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When my grandfather developed "Shaking Palsy" (Parkinsons) in the mid 1920's, it was attributed to an illness (presumablly viral) that he had had as a child which involved encephalitis. When a great-uncle, unrelated to the grandfather, developed Parkinson's in the l940's, it was attributed to the great swine flu epidemic of 1919 (?). We were told at that time that most Parkinsons was due to the 1919 flu and related encephalitis--we were also told that people developing Parkinsons were progressively older. Which would happen if indeed truly due to the flu encephalitis. When a friend my age, born 1921, was diagnosed with Parkinsons about age 50, I was shocked. There are so many young PD people on this list. Does anyone have age-related statistics through these years? Miriam L. Denham cg for Dale 74, dx 1988 [log in to unmask] On Sat, 22 Mar 1997, Ida Kamphuis wrote: > > just got this interesting letter from my web site and I told the > > reader I would post it here to see if anyone had heard of an > > encepalitis/PD link. Here is the whole letter. > > > > Recently, she told me she read that people who have had encephalitis are at > > very high risk for developing Parkinson's Disease. Where can I get more > > information on this link? What are the first signs of PD? > > > > hand shaking when held a certain way (a genetic trait) . This gets > > worse with age. I have noticed lately that my head shakes when I hold > > it in certain positions- I worry that I may be developing PD." > > > > Paul > > [log in to unmask] > > <http://www.cloudnet.com/~mandms> > > Parkinsons News From the Front Line > > > Paul > > People who suffered from encephalitis do have PD more frequent than others, but > the difference is small. In this century however a special encephalitis has > existed. People who suffered this disease and survived did run a high risk of > developing a special PD. > In the twenties a notorious influenza (the so called Spanish) made much > victims. A pneumonia which was a frequent complication of this type influenza > was a feared killer. Survivers of this pneumonia did run a new risk > encephalitis lethargica, which caused a period of "sleep"from which they > couldn't be awakened and this could end in death. However having survived this > it was not yet enough. It was now PD that awaitened those survivers. This PD > was somewhat different from what nowadays is seen. Oliver Sacks wrote the book > :"Awakenings" about some patients who were yet alive in 1968 when the use of > leva-dopa started. Might it be that the reading about the link between the two > diseases was from an old book or encyclopedia? > Not all tremors are indicative of PD. The shaking hands when hold in a certain > way are not specific parkinsonian. The typical PD tremor is a rest- or non > intention tremor, who disapears when something is done intentionally. However > this is not certain for 100%. > If this does not stop worrying it might be usefull to see a neuro who > specialises in PD. > > Ida Kamphuis 52\12 > Holland >