Rick, Ron, Girlja, RLSmi and other scientists....
 

What do you think of this? Here's the link (I know, it's autism, but the book discusses neurodegenerative diseases as well...):

http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/07/s...t-neurons.html

I welcome everyone's thoughts, thanks. Still trying to digest it myself, to be honest.

Lurk (I hope that isn't too informal :) )-
Search this forum for h. pylori. Somewhere way back there is a thread on it. Among other things, it releases ammonia into the system.

Hi Lurking,
Do you have any info to connect autism with PD, or are you just interested in this because it applies to anther neurological disease? It could be interesting for a white rat with PD to try Effalex (or should it be Efalex), judging by the incredible effect it had on an autistic child. Oherwise, difficult for a non medic to comment, (I am only a chemist!!)

Ron

lurakingforcure,'
interesting article, will read and get back to you
girija

they both involve the brain
 

No, no "evidence", but have always just felt they are similar, maybe because they both involve the brain...but more recently because the stuff I read seems to use the same terms for both, there is an overlap, maybe coincidence, maybe not. If something is good and helps autism (and they say the fish oil, B12, and others do), oddly, those things have also cropped up in connection with PD.

And don't discount being a chemist, that is huge, your background allows you to analyze material with a different perspective and after all, we are all just a bunch of chemicals at the end of the day. Thanks for your comments.

Three things mentioned seemed to overlap with PD.
 

The first thing was the glutamate excitotoxicity that may be part of the "short circut" in the hypothalamus thought to be responsible for PD tremor.

The second was mitochondrial dysfunction which has been shown to be present in both animal models of PD and in patients. In PD the problem is primarily in what is referred to as "complex I" of the energy-producing electron transport chain of reactions.

Third, the involvement of intercellular calcium ion dysregulation in PD has been recently studied by Sturmier at Northwestern U. This is what led to the clinical trial of istradifylline for PD.

Other than the commonality of inflammatory processes and disruption of the immune system seen in many neurological degenerative disorders, I did not see any other similarities between what seems to be going on in autism and PD.

Robert

Thanks
 

thanks all for responding, I was mainly wondering if anyone saw any similarties, like RLSmi pointed out, and also including Rick's theory of some viral insult early on that seems to set things in motion....

Then, too, whether anyone thought that the protocol disucussed in this book might benefit PDers...many of the things mentioned have been tried here on a white rat basis, or have actually be involved in studies (like the fish oil).