 |
 |
Jack etal., This may be making some far-fetched connections, but we never get anywhere without brainstorming! My father suffers from MSA. We have no evidence as to the cause. I keep wondering, though, if there might be a genetic "trigger" that was touched off by some event or exposure earlier in his life. His mother had Alzheimer's, fairly typical early-onset, I think, beginning in her late 50's and lasting 10-12 years. His only sibling, a sister, suffered with severe arthritis for much of her adult life. At one point I remember hearing that she was on gold treatments, which lasted several years. In her early 70's, she developed Alzheimer's, which progressed quickly and caused her death in less than two years. They (doctors?--my information is second hand) said that it happened as a result of all the different medications she had taken for her arthritis. What I wonder is -- is there a relationship between brain diseases like Alzheimer's and the Parkinson's syndromes? Is there a genetic "trigger" that runs in families? What sets off this trigger? Could exposure to metals or chemicals leave traces in brain tissue that causes the degeneration? I don't know what metals my father and grandmother might have been exposed to, but Dad was an engineer working with heavy machinery manufacturing and we used to be much less careful about metals and things like pesticides, so exposures were probably more common. What does this have to do with your query about medications? My thoughts were touched off by thinking about my aunt's gold treatments, which were considered a medication at the time. So I wonder if there are other medications we may be taking that have the ability to trigger some genetic susceptibility to brain diseases. Whew! Now my brain is all wore out! Jane K. (daughter of Fred, 81/MSA 2)