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> From: Gregory Danton <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: No more tremors > > ...I have heard of a few people > losing all of their PD related symptoms after a hospital or doctor visit > to treat other diseases. In other words they go to the doctor for high > blood pressure and take high blood pressure drugs and apparently lose > all of their PD symptoms. Has anyone else ever heard of anything like > this happening? There are over two dozen other disorders that mimic PD in one or more symptoms, such as Pseudobulbar Palsy, a common disorder that occurs in patients with disease of the blood vessels of the brain (Arteriosclerosis), and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, an uncommon disorder in which patients develop paralysis of their eye movements, difficulty in speaking, rigidity, and senility. Neither of these disorders responds to Sinemet. Then there is the so-called "idiopathic", or atypical PD, in which some or all of the symptoms are peculiar to the sufferer. This has been said to be the type of PD suffered by, among others, Muhammad Ali. In one respect, PD could be said to be "that assembly of symptoms which responds to Sinemet"! Or at least, to some form of L-dopa medication. Perhaps for that reason, I have seen PD referred to more recently as "dopamine deficiency syndrome", indicating a collection of symptoms caused by insufficient dopamine production. From my readings, however, I feel more inclined to term "typical" PD, as "acetylcholine/dopamine imbalance", since an over- or under-supply of either of these two messengers can cause Parkinsonian symptoms. (Thus the often-violent dyskinesia experienced when, for example, a sudden release of Sinemet CR overlays an existing release of standard Sinemet.) All this, plus the idiosyncrasy reaction of individual sufferers to medication regimens, makes PD a difficult diagnosis to confirm unequivocally. Not to mention the fact that there is no way to measure, as one writer put it, an individual patient's "initiative, determination, spirit, or drive-all qualities which can transcend the patient's disability." :-) So, to avoid making a long story even longer, let's just say that some people are diagnosed with PD, where their symptomatology may more accurately suggest, at the most, Parkinsonism (PD look-alikes), and that further treatment for other disorders serendipitously "cures" their "PD". No miraculous "silver bullet", I am sorry to say; at least not in the near future. :-( Jim