What requirements to explain PD?
 

I have been thinking about what must be explained by a theory or hypothesis that claims to have solved the PD riddle. I have 15 so far. Can you add others?


There are some characteristics of PD that any hypothesis must explain if it is to be valid. Some I would list include:
1) It is most prevalent in the US and least in the Third World.
2) Historically rare, it seems increasingly common.
3) Traditionally a disease of the old, it seems to strike younger than it once did.
4) Until recently, motor symptoms predominated but now a whole new group of non-motor symptoms unrelated to the substantia nigra are being worked in.
5) The cause must be common since it is so evenly distributed on the macro level, yet it must be rare since it is so unevenly distributed on the individual level.
6) It does not appear to be inherited, yet family clusters occur.
7) Inflammation has a role.
8) Early on, stress response seems unremarkable. Later on they can incapacitate.
9) It is more common among farmers and those who drink milk.
10) It can be intentionally brought on by specific toxins, yet most PWP never encounter them.
11) PWP seem to have experienced unusually high levels of stress pre-adolesence
12) It is commonly preceded by an unusual stress event, such as influenza or loss of a spouse.
13) While a sub-set, there really is a group with a "Parkinson's" personality.
14) Chronologically, symptoms appear in this order- a) loss of olfaction; b) motor; c) stress related.
15) Symptom sets differ greatly and, yet, later stages converge.

There are others, of course, but if a hypothesis is to be complete, it must either explain or dismiss as error these 15 at a minimum. Just a way of saying that Truth wins in the end.

Rick - my first, gut reaction is to your references to stress. They seem too specific (early exposure, etc). I believe stress plays a huge part, but my particular experience is much different.

I would reduce stress to a major factor, but all encompassing, at different times, rather than so specifically linked as you have it now.

Also, wondering if exposures to environmental related elements can be reduced to rural vs urban living rather than milk or diet related? Have you looked at well water vs water system related?

Interesting list!

my experience suggests
 

a combination of events/situations: early childhood trauma - (riding my tricycle down the stairs at age 2 1/2 ) incurring physical injury, emotional trauma and the ensuing emotional changes - fear, loss of trust, etc. I think subsequent injuries/traumas patter after the original , creating specific personality traits . (the pd personality) set all this ina specific genetic background OR family derived personality/ behavior traits. All of these things change hormonal patterns. I am certainly rambling... Basically wanted to say I think we havemore accidents than we used to - with less care/appreciation of the body...auto accidents extreme sports, atheletics, non-supportive lifestyles..

in regard to joop's post, i spend a hugh part of my day deciding what and when to eat in relation to doping...and due to my extreme thiness, have developed the habit of stuffing my self to try to maintain weight...even tho it clearly isn't working. i am eating 2-3 times what i used to - and losing weight.

thanks for starting this thread - it's critical!

Point !
 

Could it have been historically rare because it was unreported because it was thought to be just part of getting older? In the past 60 would have been considered old .

Let me stress the importance of stress...
 

:)

I see PD as a two-part disorder. One part is the result of fetal exposure to maternal bacterial infection, specifically the toxic remnants known as LPS. This exposure can simply arise from common things like gum disease or vaginosis. but there must be more or more would have PD.

One "rate limiting" factor is timing. The exposure has to occur at the right time and the "windows" can be short. There still must be more, however, for the same reasons.

But that is enough to set the stage for the next phase resulting from hypersensitivity to routine exposure to LPS and a chronic problem with microglia in the brain. The result is inflammation. This has been pretty well established by J.S. Hong, Bin Liu, PM Carvey, etc and is the immune system foundation of PD. But there has to be more to fit the patterns we see.

We come to a fork in the road here. One is the immune system (inflammation) and the other is the endocrine system (cortisol). Along the former we find that LPS is everywhere and inflammation is constant; that LPS can make us more vulnerable to rotenone, mercury, aluminum, manganese, etc In short, LPS sensitivity can account for a lot of the peculiar aspects of PD.

The other fork is more interesting. The natural reaction to inflammation comes from the endocrine system in the form of a natural steroid, cortisol. Mess up your knee and your doc uses a steroid to bring the swelling down. Your body does the same thing once the inflammation has fulfilled its role. Flooding the area with cortisol is the equivalent of the referee's whistle on the ball field.

But, because of the hypersensitivity to LPS, the players tend to ignore the whistle. Long term inflammation is destructive, especially in the brain, so the cortisol keeps coming. And long term cortisol is even more destructive. But what can the body do? Inflammatory cytokines are killing the brain. Counter-inflammatory hormones are doing their share as well. And the substantia nigra is particularly hard hit leading to motor symptoms.

Meanwhile, the endocrine system is becoming more and more stressed. We can't adapt as quickly as we once did. We become increasingly fragile.

Darn, I just realized that I hijacked my own thread....:D

Rick: :Good-Post: Great Thread! Keep on bumping. Eventually someone will light the lamp.

Bob C:

PD in history
 

Yes, 60 was once old. But my first tremor showed up in 1992 at the age of 39. An awful lot of us fall into the young onset category and I believe it to be different from senior onset which may well be normal ageing.

Even YOPD seems common enough and symptoms dramatic enough that some Pope or Prince would have had it and some scribe have noted it. But the examples commonly cited are so ambiguous that it is impossible to say that it was PD.

And take Dr. P's original article describing the condition. Why did he consider it of note? More importantly, why did he only have six cases to report and a number of those (2, I think) were not people he had examined, but were instead people he had seen pass on the street and never saw again. He had continued his father's medical practice at the same London location for fifty years. If he could not cite more cases than the six, isn't that odd?

The Industrial Revolution had been going for 75 years or so. London was a smoggy mess. Workers had left the familiar and supportive rural life for a sometimes hellish urban one. (Heck, we still use the adjective "Dickensian") Stress levels were way up.

But PD is never simple. Along with the stress, there were at least two other things I wonder about. One was that British traders had in the same period made sugar affordable and common. The other was the huge increase in sooty "particulate" pollution. Ultra Fine Particulates (UFPs) are tiny nanoparticles so small that they can go about anywhere. They can even travel along the transport systems within the long neuronal fiber of the axon. Even more interesting, they can latch on to other molecules that then "piggyback" with them past defensive membranes.

So, what happens when a person born sensitized to the bacterial toxin LPS inhales an UFP wed to a molecule of that toxin which penetrates the mucal barriers around the olfactory nerve and rides the little conveyor into the olfactory bulb? No one knows but I don't like the sound of it.

Maybe a healthy person can handle it, but what of a stressed out person? I'm sure the immune system would notice and inflammation would become a factor. Of course, that would just add in to the existing stress-generated inflammation which had been tearing at the BBB.

A few decades of this and enough brain cells lost to the immune response could lead to a tremor or two. And the spinning top of the endocrine system would begin to wobble. And everyone would assume that it was a neurological disease when it was actually the nervous system being the victim of the immune and endocrine.

(Just in case I am right and win a large Swedish prize someday, I want it on record that Anne Frobert, MD, gets equal billing or blame as the case may be. :D )

MJFF, are you listening?

Oh, and another thing....
 

("For gawd's sake, somebody get a net over him and shut him up...." :D )

This is important, and then I will go quietly.

If you stress a pregnant rat at the right time, then her pups will be more stress sensitive.

If you raise those pups stress-free on silken pilows with little mice slaves peeling them grapes, when they have pups then those pups will also be stress sensitive.

I find it a little bit chilling to think about what that could mean in a society of a billion or two with constant elevated stress. The old would be the first to show symptoms, but then progressively younger. Those in the higher stressed industrialized countries would suffer more than the lower stressed third world. Sheesh, we may be the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. (Now, ain't that like a Parkie? :D )

Rick - your list is so all-encompassing; the shared anecdotes among us so common that it seems as if anyone is at risk for PD - so it must be some underlying thing - a gene, another anomaly yet to be discovered - that links all of us.

the research has said for a long time that we probably had to be exposed to some risk, but PD doesn't occur unless another unknown is present (the trigger).

regarding stress - are you referring to external or internal stress? external stress that causes internal stress? internal stress that exacerbates internal functions?

two cents
 

Could part of it be that in many third world places, people still don't live long enough to get pd? They don't survive infections and bacteria like we do? They aren't exposed to as many food additives and chemicals? A fine example of how deceiving the phrase 'more is better' can be.

paula

losing weight
 

I have a little trick for making myself hungry...I take a good B Complex Vitamin on an empty stomach...It gives me that Starving feeling that I used to get...It's the only time I "feel" like eating. Also, if I drink a few cups of coffee & do heavy work outside, I get the same hungry feeling. Otherwise, eating is more like a chore..Maybe, hopefully this will help someone.

The math
 

Carey-
"So common" is a key phrase. In general, PD is spread pretty uniformly within a given culture or even geographic area. That means that the causes must be similarly uniform. This is why everyone seems to know someone with PD. However, PD is also relatively rare. It has usually been assumed that there must be a genetic factor to explain why everyone shares the same environment and yet so few get the disorder. But there is another way to look at it. P.M. Carvey of Rush in Chicago As well as the NIH researchers Liu and Hong refer to the "Multiple Hit Hypothesis." Briefly, that means that it takes combined causes to trigger PD.

They don't take it far enough, but there are easily a dozen potential causes. You have to have one or two core factors, but of the other ten or so you can have any combination and the more you have the greater the liklihood of developing PD. IMHO the core is the immune problem in the brain and the endocrine problem in the whole system. Those two alone may be enough some of the time, but each one added tips the scales a little more - pesticides, herbicides, mercury, aluminum, manganese, milk, amalgams, vaccines, iron, and more have all been suggested as the cause of PD. It is true that they are causes and help tip the scales, but they are not THE cause which does not exist. That's why it is so bewildering and why we each are a little different. We each have a bundle of causal factors unique to ourselves, so when a scientist starts looking for A cure and THE cause, he fails.

As for the stress element, I need to clarify that. We are designed to handle acute stress ("Look a tiger!!!") and do so very well. We squirt out a bit of epinephrine and cortisol, climb a tree, and calm down. But we are not designed to handle chronic stress ("I hate this job!!!) and, in our society, it is always there. We squirt out some cortisol every time some jerk grabs our parking spot, or our spouse does IT again or we see our boss coming or or or.

Cortisol works miracles when there is a tiger. But as a chronic part of existence it is deadly. It is also multifunction. Our bodies use it to control inflammation. And, since our fetal exposure to LPS sets us up for chronic inflammation, elevated cortisol comes with the territory. The net effect on our bodies is as though there were tigers everywhere. There is more here and here if you wish.

cortisol and PD
 

Thought this of interest-


1: Acta Neurol Scand. 1998 Feb;97(2):77-85.

Cortisol is higher in parkinsonism and associated with gait deficit.

Charlett A, Dobbs RJ, Purkiss AG, Wright DJ, Peterson DW, Weller C, Dobbs SM.

Statistics Unit, Public Health Laboratories Service, London, UK.

INTRODUCTION: We propose an active pathogenic mechanism, involving circulating
cortisol, in parkinsonism. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Serum cortisol was measured in
96 subjects with idiopathic parkinsonism, 170 without, and in 17 spouses and 36
siblings of elderly sufferers with double the number of controls, all obeying
inclusion/exclusion criteria. RESULTS: Cortisol, adjusted for sampling time, was
greater (17%, on average, P<0.001) in parkinsonians, but not in relatives. The
central cortisol lowering effect of anti-muscarinics was seen (P=0.025).
Selegiline may attenuate the disease, and parkinsonism is less frequent in
tobacco smokers. Selegiline was associated with a lower cortisol (P=0.03):
chronic smoking appeared (P=0.08) to be, irrespective of parkinsonism. Bowel
stasis has been implicated in the pathogenesis: cortisol was higher in
parkinsonians requiring laxatives (P=0.05). In controls, cortisol was lower, the
longer the stride (P=0.02): in parkinsonians, this relationship was numerically
reversed. A similar (P=0.01) group performance interaction was seen for
deterioration, over 4 years, in gait. CONCLUSION: Cortisol is doing harm or
mirroring something which is. A common pathway for neuronal protection/rescue
emerges.


PMID: 9517856 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

I was tested for cortisol
 

......last summer, while i was a "runaway and at the height of sadness, depression, dental infections, teeth pain and pulling," and on and on.

Bloodwork, including cortisol, was normal.... all blood numbers..B levels...were fine.....just when i was certain i had pernicious anemia. Getting skinnier by the day.

I would bet money on my problems stemming from hormone deficiency...that is why i have osteoporsis and could be why my teeth started cracking., altho dentist says it was the mercury fillings [yes i know - toxic too] This led to involuntary starvation that - with teeth now getting fixed, is still hard to correct.

I learned that people's bodies need to "recover" from cortisol stimulation. It's supposed to be used along the lines of adrenalin. You need to rest from its effects. And Rick said it right...we don't do that.....we keep going till we drop and our kids do too. We are wrecking our bodies, and must always remember to exercise vigorously. Ok no sweat. Would someone please make me ? take me? wake me?

I could go on about stress...lost my mother to pancreatic cancer when she was younger than i am now and got pregnant the same year, along with leaving Hawaii after living there ten years. 1984 was a terrible year, worse than 2008. i remember my brother telling me that people need a year to mourn a death that close and are susceptible to illness. I moved to Florida, got pregnant [half heartedly- bio clock was ticking - ] had a 1yr old daughter already who got salmonella - hospitalized for 11 days. She also later was diagnosed with giardhea (i'll have to check spelling). This is a nasty intestinal bacteria and we don't know where it or the salmonella came from. i was pregnant with her when i found out i was drinking milk with pesticide in it in Hawaii - late 70s early 80s.

So my story alone for just two years of my life is enough to give more than one person PD and I am concerned for both of my daughters and grandson. Stress, toxin exposure, bacteria exposure, well water for 4 yr at the first house we built in Florida, pregnancy, thyroid and hormone shut down, IBS diagnosis........my life is a great example of all the risks now that i have lived it this long...lol

But my bloodwork, so far, has always been good, blood presssure low normal, and no cortisol problems here. God has had other plans thus far. i used to drink coffee and smoke almost a pack a day of cigarettes before children , still have 1 or 2 a day [should i try to live to be 100?], and it didn't prevent pd but who knows where i'd be without those habits. Don't drink coffee now but neuro [not my regular one ]suggested a cup of coffee and a cigarette probably helps me feel better.

There are some interesting conversations going on right now on this forum. i'm opening up because i have nothing to lose and hopefully someone can use the personal information - apply it somehow. Older does mean wiser in some cases. i'm not out to impress, i want to help.

But everyone has bad years, gets sick, loses loved ones, has babies. My second pregnancy and subsequent two years of breast feeding-I stopped one baby and started with the other. [older was just at night before sleep] - so 4 yrs of breast feeding - does that fit in to hormone depletion? PD? There was heptaclor in that breast milk; i missed the subsequent class action lawsuit.

or it could be none of those things that caused the PD. baffling, addicting, but we are a driven bunch of purpose filled sick people.....i don't know what i'd do without you all.

ibby - keep stuffing it in and do you drink boost or anything? thanks for advice gardngirl.

paula

Dx
 

Our neuro told us that other countries don't have as high PD rates as the US because (1) people don't live as long and (2) they don't know how to diagnose PD. I find this funny, now that I have read that PD is mis-diagnosed ten percent (that they know of and will admit) of the time here in the US.

Just wanted to say that in places that apparently do not have the same level of PD like developing nations etc not only is there the factor of shorter lives where there is great poverty, also fewer people will ever get to become a diagnostic statistic - no doctor, no record...... there will be older people all over the place who never get treatment of any kind. Higher rates of infant mortality etc could also contribute, as well as a lot of other health factors.

In my ethnic group - affluent westernised etc - Altzheimers was rare, many people lived to a great age, but PD was not rare at all ........ as well off people we had almost constant exposure to DDT............ have always felt that environmental stress in the form of chemical cocktail must be implicated, with predisposing factors like genetic susceptibility such as Rick describes, for instance what stress for our parents and their parents before them.... 20th century has got to have been the one that brought more chemical, environment, behavioural, and social insult/stress to our beings, each generation carrying a new load of damage to our inner balance. Extended families, while having their problems, also meant a shared load in terms of personal stress, and practical living. Progress isn't always.......

Lindy

Stress timelines
 

Maybe it would be of value to look at our stress load in the adult years like we once did for the childhood years.

Born 1953. Alcoholic father. Neurotic mother.
Some depression in late teens but had a sort of epiphany where I chose to live.

Beginning about 1975 and in approximate order-
Mother attempted suicide.
I married.
Father succeeded at suicide.
Wife and I remodeled and sold house.
Remodeled mobile home and moved in.
Burned due to lightening.
Built house ourselves.
Burned by arsonist.
Wife having health problems, in wheelchair for months.
Became livein caregivers for first of four grandparents over an eight year period. No privacy and incredibly hard.
Oh yeah, running a small business all along.
Exposure to chlordane.
Last grandparent died.
Had house built. Still in it.
Still running small business. One vacation in 20 years.
Wife having more health problems.
1992 First tremor. Brother died.
1999 major case of flu
2000 diagnosis.

Clues
 

Rick,
Good thread, since every fact we can write down is a clue to researchers about what is going on, IF THEY TAKE THE TROUBLE TO READ THEM.
Asking yourself questions is the best way to progress, and the theory closest to the truth is the one which answers the most questions. I posted some time back a list of questions and answered every one with the BBB theory. But now I can't find it!!
It was something like,
Q. Why is PD predominently an older person's disease
A Because your BBB becomes more permeable with age.
Q. Why does stress have such a devastating effect on PWP.
A. Because stress opens the floodgates of the BBB.
Q. Why are the following popular treatments, curcumin, alpha lipoic acid, CDP choline, bilberry extract, GDNF
A. Because they ALL reduce BBB permeability
Q. Why are the following implicated in causing PD, carbon monoxide, pesticides, (farmers who drink milk), manganese (high incidence rate of welders), MTPT, organic phosphates (sheep dips), sarin,
A. Because they ALL increase BBB permeability
Q Why is the PD incidence in USA/UK 280 per 100,000, but is 14 in India.
A Because curcumin is a major component in diet in India, and see answer on aging.
Q Why have hypertension drugs been shown to help PD symptoms.
A Because they reduce BBB permeability.
I had a more comprehensive list earlier, but add to this all the articles I have flagged up and it is a compelling argument. In fact PWP have been shown to have defective BBB's (Leenders).
Interestingly, is a similar argument fits MS, ALS and AD.
I don't think MJF will ever listen, too preoccupied with stem cells.
Ron

Good Morning!

Good thread and I see stress as the top factor for PD. I want to add a couple of points to why third world countries for eg India seem to have low incidence of PD. These are my observations and I dont mean to glorify life in India and insult others. Just something to think about. The kind of stress people have in India is different from the stress here. There is financial stress, dealing with day to day life related stress etc. But the major difference is: there is a lot of social support from family, friends and neighbours. Most people rely on that for emotional support. From a western point of view, this can also be viewed as intrusion to your privacy. Two sides of the coin! Another factor is religious belief and accepting what you have in life and be thankful for that. People do have dreams and aspirations, but not consumed by it. This analysis is true among the rural Indian population that makes up 70% of India.

In urban, middle class India, life and attitudes the changing, nuclear families and no time for social life etc., and there is a very high incidence of heart diseases. The number of Indian males under the age of 40 admitted to a hospital for "heart attacks" has increased a lot in the last 20 years (10 fold if I remember correctly). This is attributed to stress and inflammation. The CEO of the institute where I worked summarised it this way: "20-30 years ago, there were very few hospitals for Cardiac care and there was no need either. A 40yr old son would bring his father or a grand father to the hospital for chest pain. He would be treated and the hospital would have a difficult time keeping his visitors away. These days, a 40 yr old comes alone because he has chest pain and a possible heart attack." (Notice there were no statistics for women!!! thats entirely a different topic!).

I suspect next on the list of diseases is PD along with cancer if stress, nutrition and pollution have anything to contribute to diseases. Sadly, it will be a good socialogical, epidemiological study of diseases. Any comments?

Girija

My bets are MJF will listen
 

Ron, I think like many here, you are an awesome fellow. To have had PD as long as you have, well, here you are, doing more than most people who are healthy. And offering the world, here on the forum, the gift of your expertise, wisdom, and experience. What a great gift for the rest of us.

But I do disagree (I swear, the only time!) with you about MJF being too precoccupied with stem cells to be interested in the BBB. First, he is continuing to fund things (the majority, actually) that are not stem cells.

Second, in his interview, Fox said (and I'm paraphrasing) but it was along the lines of "the next time they go into my head, it's going to be with the cure". In other words, they already know stem cells will buy time, but eventually those stem cells succumb to PD as well, this has been proven by autopsy. So stem cells, at least so far, do not represent a cure. (A side note: stem cells may be one of the fastest ways to find out WHAT causes PD, since they can "watch" these cells in the lab. I'm not a scientist, clearly, nor even scientifically-oriented, but this is my layman's understanding).

I think the difficulty with the BBB for researchers is that so MANY things affect it. And even worse, what in the world would happen if, for example, they found indisputable evidence that the absurd number of vaccines on the vaccine schedule for infants caused long-term brain damage, because these vaccines are given at a time the BBB is not fully developed (ie, it cannot tighten like it can when the child is five and older). Like many have posted here before, we are the most medicated, vaccinated population in the world, yet we are the sickest. What gives.

Lurking -

I agree with you. I am really impressed by the depth and breadth of conversations going on at MJFF. I don't think anything is being left unexamined.

Good Morning!

Good thread and I see stress as the top factor for PD. I am also not sure if stress alone can induce PD as some of you already said. I want to addd a couple of points to why third world countries for eg India seem to have low incidence of PD. The kind of stress people have in India is different from the stress here. There is financial stress, dealing with day to day life related stress etc. But the major difference is there is a lot of social support from family, friends ans neighbours. Most people rely on that for emotional support. From a western point of view, this can also be viewed as intrusion to your privacy. Two sides of the coin! Another factor is religious belief and accepting what you have in life and be thankful for that.

This analysis is still true among the rural Indian population that makes up 70% of India. In urban, middle class India, life and attitudes the changing, nuclear families and no time for social life etc., and there is a very high incidence of heart diseases. The number of Indian males under the age of 40 admitted to a hospital for "heart attacks" has increased a lot in the last 20 years (10 fold if I remember correctly). This is attributed to stress and inflammation. The CEO of the institute where I worked summarised it this way: 20 years ago, there were very few hospitals for Cardiac care and there was no nneed either. A 40yr old son would bring his father or a grand father to the hospital for chest pain, these days, a 40 yr old comes alone because he has chest pain and possible heart attack.

I suspect next on the list of diseases is PD along with cancer.

Girija

Remember stress = inflammation = stress etc
 

First, though, I must advise a huge institution like MJFF on how to spend their money. (Somebody make a note about how the Parkinson's Personality gives one the gall to do that. :) )

We are facing a problem about which we know little despite 200 years of research. Focusing a large part of available resources on any one area is not necessarily efficient. Divide funding between, say, ten areas. Five that look likely and five that seem logical but that lack research up to this point. Each year or two, bump one of the top five that is failing to yield and promote one of the bottom five that is gaining standing. Forgive me if that is already your approach.

But back to the topic. Girija makes a very good point about the importance of a supportive social system when you are facing stress. If I am facing a tiger alone, it is entirely different if, say, Ron is at my side. In the first case, my only hope is to outrun the tiger. But in the second, I only have to outrun Ron. :D

OK, I will be serious. The thing is is that Nature and her tool of Selection are marvelous designers, and we are designed for optimal function in an extended family and a community of about 500 individuals. In the West, that ended with the changes of the Industrial Revolution. So, where before we had family to count on, now we are lucky to have a friend on whom we can place our trust. The resulting anxiety may not even be conscious. But somewhere inside we know that we are working without a net.

Anxiety is stress. Stress causes inflammation similar to the way the immune system does. And inflammation causes the release of stress hormones. It is two sides of the coin with our nervous system caught in the middle as microglia kill neurons, the BBB leaks toxins, and stress hormones block neurogenesis/repair as a researcher named Elizabeth Gould has shown.

This complicated mess seems daunting, I know. But it actually holds some hope. After all, if we can tame the inflammation with something like curcumin, that is a major gain. And if we can lower stress hormones by ditching the job, that is another. Then, we can start thinking about encouraging neurogenesis....

leading the stress free life
 

Stress exacerbates my PD; the most effective treatment for my PD symptoms has been to lower the stress in my life. For me, this has been a drastic prescription, beginning with getting out of a difficult marriage, coming to terms with not working, qualifying for Social Security, seeing my only child happily and successfully ensconced in college, downsizing to a small condo, living totally within my means without credit, spending time with and nurturing a small circle of friends, the companionship of two pets, and using my time for the pursuits I love - PD advocacy, politics, reading and writing.

I have a lot of social capital; it is what keeps me safe, sane and solvent.

My body tells me when it's time to scale back; I pay attention when my symptoms go south.

Carey,
I agree with you what you wrote about stress;

"Stress exacerbates my PD; the most effective treatment for my PD symptoms has been to lower the stress in my life."

I didnt mean stress can alone induce PD or heart diseases. If one is genetically predisposed to either PD or cancer, stress is one factor that exacerbates the disease. I think damage to DNA by toxins, infections or radiation can initiate a mutation or duplication or deletion or activation of a dormant gene (similar to cancer) or genes and stress, nutrition deficiencies etc promote the disease process.

I am sure there are several ways to reduce stress, each has to find his/her own method. Social support is definitely one of those methods!!

Girija

Stress etc
 

Hi Girija,
I take your point and totally agree on the value of the family. It is a much stronger bond in the East than the West. However, I could not have a more supportive family, you have seen them, so absence of stress alone I believe will not protect you from PD. IF you are stressed though, we know how it can increase symptoms.
Lurking,
Thanks for your comments which I fully accept. My comment was more against stem cell research than MJF. (The frustration coming through).
If anyones contribution is awesome it is MJF's, so you are not disagreeing!!!
Rick,
Be careful, you have not seen me run since your UK trip. I might have improved!!!
Ron

bump bump bump