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Ted Nelson wrote:

The other day one of my sons , Mark asked me about what sounded like a resting
> tremor in his left hand. Since this seemed to be a very occasional thing I
> told him to keep a record of the occasions , but not to be to concerned.
>       I got to thinking about Mark, Then I started to worry about Mark. Now I
> am starting to worry about Mark's Identical twin brother Ken. Mark and Ken are
> 35 years old . I was diognosed with Parkinsons when I was about 57.
>         Does anyone have any thoughts.
>                                Thanks for listening
>                                              Ted Nelson


Ted,

I have been a member of the United Parkinson Foundation for more than four years
and usually read their excellent transcripts and excerps from studies and
symposia.
I remember seeing this subject come up repeatedly. There are many cases of
identical twins, where one develops PD and the other doesn't. There have also
been studies of large families with a larger then usual occurrence of PD. I
remember an Italian family of more than 500 being the subject of such a study.
None of these studies have led to the establishing of an inheritance factor.
The closest is a tendency, or pre-disposition to developing the disease passed
on down through the feminine side of the family, sort of like color blindness,
but it takes other reasons to actually develop the disease.

Hope this helps,

Will  Kuipers        ( 75 / dx '91 )
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