CTV documentary on Michael Fox's Parkinson's raises
new medical questions
Canadian Press

Wednesday, March 20, 2002

TORONTO (CP) - Is Parkinson's a disease after all?

That's one of the questions addressed in The Parkinson's Enigma,
an hour-long, B.C.- produced documentary that includes
an exclusive interview with actor Michael J. Fox.
It airs on CTV on Sunday, April 7, and later on Discovery Channel.
The documentary notes that in 1976, a teenaged Fox was in
Vancouver shooting a TV sitcom called Leo & Me. Since then, f
our members of the cast and crew, including Fox, contracted
Parkinson's.

The film asks if this is coincidence or a clue that Parkinson's - a
neurological condition usually associated with older people -
might be caused by environmental toxins or even a flu-like virus.
And if so, would stem cell therapy help?

Fox, 40, was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1991,
which he revealed in 1998. His memoir, Lucky Man,
is being published in April.

SOURCE: The Canadian Press
http://canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=53AF6B7D-D37F-4186-9C44-A7B051A5C41B

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Parkinson's link possible in Michael J. Fox series
Four people on '70s sitcom have the disease

Pamela Fayerman, with file from Jeremy Sandler

Vancouver Sun

Thursday, March 21, 2002

Michael J. Fox, as he was on 1970's CBC show, Leo And Me.

Burnaby native Michael J. Fox was just one of four film
industry people who worked on a sitcom shot in Vancouver
in the late 1970s who were later diagnosed with Parkinson's
disease, a new television documentary says.

Neurologists studying possible causes of the disease
have long theorized that exposure to environmental toxins
or viruses can trigger Parkinson's years later.

It is a theory that cannot be ignored, according to
Dr. Donald Calne, director of the Neurodegenerative
Disorders Centre at the University of B.C. Hospital site
and one of the world's leading experts on Parkinson's.

Calne said two of his patients worked with Fox on the
CBC sitcom Leo & Me. Their experience has been
documented for the CTV film, which will air April 7.

The film, The Parkinson's Enigma, stirs a provocative
discussion on whether it is coincidental or not that
four cast and crew members were later diagnosed
with Parkinson's.

Sally Gardner, a former script writer on the Leo & Me
series, now lives on Vancouver Island. Both she and
Fox were diagnosed with the disease when they were
in their 30s. Gardner is now 55, Fox is 40.

Gardner said she doesn't recall succumbing to any
flu viruses during the two years she spent as a script writer.

"I couldn't afford to get sick, I was too busy," she jokes.

The infectious theory is puzzling to her. In her role,
she spent most of her time off the actual set, in the control
booth. Though it would seem coincidental that four who
took part in the show were diagnosed with Parkinson's,
Calne said studies have shown there are intriguing clusters
of Parkinson's in certain occupations.

Though film industry workers have not been included,
there is evidence in those that are, that the more people
are exposed to germs, the more likely they are to get
Parkinson's, a disease that leads to muscle rigidity,
tremors and involuntary movements.

Epidemiological studies have found that among those
at increased risk of Parkinson's are teachers and medical
workers. So too are loggers, miners and oil rig workers,
all people who may live and work in close proximity
to one another.

The same studies have found a reduced risk among
people who spend most of their time at home.

"One possible explanation of the findings is that there
is a greater incidence of respiratory infections such as
influenza in the high-risk groups like teachers and
medical workers. In the loggers, miners and rig workers,
there may be an increased risk because they sleep in
close quarters, not unlike military barracks, which can
predispose people to infective agents," Calne said.

The theory that Parkinson's may be caused by viral
infections is supported by Japanese research on rodents.
When rats were injected with a virulent form of influenza A,
the virus found its way into the same part of the brain
that is attacked in Parkinson's.

Calne cautions that just because people get the flu
doesn't predispose them to Parkinson's. Some people
may be protected through genetic constitution or
other factors.

"If it is caused by a virus, then I would think it would
affect people who are in a particularly susceptible state,"
Calne said.

Though genetics is often linked to disease states,
Calne said only 15 per cent of Parkinson's victims
have a family history of the disease and the search
for specific genes that may cause it has so far been
unsuccessful.

What seems exciting to researchers is the fact that
more people than ever are getting vaccinated against
flu viruses. That will eventually create opportunities
to study whether the disease actually decreases
over time.

Meanwhile, Fox, who left the popular television series,
 Spin City, is devoting his time to fund raising for
Parkinson's research.

In the documentary, a visibly shaking and twitching
Fox talks about the disease's effect on his life.
"There's discomfort and it's certainly progressive.
I can't do all the things that I used to do," he says.

"Sometimes when my pills aren't working, I'll have
difficulty using my hands, difficulty to speak,
difficulty to move, but you know what, so what?
This is what I've got. We all get our own bag of
hammers that we have to deal with, this is the one
that I've got."

He says his diagnosis has fundamentally changed him.

"A lot of the time I call this a gift," Fox says in the
interview. "It's a gift that keeps on taking, but it's
been a gift in the sense that it's really opened me
up to not taking things for granted, for having a
more empathetic view of other people's situations."

Sounding grateful that celebrity status has enabled
him to work full time fund raising for the disease,
the former child star expresses confidence that
scientists will soon achieve a breakthrough.

"I really see this as something that's fixable and
 love that what I've been able to focus on is trying
to help fix it on a larger sense," he says.

"I mean it's going to happen. It's an inevitability.
I mean as sure as the sun is going to come up
tomorrow, it's going to happen so our mission
is just to make it happen as soon as possible,
but there's no question in my mind it's going
to happen."

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SOURCE: The Vancouver Sun
http://canada.com/search/site/story.asp?id=6AC8EBC1-38EE-4FF8-8118-AEA6D7BB0094

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