Yes...David's onset of motor complications came around age 35.

Bev
----- Original Message -----
From: "mackenzie" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 2:57 AM
Subject: Re: ldopa patch


>i love the way motor complications are classified as "late." hmmm let's
>see... 60 years old is the average age of onset, and life expectancy is
>almost unchanged by the disease at this point in time - the cdc says life
>expectancy is 77.6 years on average in the US... levodopa is widely
>acknowledged to cause motor complicatiions in 50-80% of people who take it
>within 5 years... 'course the younger you are, the more quickly they are
>likely to develop, but let's stick to the most widely cited numbers here.
>
> so that means that on average, a person with onset at 60 years can expect
> to remain free of motor complications for 5 out of the 17, on average,
> years left to him or her, leaving the remaining 12 years, on average -
> negligible, really - to be consumed by the business of trying to have a
> life while dealing not only with PD but with the [nearly impossible to
> manage] management of the side effects of the gold standard for the
> treatment of this disease.
>
> yes, i suppose i could agree with the characterization of the downhill
> slide starting at year five out of 17 as late - if i didn't have PD.
>
> and the fact that i am only 42 and at year five on a dopamine agonist,
> which is starting to become spotty in its efficacy, makes it just that
> teensy bit harder.
>
> i am all for funding research into therapies that will, we hope, push that
> downhill mark further and further out, and i think the michael j fox
> foundation is doing great things, truly. their efforts are transforming
> the field of pd research and they represent our greatest hope.
>
> but the characterization of the onset of motor complications as "late" is
> just plain inaccurate.
>
> "M.Schild" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: May 14, 2006 - May 20, 2006
>
>
> Micheal J. Fox Foundation awards funding to Israeli company
>   May. 14 -  NeuroDerm Ltd., based out of Ofakim, Israel, has been awarded
> $490,000 by the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's research. The
> award, made under the foundations clinical discoveries program, will
> support
> clinical work to develop a new transdermal skin patch for continuous
> delivery
> of levodopa, the natural precursor of dopamine, which is deficient in
> Parkinson's disease. The development is innovative, as researchers believe
> that dyskinesias - disruptive, jerky movements associated with long-term
> levodopa therapy - result from the sharp fluctuations in dopamine blood
> levels that occur when levodopa is given orally. NeuroDerm's system is
> based
> on a proprietary formulation involving a prodrug, levodopa ester (LDE),
> which
> has been able to maintain steady levodopa levels in animal models.
> NeuroDerm
> believes that their patch should be able to minimize or even reverse
> dyskinesias and other disabling late motor complications. "This Clinical
> Discovery Program grant is part of our focus on speeding highly relevant
> treatments to people living with Parkinson's disease," said Deborah W.
> Brooks, president and CEO of The Michael J. Fox Foundation. "We believe
> that
> improved delivery through continuous levodopa administration, such as
> NeuroDerm's prospective patch aims to achieve, could potentially result in
> a
> significant improvement in patients' day-to-day lives."
>
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