Can you feel it? Parkinson’s, the emic approach
 

In Anthropology the term emic is used to describe a society from within. By means of participating observation, the researcher tries to understand a group of people from the inside. This brought me to the idea that maybe it would be fruitful to apply this concept to the problems posed by Parkinson’s disease. Medical researchers have a lot of precious tools at their disposal, but these all operate at the outside. Patients can feel the pain or annoyances a disease causes. Of course a doctor or a researcher will pose questions to the patient. This could work well if you know what a disease is like. If however there is a lot that is not known of this disease and a patient is able to wander through his disease, he can add substantially. He should be trained to describe as accurate as possible what the nature of the symptoms of PD is. I’ve tried to do just that and it made me doubt seriously about the current levodopa theory.
The method I use to investigate PD is that I ask the same question, over en over again: “what do I feel when I do something” . This one of a series of articles where I try to describe the feeling of PD. I hope this will bring field professionals to ideas to solve the mystery and conquer Parkinson’s disease.
During the night I don’t take any medication. Early in the morning, when I rise, I often have the impression my Parkinson’s disease is almost gone. I can stand on one leg an put the other foot in my pants. I can turn my head to the left, and immediately after that to the right. I can open my hand an close it again. Sadly enough this favored condition doesn’t last much longer than half an hour.
If I don’t take medication my condition will change fast. It is getting harder and harder to move. The first symptom I usually experience is that my tongue starts to quiver. From the survey “images of parkinson’s disease” I know other patients do not have this as a premier symptom. Soon after that, walking will be difficult, my face will get stiff. I will not be able to stand up from my chair, and if I stand my right leg will suddenly not be able to carry my weight causing me to fall.
I usually avoid this second state by taking medication. About 20 minutes after I have taken levodopa I enter the “on”-state. I can move again hooray! But this kind of movement isn’t quite what I expected. It is so overdone. If I move my head to the left, this will work, but if I want to move my head to the right after that, this seems impossible. The muscles of the original movement won’t give in. The muscles that want to cause the rotation in the other direction, have to use brute force to accomplish this. In fact all the “to and from” kind of movements, except pedaling on my bicycle, don’t work properly. It’s is better than no being able to move at all, but it is not the relief I expected.
I will make an attempt to analyze what is happening to me. The thesis I want to launch, is that Parkinson’s disease has to do with a flaw in friction management. To hold the different bodyparts in a fixed position without using too much energy, friction in our muscles should be high. If, on the other hand, you want to make precise movements, friction should be as low as possible. The concept of friction in mechanics is important and it should be reckoned with when planning movement. Without friction, cars wouldn’t be able to ride or brake. Let’s do an experiment. I have an electric Philips shaving device. The power chord is twisted and curled making it more or less elastic. If you try to drag the shaver by pulling at the power chord, the power chord is stretched say 6 cm before the device starts moving. If the main electric switch is turned on, the power chord is stretched only 3 cm. It becomes much easier to move the object when this object is vibrating. This makes it much easier to make precise movements.
When you want to move a heavy chest it is easiest to do this with short, powerful pushes. It is hard to control how fast it is moved, but move it usually does.
If I am in the state where it is hard to move, strangely enough, I can run, I can play tennis or box with my son and perform reasonably well.
Vibration can be seen as a series of pushes in opposite directions. By adjusting the frequency and the force (amplitude) friction might be reduced to almost nothing.
Patients with parkinson’s disease often have a tremor that stops when a movement is going on. What if a healthy person, who wants to make a move, trembles? This tremor cannot be noticed because it is so quick. Someone with parkinson’s disease cannot make a “to and from”-movement fast enough (Dysdiadochokinese). The amplitude rises and the frequency lowers and the tremor becomes evident. So it is wrong to say that someone with parkinson’s disease has a tremor while in fact his tremor doesn’t function anymore. Could that be true?
If a parkinson’s patient is given levodopa, the friction of his movements is reduced. As this is not the real solution, the ongoing disease will demand that the friction will be lowered even further. The result is however that the movements lose their stability. They become gliding and exorbitant. The least effort will cause exaggerated movements called dyskinesia.
This article doesn’t solve the question why “to and from” movements no longer function properly. Maybe there is an expert in the field who will find some inspiration here. What I wanted to show is that a patient has a source at his disposal that is unique and that might be crucial in solving the parkinson’s mystery.

Further reading:
Van den Bosch, A.P.M.
The Dopamine Theory of Parkinson’s Disease, http://parkinsonhuis.nl/onderzoek/Th...%20Disease.htm
Christian Haas,
University of Frankfurt.
The effects of random whole-body-vibration on motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease.
Journal NeuroRehabilitation.
http://iospress.metapress.com/content/c9gvmedjj1mnk2e9/
Christopher Rickards1 and Frederick W. J. Cody
Proprioceptive control of wrist movements in Parkinson’s disease
Reduced muscle vibration-induced errors
Brain (1997), 120, 977–990
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cont...6/977.full.pdf

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It's fixed now

Joop-
Glad to have you back!
About your hypothesis- Friction implies heat when it is overcome. I don't see that. What about "contraction" instead of "friction"?

What about speed of movement? Do slow, steady moves have differing results?
-Rick

Hi Joop,
Nice to hear from you. I don't know about the theory, need to think about it more, but your description of early morning experience of PD is so like mine as to be uncanny!! So in fact it is something we have in common, and to guess from many people who have posted over the years a lot have experienced.

Am also interested in your theory about about observing a society from within.

With a disease like PD that manifests differently in so many people, yet has clinically observable similarities, it is time we were 'observed' for more of the similarities - they might start finding answers!

You are always an interesting thinker......:D

Lindy

Rick,
I was never far away..:winky:
Friction produces heat all right however I cannot calculate how much. But this isn’t a maybe. If you want to move something you have to overcome friction. This poses no problem for fast strong movements as for these movements the force of friction is comparatively weak. For precise moments however there is big difference between the power you enforce and the final effect because of friction. That’s why I thought that nature has had to come up with a solution for that. I don’t know what solution however. It might a muscle vibration. Vibrations reduce friction and 100Hz vibrations do occur.
Further, dopamine, according to the dopamine theory of parkinson’s disease, will cause movement when the proper receptors are activated. But how than do you explain the differences between the three states I described. The dopamine state feels different! It isn’t just making movements possible, it reduces the friction. It does so also at moments it shouldn’t
Joop-

Lindy,
surely we and a lots of other PWP have a lot in common. I think there is a huge knowledge potential that should be used..
thanks for your reaction.
Joop

You may be interested in this
 

http://www.bwgen.com/

This is a shareware program called "Brainwave Generator" that I have played around with with some success. It allows you to entrain the general wave patterns in the brain to specific frequencies. I have found, for example, that a pattern of 6 Hz reliably vanquishes foot dystonia ("curly toes") in less than ten minutes. Sort of a poor man's DBS. A lot of room for research.

Non-invasive brain stimulation may be something that one day we will benefit from, though at the present it isn't a good look, walking around with with wires and things attached to your head isn't the coolest, but brain science is currently advancing faster than they can discuss the ethics that rise from it.......
Lindy