> Joao Paulo wrote:
> "It is a belief among the majority of researches that Eldeprnyl alone does
> not hold for very long the symptoms of true PD."
>
> Please remember each PWP is unique. Each individual's disease process is
> unique. While Eldepryl may not work long term for a majority, it might well
> work long term for an individual.
> Aloha, Joan Dykstra (56/8/Eldepryl, Amantadine)
>
The history of Eldepryl,
Eldepryl was manifactured and used in Hungary already in the seventies under
the name of Jumex. A neuro in Vienna ( I am not sure about his exact name; was
it Birkmeyer? ) used it too for PD. He claimed his patients to be in a better
shape than those without Jumex. It was never taken seriously in the rest of the
world of neuro's.
When in 1984 the MPTP victims showed up in US hospitals a new way of
researching meds was possible. PD being a disease only existing in humans had
been a hindrance, for research on meds. However now, with the MPTP a sort of PD
(or PD imitation) could be caused in animals. A miraculous find was made. Rats
given MPTP reacted like humans and suffered PD of a most serious kind. But
given Jumex together with the MPTP nothing happened at all.
So Jumex was supposed to be able to protect nerve cells from destruction by
poisoning.
For that reason Jumex ; Eldepryl was prescribed for all PD's. hoping it could
stop the disease from further deteriorating. We now know that is not true on
the whole. However not knowing the cause of PD and speculating different causes
might exist for different patients, the possibbillity that for some Eldepryl
protects cells from being destroyed is not yet proven untrue.
I don't know about new findings on this matter, maybe someone else does.
Ida Kamphuis
Holland.
MPTP is a poison that unintendedly was made by young people manufacturing a
chemically produced imitation heroine. The morning after using it they were
totally frozen. They reacted on leva-dopa with alternation of periods of
hyperkynesia with periods of being frozen.
That on its turn changed the thinking about leva-dopa. This state of alternating
on's and off's was caused not by the longterm use of leva-dopa but by the phase
of the disease.
