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Jeanette and All. The article in the Houston Chronicle is quite lengthy, a full page, but it is worth printing here. It might take three postings, but I will do it. There was no on-line site mentioned. MAKING PROGRESS AGAINST PARKINSON's New Medication and Technique Offer True Breakthrough. By Deborah Mann Lake, Special to the Chronicle. Talk with Parkinson's patients and researchers these days, and you'll note a level of enthusiasm that they'll tell you wasn't there a decade ago. Not only funding for research into the disease almost tripled in the past 10 years, but the willingness of personalities like actor Michael J. Fox to talk about their own condition has brought unprecedented public recognition to Parkinson's. And for the first time in the hisotry of Parkinson's treatment, therapies are now available to give sufferers a real edge in conrolling their symlptoms. "Because of our better understanding of what causes the disease, there is light at the end of the tunnel," said Dr. Joseph Jankovic, director of the Parkinsons' Disease Center and Movement Disorders Clinc at Baylor College of Medicine and the Methodist Hospital. "The message is that we have many, many new options now available and we can customize our treatment to the individual needs of the patient". The sheer number of studies that the Parkinson's center is conducting - 50 at last count- underscores that message. Named a Center of Excellence by the nonprofit National Parkinson Fondation in 1992, the center, which Jankovic founded in 1977, is involved in research ranging from surgical therapies to new medications. An estimated 700,000 Americans are affected by Parkinson's, with the incidence increasing after age 60. In most case, the cause is not known, but doctors have been able to link the disease to viral infections of the brain, strokes and certain toxins and drugs. Parkinson's disease causes the degeneration of cells in a part of the midbrain that produces dopamine, a substance that facilitates movement. The disease is characterized by tremor, slowness of movement, stiffness, difficulty in walking and loss of balance. Some Parkinson's patients also experience memory loss, personality change and other behavioral and sensory problems. "It progresses unrelentingly, said Houstonian Nancy Martone, 55, who has been battling Parkinson's for 25 years. "It's so difficult. I just keep losing things. I had to give up tennis and golf and now I can barely walk and for a while, I couldn't feed myself." The disease slowly worsens and, if left untreated, its complications can be fatal."People who become bedridden from advanced Parkinson's are at a high risk of infection, and infection is the main cause of death", said Jankovic, a professor of neurology at Baylor. "Fortunately, new treatments offer the hope that the disease's progression can be slowed or even halted." The most effective therapy for treating the disease is levodopa, a short-acting drug that enters the brain and is converted into dopamine. It is sometimes combined with another drug, carbidopa, which enhances its effect and minimizes nausea, a common side effect of levodopa. Doctors are working on a new medication they hope will counter some of the other side effects of levodopa, including intermittent stimulation of receptors on nerve cells, which some exerts think can cause tremors. Continued --- "