New to forum with research on brain injury & herbicides linked to Parkinson's
 

Hi - I have relished in the fruits of your research labor, on this wonderful forum, for awhile now. I cannot begin to tell you how much your post have helped! I have to thank Conductor71 because I was so impressed by her post on the NPF forum, I followed her over here. To my delight, there is such a wealth of information so graciously contributed, by so many great people! I can't thank you enough!!! My husband has PD, but I decided to contribute because I think that I have finally had a research breakthrough and wanted to share.

First, I will give you some background information on my husband. He was diagnosed 8 years ago, at the age of 41. Beginning symptoms were tremor of the right hand and loss of arm swing. He started noticing symptoms about a year before dx. After seeing an MDS, he was immediately diagnosed and began the Adiagio Clinical trial with Azilect. (He is still involved with this trial) We feel Azilect has definitely helped slow his progression. Amantadine was added a year ago to help with right hand tremor. He has taken vitamin C & Ibuprofen daily, since he was dx. We are very blessed that he is still working & exercises everyday. He hasn't had any other issues, except excessive saliva. We are considering Botox to help combat this issue. ( Would love to hear if anyone else has tried this) Still trying to keep Sinemet at bay.

To preface my research...my husband was in a car accident 2000. He hit his head and was unconscious for about 10 min. I have always had a suspicion that this was the stimulus for his PD. I was reading through some older post and saw that someone had mentioned the Davis Phinney Foundation. I noticed a recent headline on that site that said, Brain Injury & Herbicides linked to PD. ( Dr. Okun actually has a comment in the article) This prompted me to research the product Round Up weed killer that my husband had used for several summers after the accident. I recall this because we bought our kids a trampoline and needed to constantly kill a lot of weeds & poison ivy in that area. The second I did a search... Round Up being linked to PD popped up! The active ingredient is Glyphosate. The article specifically states, "Roundup herbicide is now a ubiquitous contaminant in our air, rain, groundwater, and food, making complete avoidance near impossible." I have only scratched the surface with my research, but it sounds a lot like the herbicide Paraquat, that was banned years ago because of a relation to PD. Apparently, it can still be used by Commercial Professionals. As the article implies, both of theses factors alone are associated with a risk for Parkinson's, but combined poses a greater risk. This begs the question, Why are these herbicides still being used? We haven't used it in years, but it still makes me worry about my kids being exposed during that time.

I apologize that I can't post the links, as I am new to the forum.

There is not a day that goes by that I don't do some form of research. The relentless pursuit of something that will eradicate or help in some way. While not definitive and knowing there are different pathways to PD, I feel that this is a plausible explanation of how my husband's PD was aroused or began. Would love to hear any of your thoughts.

roundup - glycosphate - is used extensively in agriculture, it might be the #1 herbicide around the world especially since MONSANTO manufactures it and since the patent has expired so do other companies. MONSANTO has made billions on it especially after incorporating a gene into corn, soybeans and other crops that make them immune to ROUNDUP which is a non-selective herbicide, kills broadleaf plants and grasses. it's the cheapest way to control weeds and interestingly enough, the most climate friendly in terms of burning fossil fuel since farmers don't have to use old fashioned mechanical weed control, namely tilling the fields with a tractor to bury the weeds. just spray and pray :)

thanks for your post, i also am a news junkie on pd but concentrate more on treatments and neuroprotection than on trying to eliminate possible environmental causes, i guess because there isn't much news on that or scientists calling for a ban in the news so i forget about it - i have pd :). for some reason alarm bells don't go off in my head when i read about the possible link between pesticides/herbicides and pd and they should for exactly the reasons you mentioned. banning these chemicals would significantly raise the cost of food so one has to be very certain they increase the chances of getting pd.

Thank you for your response Soccertese. The information just hit too close to home overlook. I share your quest for treatments and neuroprotection. Hopefully, perseverance by will pay off one day!:)

Welcome! I have all but stopped posting on other forums because I feel like scare newly diagnosed people and/or annoy everyone else, so I am glad that I am still reaching a few. I think it is only natural to be concerned with causatives. Like Soccertese, I want to see disease altering discoveries for the most part too, but have a hard time with it because there always seems to be so many promising treatments on the horizon that go absolutely nowhere. The snail's pace is a hope killer.


Eventually, you realize that to even have really eradicate this, we need to be driving some portion of the research. In our situation, a cure means reversing our damage and preventing in others with vaccines. If they cannot glom onto at least one thing we all share in common no matter how we arrived here; genetic or idiopathic, then I don't foresee that happening. Since no one seems too keen on the reliability of us to provide reliable data on our own life and medical histories sharing our info here is the next best bet. It is a sad state. When is the last time we have seen a recent publication on why so many of us are Vitamin D deficient, or how many of us share a common blood type…

It truly baffles me as to why we still have no patent registry. Our good political reps have been dithering on that for over 4 years now. Exchanging info online is the only way this seems to be happening. Patients Like Me have profit motives, many of our foundations have no motives; even 23andMe seems to be resting on their laurels. We are the only ones with earns and urgent intention, and we are the ones who have little to no clout. The more anecdotal info we share openly online the better. Some day it will be data mined and useful.

i agree on the need for registries on all chronic diseases. as an aside, with new cell lines to test chemicals and the advances in genomics, researchers will find more causes. the question is will anything be done with that info? ROUNDUP has been implicated in other diseases as has many other chemicals, the epa has been fought by coal industry on air/mercury pollution, the list is endless. not saying the research isn't needed but with our economic system known risk factors for pd increase the risk so little getting them banned would be difficult especially in our current political/economic climate so i'm more interested in neuroprotection research and a ''cure". and considering where my food comes from, water treatment, etc.
i

conductor,
food for thought, this is over my head but it seems there is a lot of data, just need to figure out how to use it.
http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/...l.pgen.1002548

Parkinson's Alley
 

An older posting referenced the following:

Parkinson's Alley

Recent studies have found statistical links between pesticide use and an outbreak of Parkinson's disease in California farm towns. Researchers even know which chemicals are the likely culprits. What's the government doing about it? Not much.

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201...esticides.aspx

Round-up spray is so bad and I can't talk anyone out of using it. Don't know what the highway Dept uses...but I called them once to beg them to stop the round side spraying for weeds along the side road we take to get to our farm...I had immediate effects just passing by them and could hardly drive to work.

Thanks for the welcome Conductor! I assure you that yours & everyones contribution means more than you will ever know. I think we all have an insatiable appetite for knowledge of anything that may have potential to bring comfort or healing. Just knowing of something that helped someone else can be so encouraging! It's also reassuring that others are trying to help connect the dots! I agree that we definitely need a registry to make research happen faster by connecting us with the research! I did find the following encouraging information **
**

I'm sorry...I didn't realize I included a link. I thought I just put where I found the information and did not know that wasn't permissible. I apologize for the newbie mistake.