Much has been learned in the time since this thread was active and it is, for me at least, the most important pieces of the puzzle yet. I am going to speak in terms of my personal experience but it could apply to any of us.

Not long after the above posts, I went into a stress-driven downward spiral that shook me to the core and finally left me paralyzed in a heap on the floor. For over a year now I have been struggling to understand and recover. I have been partially successful in both areas.

In some of the posts which I bumped up there were long discussions about problems with blood sugar and diet. We were close but there was a subtle point we were missing. The problem is not blood sugar. It is insulin.

When glucose levels go up, we release insulin from the pancreas into the blood. This tells the cells (muscle in particular) to suck up the glucose for storage. But for some of us it causes a similar action in which potassium is sucked up as well.

The problem is that our nerves and muscles use the difference in the amounts of potassium in cells and blood to work. No difference, no function. I'm as "off" as I get.

While insulin is the major trigger, others exist - a sodium hit ala MSG. Stress. Maybe even sinemet as it wears off.

No one knows why we go "off" like we do. So sudden and devastating. Maybe this is a clue. Maybe the years of ldopa create this reaction.

Try an experiment. Get the meds really cranking one morning then drop an evil white flour pastry into the works. What happens?

An excellent cover of this http://www.merckmanuals.com/professi...56/ch156f.html

that since a-synuclein is cleaved from a transmembrane protein, and is now known to fold into pore like structures, maybe it "gets caught" in the membrane where it acts as a "synthetic ion channel" and either bleeds out or chokes in ions such as Ca, Na and K, depending on how large the central pore is, and internal cytosol ionic imbalances could trigger apoptosis????? cs

Thanks so much for posting these older threads again. Most of them I have never seen and they are a wealth of information and lively discussion.

cs, you might have a point. Assuming that the a-syn folds into random configurations and, therefore, sizes, it could be that when the sodium pumps turn on or the ion channels open that there are an assortment of sizes of a-syn floating nearby and ready to be sucked in. That is a big assumption to make, but invoking it brings in the electrolytes. The overlap between PD symptoms and those of low mineral levels might make sense.