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>Marjorie and others, > >We all would be very happy to know the cause of PD. Till that time every >treatment is more or less a mere trial because whatever causes our disease >has not disappeared. Epidemological research is done in the past. I have a >sort of abstract from 1982. One in seven patients start between 30 and 40 >years of age. PD exists everywhere in it seems about the same percentage >with an exception for black Americans and South-Africans which seem to be a >little less susceptible. The only "environmental" factor that is found >consistently is : Smokers have much less chance to become a parkie than not >smokers (I never smoked and sometimes this story can be a comfort for >people whose nicotine addiction is to strong to let them stop.) >Now a tendency is reported: sometimes people in the countryside should be a >little more prone than people in the city. >Combining this two things I can not help getting the suspicion that the >fumes of the city are protecting. >Parkinson himself, who for the first time described the disease, did so in >1817. >If Parkinson can be caused by modern pollution this can't be the only >responsible faktor. > > Ida Kamphuis > Holland Ida and all, I went to work at the library early one morning last week so I could start doing some research on PD. After talking to the Government Document Librarian for sometime, we decided to start our search in the United States, with "Vital Statistics of the United States-1991- Volume II-Mortality-Part A" After the reference interview, I didn't have too much time to search, but I did make a copy of the General Mortality Rates. Believe it or not PD has a classification, its #332, this is from the 9th. revised International Classification of Diseases, 1995. In 1991, in the UNITED STATES only--there are 7,455 registered deaths for Parkinson's Disease. This "Vital Statistics of the United States" is always 5 years behind. The 1992 Edition, with statistics, will be out after the first of 1997. I think, at least in the U.S. we should stop saying this is not a fatal disease!!!! It certainly was for those 7,455 poor souls. When I have more time I'm going to go back up to the 5th. floor (Govt.Docs) and try to go back at least 5 years. There is so much information in these books that a person could spend weeks reading them, unfortunately, they cannot be checked out!!!!! Even by another librarian. Also, when I ran the word "Parkinson's Disease" through the Newspaper and Periodical Abstracts ,I found over 81 obituaries listed saying this person had died with Parkinson's Disease. I have really gotten into research on this disease now, and will let you know what I find out. We all really appreciate your posts. Please keep in touch. As Ever, Marjorie Moorefield just another librarian (with PD)