Is Dopal l-Dopa's Evil Twin?
 

This isn't brand new, but is getting published here.

http://speech-language-pathology-audiology.advanceweb.com/editorial/content/editorial.aspx?cc=108864

Researchers at the Saint Louis University School of Medicine and
Washington University in St. Louis, MO have discovered the key brain
chemical that causes Parkinson's disease - a breakthrough finding that
could pave the way for new, far more effective therapies to treat one
of the most common and debilitating neurological disorders (Acta
Neuropathologica, February 2008).

......The researchers discovered that dopamine itself actually plays a role
in destroying the cells that produce it.

In the process that leads to Parkinson's disease, dopamine is
converted into a highly toxic chemical called DOPAL. Using test-tube,
cell-culture and animal models, the researchers found that it is DOPAL
that causes alpha-synuclein protein in the brain to clump together,
which in turn triggers the death of dopamine-producing cells and leads
to Parkinson's.


paula

mirapex - evil half step brother of the twin dopa's
 

all 3 meds increase dopamine
-all 3 are just medication, and if you use dopa and mirapex - youll get a double dose of what I fondly call - insanity?

also -

it's 2008 -
I am very -to say the least disappointed -
we not have made very much progress in the last 8 freakin years?
and what was working -was forbidden to be used...

No Gdnf serum~
No adult stem cell transplantations
http://www.sfn.org/index.cfm?pagenam...t_neurogenesis

Nothin -zip - and we all who have worked for a cure, the Doctor's and the Scientist -I believe we are rightly pizzedoff... :confused:

and now this is going to become another political point -

how many of us - still remember the Bill Cllinton HOPE speech -
where by - He came from a little place called - HOPE, Arkansas.
raised by his working mother, and had taken his step father's last name
of Clinton...
you can hear it on line - William Jefferson Clinton giving his acceptance speech...
hearing in retrospect - 20/20 sounds like the same old -same ole
with a twist...

abit disgusted here! :holysheep:




http://www.pbs.org/newshour/conventi...nton_8-29.html

Paula, it's one of the reasons I keep procrastinating about taking mucuna pruriens. Here's an article:

Acta Neuropathol. 2008 Feb;115(2):193-203. Epub 2007 Oct 27.
Aggregation of alpha-synuclein by DOPAL, the monoamine oxidase metabolite of dopamine.
Burke WJ, Kumar VB, Pandey N, Panneton WM, Gan Q, Franko MW, O'Dell M, Li SW, Pan Y, Chung HD, Galvin JE.

Department of Neurology, Saint Louis VAMC and Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center, St Louis, MO, 63125, USA.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by the selective loss of dopamine (DA) neurons and the presence of alpha-synuclein (AS) aggregates as Lewy bodies (LBs) in the remaining substantia nigra (SN) neurons. A continuing puzzle in studying PD pathogenesis is that although AS is expressed throughout the brain, LBs and selective dopaminergic cell loss lead to characteristic clinical signs of PD, suggesting that there is a link between AS aggregation and DA metabolism.

One potential candidate for this link is the monoamine oxidase (MAO) metabolite of DA, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetaldehyde (DOPAL), as neither DA nor DA metabolites other than DOPAL are toxic to SN neurons at physiological concentrations. We tested DOPAL-induced AS aggregation in a cell-free system, in vitro in DA neuron cultures and in vivo with stereotactic injections into the SN of Sprague-Dawley rats by Western blots, fluorescent confocal microscopy and immunohistochemistry.

We demonstrate that DOPAL in physiologically relevant concentrations, triggers AS aggregation in the cell-free system, and in cell cultures resulting in the formation of potentially toxic AS oligomers and aggregates. Furthermore, DOPAL injection into the SN of Sprague-Dawley rats resulted in DA neuron loss and the accumulation of high molecular weight oligomers of AS detected by Western blot.

Our findings support the hypothesis that DA metabolism via DOPAL can cause both DA neuron loss and AS aggregation observed in PD.

oh..
 

I am probably repeating something in the other thread..well our grandparents said a few wires snapped in old Aunt Helen.....turns out they were right. This study leaves you with a dog chasing its tail feeling tho, don't you think?

paula

My simplified theory
 

is that PD is caused by accumulated life stress. Dopamine is needed to deal with stress and other needs and it is this over use (need) for dopamine which kills the brain cells. But We need dopamine even if it kills us!
My strategy is to try to minimise stress and take as little as possible of L-dopa. A kind of yogi life style is persued !
What is your strategy?

http://speech-language-pathology-aud...aspx?cc=108864
"The researchers discovered that dopamine itself actually plays a role in destroying the cells that produce it.In the process that leads to Parkinson's disease, dopamine is converted into a highly toxic chemical called DOPAL. Using test-tube, cell-culture and animal models, the researchers found that it is DOPAL that causes alpha-synuclein protein in the brain to clump together, which in turn triggers the death of dopamine-producing cells and leads to Parkinson's."

Kind of makes you wonder...
 

...about just how smart it is to 1)flood your entire system with pure l-dopa and 2)combine it with carbidopa to prevent your body's defensive enzymes that would reduce the amount reaching the brain. Nobody ever asks why the body invests energy in having such a system. Maybe if one was just using mucuna or even l-dopa without the carbidopa then the body just might be able to reach a balance of some sort.

What I do not believe, however, is that it just some tragic quirk in our design. We did not evolve stewing in our own wastes.

I can't overly stress the importance of stress
 

1) Mama gets stressed, Baby is sensitized to stress chemicals.
2) Mama has infection, Baby is sensitized to infection chemicals.
3) Stress chemicals trigger production of infection chemicals and infection chemicals trigger production of stress chemicals. Because of 1 & 2, the car has no brakes.
4) Entire system is stressed and vulnerable to pesticides, metals, etc.It gets worse with time.
5) Both chemical groups kill neurons because of 3. Stress chemicals also block repair systems.
6) Infection chemicals open the protective barriers in gut and brain. Toxins move from bowel to brain.
7) Brain defenders (microglia) "remember" common bacterial toxin from 2 above as ancient enemy. No 6 allows toxin to enter brain along with others.
8) Microglia go ape and spew even more infection chemicals. No brakes. Look out for that curve.....
8) Both chemical families act as neurotransmitters as well. As if things weren't bad enough.

Response to life stress
 

Hello Rick:
I agree with you that one single trauma does not cause PD .. but accmullated stress is an imbalance which causes cancers in some, PD in others and various other illnesses depending on your genes, external other influences and environemental and food toxins ..
Any way, now we got it ! it matters how best we deal with it ..
and this is why these exchanges are great