(From: Janet, who is not a professional, as everyone knows, and
whose writing is therefore not professional either, as everyone can
tell.  Also there is an ongoing debate about how much of my brain
has predeceased me - hmmm - maybe it left me a will...also I
wonder, should I have a semi-funeral when it reaches a certain
percentage??? According to my older brother I've been brain dead
since birth anyway, at least he always tried to convince me that I
was ....so maybe it's a mute point anyway..

-To all those who have been following this thread and have realized
it is not a yarn and anyone else who is interested.
You probably will have to have read my previous posts to get
what I'm talking about.  See archives.
Hope it's not TOO obtuse.

I occupy a teensy corner of the list and regularly post reasons
why I think PD/MSA is actually an autoimmune disorder.

To continue:

(1)  Just a very brief glimpse at neurological diseases as a whole shows
that it is not very far-fetched at all to suspect that PD is
of autoimmune origin.  There are quite a few already known or
thought very likely to be autoimmune - multiple sclerosis, myasthenia
gravis, autism, etc.

Also it is very interesting, almost eerie, to participate in the
Parkinson list, the Shy-Drager list and the Allergy list
simultaneously and in random order, and see the number of
topics, symptoms, complaints, that are common ground for them.
Many times I have to check the address to be sure which list
a post is from.

Here are some examples, used by permission-

(1) Hypothalamus, adrenalin, stress, decreased absorption of iron
and calcium, glycemia, tyrosine, central nervous system, etc.

 ".... The body has a feedback mechanism that is determined by the
amount
> of  cortisol (or a similar manmade drug such as prednisone) in the blood. By
> this, the hypothalamus/pituitary glands determine whether the adrenals need
> to secrete more cortisol. When there is plenty in the blood from the
> pharmaceutical version, the body figures it does not need to produce more so
> the adrenals slow, then shut down. This is why it is very dangerous to take
> prednisone for long periods of time and why you must slowly reduce the
> dosage (taper off), in order to get your own adrenals cranking again.
>
>         The body's own system of production and delivery of cortisol (and
> epinephrine) is critical to our health and should be treated with great
> respect.
>                       >  The body has a feedback mechanism that is determined by the amount
> of  cortisol (or a similar manmade drug such as prednisone) in the blood. By
> this, the hypothalamus/pituitary glands determine whether the adrenals need
> to secrete more cortisol. When there is plenty in the blood from the
> pharmaceutical version, the body figures it does not need to produce more so
> the adrenals slow, then shut down. This is why it is very dangerous to take
> prednisone for long periods of time and why you must slowly reduce the
> dosage (taper off), in order to get your own adrenals cranking again.
>
>         The body's own system of production and delivery of cortisol (and
> epinephrine) is critical to our health and should be treated with great
> respect.
>                       John Hepler

 Not all that ails allergic people is allergy.
>        Here's two examples we can look at, side by side--- stress and a
> sugar binge.
> Stress is generally thought to play a role in asthma and posssibly worsen
> (increase) a persons allergic reactivity. How? In reaction to stress, the
> human body releases stress hormones-- ACTH which stimilates the adrenals to
> release cortisol and epinephrine (adrenaline) -- originally  triggered by
> signals from the Nervous System (i.e., the stress).
>
>           "The overall mechanism regulating glycemia... is in fact very
> complex, since in addition to insulin and glucagon,.... hormones with
> opposing effects, other hormones also intervene, such as cortisol,
> epinephrine and growth hormone, all of which belong to the group of hormones
> under control of the central nervous system." (from *Hormones*, Baulieu &
> Kelly, eds; Chapman and hall, 1990; p 36) What this means is that generally
> on diets high in sugar and simple starches, the body also secretes adrenal
> hormones to deal with it.
>
>         There are several effects of having cortisol and epinephrine
> coursing thru your blood. One is that you feel hopped up, ready for action.
> Your body is on alert or goes into action. If your body does not repond in
> action
>          A second is that it suppresses Inflammation, one of the essential,
defining features of allergic reaction. Epinephrine actually calms mast
> cells at sites on the cells called "beta adrenergic receptors". This is
> nature's way of contolling allergic reactions and histamine release.
> Cortisol controls inflammation (among many other effects) by suppressing the
> production of hormonelike subtances called eicosanoids (leukotrienes,
> prostaglandins, PAF, thromboxanes), many of which are strongly implicated in
> allergic reactions and general inflammatory response.
>
>         Sounds good but we all know what it feels like. There are drawbacks,
> especially from repeated or excessive adrenal stimulation:
>         Repeated stimulation makes for decreased sensitivity-- this is
> documented by the facts of generally decreasing (human) absorption rates of
> calcium and iron as intake decreases. Similarly, the greater the stimulation
> of beta adrenergic receptors by, for example, inhaled beta-agonists such as
> Ventolin, Albuterol, etc; the more the actual number of the beta adrenergic
> receptors tends to decrease. This is why excessive use of these can have
> disastrous results.
>          Cortisol tends to disrupts the critical regulating system for many
> physiologiacl functions, the working of the eicosanoids (agents of the
> autocrine-paracrine system). Real life results of long term use of
> Prednisone are well known and unpleasant.
>           Possibly worse, the ready availability of glucocorticoids (manmade
> prednisone acts in a very similar manner to the hormone cotisol) in the
> blood signals the adrenals, via feedback, to stop producing its own adrenal
> homones. If this goes on long enough, the adrenals actually shrink.
>
>          As far as I can tell, medical authorities believe that the body
> never runs out of raw materials with which to make its own cortisol (B
> vitamins, among others) and epinephrine (tyrosine, vitamin C, etc). Even
> accepting this dubious premise-- we still have serious problems from too
> much stress and too much sugar, which acts as a stressor. When it is
> continual, we are liable to have trouble, including worse allergy symptoms.
>                              John Hepler
>
> PS       "The secretion of ACTH (and thus of glucocorticosteroids), growth
> hormone and digestive hormones is dependent on the type and rhythm of food
> intake."
> (Hormones, p35)
>          Savor this one, another quote from this mainstream 700 page text.
>
(2) The connection of the next quote is hydrocephalus which is a known
cause of Parkinsonian symptoms.  It is very interesting that asthma
meds alleviated her hydrocephalus symptoms. BTW hydrocephalus in
elderly  patients is a fairly common disorder I believe.

"....The reaction of your doc is, unfortunately, not too uncommon.  Ten
years
> ago, I was having problems with balancing, feeling overstimulated from the
> environment, etc.  I, too, was told it was anxiety attacks and was put on
> Xanax, Prozac, and a number of other nasty drugs.  Four years ago, when I
> became totally disabled as a result of these and other symptoms, and a doc
> bothered to do a CAT scan, it turns out that I have hydrocephalus
> (basically a blockage of spinal fluid on my brain that presses down on my
> brain with activity).  Now, the docs who I worked with 10 years ago are
> saying, yes, that was the problem, and they would have treated me
> differently if they had only known!
>
> Now, since I have also had a nasty flare up of asthma symptoms and have
> begun using inhalers for it, my  hydrocephalus symptoms have seemed to
> clear up!  Curious . . .
>
> Just goes to show that docs aren't perfect, and we aren't crazy . . .
>
> Lorry

(3) Also, since we're on a roll finding possible links to the commonly
suspected causes of PD (20th century chemicals, rural, animals,
hereditary, age related, environmental,etc ) and allergies , a viral
connection could be that severe viruses are said to be able to "turn on"
many immune type diseases lying dormant like lupus, diabetes ,
asthma/allergy.
This would provide a possible reason why Amantadine is effective against
PD I would think.

Hope this does not sound like a 'confused noise' (Eeyore) to anyone.

Thanks,
Janet