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On Wed 19 Mar, Nigel Harland wrote: > Hi my name is Nigel Harland, I am 42 years old and was diagnosed 8 years > ago. I read with interest two emails concerning the possible effects of > chemicals on PD sufferers.For several years whilst working for a well known > soft drinks maker (Schh..you know who..) as a Quality technician, I was in > daily contact with Methanol which was used in two Quality Control processes, > namely sterilisation of microbiology equipment and as a constituent in the > testing of products for levels of saccharin, sodium benzoate and quinine. > Whilst I was not aware of any ill effects at the time, I have often > wondered whether this may have caused or contributed to my P.D. Any > comments would be welcome.. Nigel Harland [log in to unmask] > > Hello Nigel, I have not seen any answers to your question , so I will offer my thoughts on the subject (Better late than never.) It is a curious situation: Your exposure to methanol may be highly significant in your case, or it may be totally irrelevant! I will try to explain . First, there are a number of scenarios which can be constructed describing the life history of a PWP. I favour the one that shows a large, but at the time undetected, loss of cells in the Substantia nigra probably due to exposure to an agent like methanol. The trouble is that you can gather a huge crowd of PWPs all of whom have worried away at the puzzle, all of whom have identified a potential cause some time in their past. The trouble is, they will probabpy all be different causes, and if you get a few with the same suspected toxin it is not enough to prove anything, statistically speaking. I have heard some neurologists speculate on the possibility that people who get Parkinsons have a particular configuration of up to 20 genes which pre-dispose them to be abnormally sensitive to a certain chemical: Anyone else would be totally unaffected. The patterns of these genes may not in most cases be inherited, it ia simply the way the dice have fallen. I feel that it will be a long long time before researchers a) Identify the relevant genes, and b) understand the significance of the patterns of these genes. In your case, and possibly in all cases, identifying the guilty party (Which in your case may be methanol) is of no practical use: The damage is done and although at the moment it cannot be undone I think that the time is coming in the next few years in which a reversal of the decay of those brain cells will be possible - without knowing the original cause of the problem. In the meantime, try to divert that energy into forward-looking strategies to make the best of things until the cure is available Regards, -- Brian Collins <[log in to unmask]>