o
> From:          Ida & Andre Kamphuis <[log in to unmask]>



> The relation between smoking and PD has been  consistently found during
> many years. Some years ago I did ask my neuro whether he had any thoughts
> about that.  He said it was his impression  that  PWP's  had less
> tendency to get hooked on whatever stuff  in the first place.  So the
> causality in the relation might be just the other way round. People who
> have a tendecy to get PD don't have the same reaction  as other people to
> dependecy-creating  stuffs and because of that don't like them so much.
>
> This same question, how to explain the obvious negative relation between
> smoking and  PD was during the last months of 1996 the subject of many
> mails on the list. At that time I was in a rather bad shape and talking
> it over with friends, we were convinced it couldn't  do much harm to try
> a nicotine patch. So I bought one and tried it. The story about the
> results seems to me characteristic of PD. At first the results were
> marvelous ( I got my handwriting from my pre-Parkinson life back) but
> within a few days the results disappeared. So I stopped with the patches
> and after a week tried one again, but now without any result and later
> trials neither had any success.  I told this on the next visit to my
> neuro. His comment was that Parkinson  never stopped to produce riddles.
> He had witnessed in his practice a similar story.
>
> An other patient had told him her symptoms had astonishingly decreased
> and she credited  that to flagyl, a gynaecological anti -infective,
> because the disappearence of Parkinson symptoms had been coningent on her
> using this. The neuro and the other doctor who had prescribed the drug
> consented she would not stop using it when it had finished its
> anti-infective task. But allas; soon the PD symptoms were back with the
> same strength. Just like I did with the patches, she too tried it later
> again, but without any result.
>
> Now that I am writing this I looked for flagyl in my meds book and it
> mentions neurological side effects  as vertigo and ataxia and the same
> effects as disulfiram ( a med. that is used by alcoholics to prevent
> drinking ) .
>
>
> Now about smoking. An outcome of the neurophysiological research on the
> function  of dopamine is that next to the role in movement, dopamine has
> yet another role. It has a function in being able to experience positive
> feelings. It makes that the rewards in life can be experienced as such.
> Feeling positively excited is correlated with a heightened level of
> dopamine in a certain part (the nucleus accumbens) in the brain.
>
> This is in accordance wth the  frequency of depression  in PWP's.  Drugs,
> that can cause addiction do all bind to dopamine receptors and cause a
> heightening of the available dopamine. If  that is not possible because
> dopamine is lacking these drugs don't give a kick at all. That might be
> an explanation for the fact that future PWP's don't smoke. Their disposal
> of dopamine has been low for  many years before the disease is manifest.
> And if this is the whole story it makes no sense to start smoking to
> prevent  Parkinson.
>
>
> Regards, Ida Kamphuis, Holland

Hi
  The first thing I read on PD after I was diagnosed was Dr.Harvey
Sagar's book " Parkinson's Disease " in which he explains away the
statistics that show smokers have less PD than nonsmokers because of
a character difference !!!!
   Shortly after I read in the " Scientific American " ( I think it
was the May 96 issue ?? ) that using a PET
scan it had been shown that nicotine increases the dopamine and ALSO
decreases the MAO B ( the substance that takes out the dopamine in
the brain ) . This double effect is far more likely to explain the
statistics .
    I have never smoked so I tried this nicotine chewing gum . It
made no difference to my PD symptoms just a little dizzy .
   At that time I was also getting no response to my PD symptoms from
L-dopa !?!? For 9 months I tried L-dopa with no effect to the disbelief of the doctors . It
was only after an intensive 1200 mg daily that I started to respond .
  My daily dose is now 400 mg  . I must try nicotine again .
    The problem with finding a cure for PD is what I call the " Pele
effect " after a character in Dr. Sachs book " The Awakenings " who
given a football lost his PD symptoms and could play football .
 Footballs dont cure PD but something in his being very interested in
football
unscrambled a mental block . Dopamine plays an important part in this
process, but the mechanism is still unclear . Boosting the dopamine
level in the brain clearly helps PD in most cases . My own view is
that this is a brain neurone firing pattern spasm but I am far from
sure  .
    A week ago I got a " Pele effect " when I was trying to see if
boosting my potasium level inproved my PD . My foot cramps went away
completely ( Eureka ! ) , but they came back in 3 days and so far no variations of
the potasium treatment has helped my foot cramps !?!? At present the anomaly
is put down to the Pele effect . But if this is the case, why can't
we have a continual Pele effect ?!?!
       In many cases after the disappearance of the initial dramatic
effect there is possibly a slight overall improvement shown up in statistics .
    I am sure with enough information we can work out what PD is and
how to cure it .

     peace
          Alastair     ( [log in to unmask] )