declared unpure (instilling fear into those who were/are using it) and would be available in its natural form only in other cultures. ( if these other cultures had the internet, possibly it could be obtainable.) or the alternative industry could develop a method of purifying the chicken feet...I see a whole new product here for several industries. just need a method of getting the report to their attention

....from bench to market in just 15 years..if they don't cancel it after 7 or 8 to save money.
Maybe they'll find something in the poultry "family" [are turkey buzzards poultry?] that looks more profitable. Then - guaranteed only another 15 years.

paula

The Chinese cohort of our "group", upon one of them graduating, took the whole group out (Dutch of course!) to one of the local Chinese restaraunts in Waterloo, Ont. Well, one of the dishes (that these guys had to order weeks in advance) was, you guessed it, Chicken's feet, a delicacy in parts of China. So there are cultures that eat copious quantities of chickens feet. Fu told us that they waste nothing in China.
But as all Chemists/ biochemists know, only small molecules make it past the gut. All "proteinaceous" material is broken down into it's constituent amino acids by enzymes in the small intestine. Very large protein bits (medium sized amino acid chains called peptides, just cannot pass through the walls of the intestines. Maybe some short peptide chains can, but then they are sent directly to the liver via the portal vein, and chewed up enzymatically there, as well as in the blood, and if there are anything of them remaining they don't last long and cannot pass the blood brain barrier. That is why all protein containing "consumer products" [except things that are used in skin and hair products] are completely useless as far as medicines go, they are just too fragile ot get to the places inside the body without being broken apart into simple amino acids that one gets from all foodstuffs. THis is why the pharmaceutical industry has had such a devil of a time with the oral "absorption and distribution of peptide (protein) based products. If this were not true, then many diseases woulld have been cured by now. Look at the complex apparatus neccessary to put GDNF into the brain. If all growth and maintainence peptide drugs were more robust, (and in many cases, brain penetrable") we wouldn't need "reservoires, cannulae, and pumps" to deliver them to the areas where they are needed for activity to be translated.
The chickens feet were quite delicious actually . I use a folic acid supplement every day; it does enter the body and is useful because it is a small molecule. cs