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I am 58 and was diagnosed in May of this year. Tremor is my most apparent symptom, but after learning more about the disease it became apparent that I have other symptoms, some for a few years. The kicker here is that a good 15 years ago I had a fainting spell. I got up from the couch, went upstairs and while urinating...bam...I went down like a ton of bricks. I was put through a whole series of tests, with no apparent cause found. The neuro (my cousin) concluded it was caused by a drop in blood pressure caused by suddenly standing up and contributed to by the urination. Now I read this...hmmm! Jim Dolan >One key symptom is orthostatic hypotension -- a drop in blood pressure >that comes when people stand up. Some patients have it all the time, >complaining of dizziness and even fainting when they stand. > >The symptom has been described in association with Parkinson's, and has >sometimes been blamed on the drugs used to treat Parkinson's. > >But Goldstein found this drop in blood pressure was associated with a >loss of the sympathetic nerve endings. These nerve endings produce a >neurotransmitter that is related to dopamine, called norepinephrine.