It is amazing to me how much interest this post has generated.   But the 
Amish have always been a source of academic interest because they have to a 
great extent preserved their way of life in a control culture which is very 
powerful.  I recall studying them as a grad student in Social Work at UCLA 
and in anthropology classes.

Ray

Rayilyn Brown
Director AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation
[log in to unmask]

--------------------------------------------------
From: "chew nee kong" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, August 09, 2009 11:27 PM
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Amish got PD

> Dear James
>
> Thanks for sharing the very interesting information. I can't comment on 
> the link between PD and religious group as I do not have no such 
> experience in Malaysia.
>
> As far as my country is concerned, overall, genetic factor seems to play 
> only a minor role in the causation of PD. The percentage of patients with 
> family history is very small (about 1-2%). And even in familial cases of 
> PD, it may not be necessarily be genetic factor which is responsible - it 
> could be a common exposure to the same environmental factor / s.
>
> I am more in favour of an environmental cause for PD.
>
> I'd like to share with you the story of two Malaysian Chinese ladies who 
> developed (idiopathic) Parkinson's after working in a joss paper shop for 
> about 20 years. Both these ladies were married to the same man (the 
> manager of the shop). They have no genetic relationship at all.
>
> Till today, the burning of joss papers is widely practised by the Chinese 
> for religious purpose. The joss paper has a layer of metallic leaf in the 
> centre (attached). I sent the metallic leaf to the laboratory at SIRIM 
> (Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia), which confirmed 
> that the metallic leaf contained heavy metals such as lead, copper, zinc 
> and mercury, which has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson's. 
> This case report was subsequently published (Neurological Journal of South 
> East Asia. Dec 2003. Vol 8. 117-120).
>
> Dr Chew, Malaysia.
>
>> Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:06:28 +1000
>> From: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: Amish got PD
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>
>> (Please ignore the previous copy of this posting - It got away from me 
>> before it
>> could be edited)
>>
>> I have not seen any data linking any particular religious group to PD, 
>> but there
>> is data on familial types of PD for Sardinian and Japanese groups. If 
>> indeed
>> there is a higher incidence of PD among the Amish, it is possibly a 
>> familial
>> type. On the other hand, it could be just a statistical anomaly. When 
>> discussing
>> prevalence and incidence, it is necessary to not only know the total 
>> number of
>> the subject group who have the disorder, but their age range, and the 
>> total
>> number and age range of the non-PD group. The Amish may be under- or
>> over-represented, relevant to the general population. They could just 
>> have more
>> members in the most common PD age-group, i.e., 80+.
>>
>> The current general theory for the cause of Parkinson's Disease, at least 
>> for
>> the Idiopathic ("unknown cause") variety is that there is a genetic
>> pre-disposition to the disease, and that, coupled with a "toxic event", 
>> triggers
>> the development of PD. The so-called toxic event could be a severe blow 
>> to the
>> head, a bout of pneumonia, exposure to agricultural chemicals etc.
>>
>> In part, this idea came about because of several studies involving a 
>> number of
>> twins. In some cases both twins developed PD, but in other cases, only 
>> one did.
>> If genetics was the only causative factor, then, went the theory, both 
>> twins
>> should develop PD.
>>
>> Then there were studies of extended families living in the same 
>> environment.
>> Sometimes more than one of the family got PD, sometimes only the one. If
>> environmental causes were the only causative factor, then more than one 
>> person
>> in the family should have developed PD.
>>
>> So there had to be an explanation that satisfied both genetic and 
>> environmental
>> criteria, thus the proposition of "genetic predisposition" PLUS "toxic 
>> event".
>> There is no substantive proof of this theory.
>>
>> However, when we consider other types of PD, such as juvenile onset 
>> (about 15 to
>> 20) and early onset (about 20 to 40), there has been evidence that there 
>> are
>> autosomal (non-sex) chromosomes involved, both dominant (one copy only of 
>> the
>> altered gene in each cell is sufficient to cause the disorder) and 
>> recessive
>> (two copies of the gene in each cell have been altered).
>>
>> Several genes have been found to be involved in PD, including  the GBA, 
>> LRRK2,
>> PARK2, PARK7, PINK1, SNCA, SNCAIP, and UCHL1 genes.
>>
>> Among other factors, the herbicides 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T have been 
>> implicated in
>> causing PD.
>>
>> But before we get too far ahead of ourselves in attributing one cause or
>> another, we must ask ourselves the question "What causative agents were 
>> around
>> when Dr. James Parkinson (1755-1824), first described the disease in 
>> Western
>> medical terms?"
>>
>> Not to mention the Ayurveda, the Indian medical doctrine which described 
>> PD
>> about 5000 BC. Then there is the Chinese text "Huang di nei jing su wen" 
>> about
>> 500 BC, the Ancient Greeks Homer 8 BC and  Erasistratus , 310-250 BC, 
>> and
>> writers
>> such as Celsus, Galen,  Dioscorides and several more. It is even said to 
>> be
>> mentioned in the Bible.
>>
>> Jim
>> (Dr James F Slattery PhD Soc Sc)
>>
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