Good reasoning, Robert.  People too often take things at face value. =

You get a different perspective when you're a PWP.  I was diagnosed last
year at age 44.  I've seen it reported that 10-15% of PD cases are
diagnosed before age 50.  You don't hear much about us though.

Thanks for the posting.  I agree with you 100%.

Keith Chancey 45/13 months
Memphis, TN  =



robert l dolezal wrote:
> =

> Once again, Judith supplies a cutting-edge report on our disease.  Were=
 it
> not for her, at least one among us would know a whole lot less.
> =

> But this one causes me a few problems, all stemming from the following
> statement:  "About 7 million people around the world have Parkinson's
> disease, which usually strikes after age 60, causing progressive tremor=
,
> muscle rigidity and other movement problems."
> =

> I can personally attest to the tremor, and the muscle rigidity, and mos=
t of
> my movements are definitely problems! - but where did these guys come u=
p
> with a PD population of 7 million "around the world?"
> =

> For starters, if up to 1.5 million of us have it in the U. S. of A., wi=
th a
> mere 290 million people, how can there be only 7 million with the disea=
se
> in a world of about 6 billion people?  I'll not even bother to compute =
the
> ratios.
> =

> Nonetheless, printed in such a prestigious journal, these are terribly
> frightening numbers. Frightening because those in power, political and
> medical, see them and believe and rely on them - or pretend to do so.
> =

> Frightening, too, because you know that this release was reviewed for
> syntax and substance before it was printed, and yet it was released, in=
 a
> prestigious journal.
> =

> And then the real flight of whimsy:  "Which usually strikes after age 6=
0."
> =

> All these years I had thought that the oft-repeated average of 57 AT
> DIAGNOSIS was far too old - now they tell me it STRIKES "after age 60?"=

> Wow!  I must've been a preemie!  I was diagnosed at 57, but I now know =
that
> the disease had "struck" at least seven years previous.  The symptoms w=
ere
> there, I just didn't recognize them as Parkinson's.  Nor did the respec=
ted
> geriatrics doctor I played tennis with regularly who, when shaking my c=
old
> hand after our match over a  period of a number of winters commented, "=
You
> might take niacin to warm up that hand."
> =

> I was 52 to 55 then. Parkinson's had struck, undiagnosed, in clinic or =
on court.
> =

> Is there  empirical data to support the "7 million around the world?"  =
The
> "strikes after age 60?"  Am I an aberration?  Are you?  And if we are n=
ot,
> and  those numbers are simply wrong, who is going to print an "aberrati=
on
> clarification?"
> =

>                                 Bob Dolezal
> =

> At 11:23 PM 10/14/98, judith richards wrote:
> >Brain surgery helps severe Parkinson's
> >
> >NEW YORK, Oct 14, 1998 (Reuters) -- Patients severely disabled by
> >Parkinson's disease can reduce or even eliminate their need
> >for medication by undergoing an operation in which implanted electrode=
s
> >are used to stimulate the subthalamic nucleus, a region
> >of the brain that controls movement.
> >
> >In a new study on 24 patients, 20 followed for a year had a 60%
> >improvement in their ability to perform routine activities, and
> >their average dose of drugs was cut in half in the year after the
> >procedure, according to a report in the October 15th issue of
> >The New England Journal of Medicine.
> >
> >The other four patients were not included in the study for several
> >reasons, including complications stemming from the procedure
> >such as infection requiring removal of the electrodes. One patient who=

> >had a brain hemorrhage during surgery, causing long term
> >paralysis and loss of speech.
> >
> >However, 4 of the 20 patients who underwent subthalamic nucleus
> >stimulation (STN) have been able to eliminate their need for
> >levodopa, the most common drug used to treat Parkinson's disease.
> >Levodopa, or L-dopa, eventually loses its ability to control
> >the symptoms of Parkinson's disease and can cause uncontrollable
> >movements on its own, known as dyskinesia. About 7 million
> >people around the world have Parkinson's disease, which usually strike=
s
> >after age 60, causing progressive tremor, muscle
> >rigidity and other movement problems.
> >
> >Eight of the patients had short term mental difficulties, including
> >confusion, hallucination and disorientation after the surgery
> >
> >Lead investigator Dr. Pierre Pollak of Joseph Fourier University of
> >Grenoble and the University Hospital of Grenoble in France
> >also presented the new data at the 5th International Congress of
> >Movement Disorders in New York.
> >
> >``The technique is ``not for everyone,'' Pollack said. There is a 2% t=
o
> >5% risk of bleeding during the neurosurgery, and only the
> >most disabled patients are eligible. The ideal candidate is a younger
> >patient -- average age in this study was 55 at the time of
> >surgery -- with advanced disease complicated by dyskinesias and motor
> >fluctuations.
> >
> >Overall, only 15% of all Parkinson's patients ``will be clearly
> >improved'' with subthalamic nucleus stimulation, he said.
> >
> >But unlike levodopa, STN appears to continue working over time. No
> >tolerance to stimulation appears to develop and five
> >patients who have been followed the longest -- 5 years -- have had a
> >stable improvement in symptoms, he said. Of the 70
> >patients treated with the technique, two have had deterioration in
> >mental ability. However, both were in early stages of dementia
> >at the time of surgery, Pollak said, but he acknowledged that there wa=
s
> >a ``speeding of decline associated with surgery.''
> >
> >SOURCE: The New England Journal of Medicine 1998;339:1105-1111.
> >--
> >Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
> ><[log in to unmask]>
> >                         ^^^
> >                         \ /
> >                       \  |  /   Today=92s Research
> >                       \\ | //         ...Tomorrow=92s Cure
> >                        \ | /
> >                         \|/
> >                       ```````