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Hello, Everyone: It's a pleasure to be a participant in this group; hopefully we will all benefit from the exchange of information and ideas. I am an electronic engineer, involved with design of implantable medical devices, and live in the Portland, Oregon area. My father, Alex, is 88, widowed, and was diagnosed with PD (is that an appropriate abbreviation ?) about 5 years ago. That is compounded by chronic low back pain caused by a degree of spinal deterioration, and (as others have commented) it is difficult to assign symptoms to one or the other. In any event, his mobility is gradually decreasing, and at present it is a challenge for him to get out of bed for meals, etc., but he does so. A greater problem has been a tendency for him to become faint upon exertion, and to become dizzy upon sitting up or standing. The medical term for this is orthostatic hypotension ... low blood pressure related to change of physical position ... and is apparently not uncommon with PD patients. This has become more evident in my dad's situation during the past few months. In a few instances it has caused him to fall, but fortunately no injuries have resulted. I recently learned (from prowling the network libraries) that in such instances the use of B-complex vitamin supplements can be of benefit. So about a week ago I started him on a Schiff product called "B Complex 50" which contains the following: B1:50mg, B2:50mg, B6:50mg, Niacinamide:50mg, Pantothenic acid:50mg, B12:50mcg, and Folic acid:400mcg. He is taking one tablet daily, and there has been a definite improvement ... less tendency to become dizzy and/or to faint. For the PD symptoms he takes the following: Sinemet 25/100 twice daily, Eldepryl 5mg twice daily. For the chronic back pain, he takes: Relafen 500mg twice daily. And he receives a monthly injection of Depo-Lupron for hormonal control of prostate cancer; this seems to be very effective. (PSA = zero) Dad has been a creative commercial artist for more than 50 years, and is well known for his WWII-era cover art for Marvel comicbooks and for his many science-fiction magazine covers and illustrations ... he has a fine imagination and a good sense of humor, and each helps him to deal with the encroachment of his illness ... but we now occasionally hear the question "Why can't I just die ?" To which I usually mumble something about the end coming for each of us, but in its own time. (suggestions here would be really welcome ... ) I sense that he is feeling increasingly trapped in his aging body ... wanting to get back to living in his own house over the hill ... but knowing that he couldn't truly handle the effort involved. Probably some of you are having similar experiences ... our situation is tolerable for the moment, but could change in a split second, and there is no way to _totally_ guard against the unexpected. Its a matter of balancing each patient's freedom versus risk, and my vote tends to be on the side of freedom. I presume that our "group" operating mode will be to exchange thoughts by posting to the list so that all may share in them ... but if a particularly sensitive point arises, normal email would be fine. Regards, Dick Schomburg via Internet: [log in to unmask] via CompuServe: 73340,2533 (Note: A comma is required in my direct CompuServe address, but periods are used in the Internet format.)