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<Bass HREF="file:///C|/PARK/CAUSE6.HTM"> Natalie: Sorry, I'll try to be straightforward. I believe that airborne allergens cause the Parkinsonian & MSA symptoms that I have. (I no longer have the classic allergic symptoms ie sneezing, runny nose, watery eyes, etc, when I am exposed to my known allergens, even though I was told emphatically by one of the country's foremost authorities on allergies, Dr. Peter Creticos of Johns Hopkins, that I would, I don't) He says I WILL react because I test positive, if he is correct,(and it appears to be consistent with reality),then these (Parkinsonian, etc. symptoms)must be it, because it is the ONLY reaction that I have. (And why not? If the people's air who breathed carbon monoxide caused it, and the viral encephalitis'people's air caused it,is it not reasonable to suggest that my air (No!) can cause it too? I'll briefly outline what I've been trying to say - (please pardon the verb tense) - Initially I accept that my brain cells that produce dopamine are or very soon will be dead resulting in Parkinsonism and I must take dopamine by mouth to alleviate my symptoms. -Then I find that I can make symptoms go away by simply massaging my neck muscles for a long time. This happens during an 8 week period when I am taking no medications at all, then Pooh (No!) logic takes over - If I have the symptoms because I don't have dopamine then if I don't have symptoms, I must have dopamine (Vonderful deduktiv rezoning!) But this type reasoning is preferable in my opinion to throwing reality in the phenomenon bucket when it clashes with theory, I prefer to question theory rather than reality. Anyway,since now I have dopamine, what is the problem? I think I may never know. -Then I realize that because I am on very minimal medication that I know under what circumstances my symptoms fluctuate. The fluctuations take on a very distinct pattern depending on very specific circumstances - how much exposure I have to those substances that I have tested positive for on allergy tests and the one that I am most allergic to - cat dander - invariably causes the most drastic symptoms. -I am almost totally convinced that my symptoms are brought on by what I am breathing, though as with asthma other things - stress, cold, emotion anything that worsens muscle spasm has the potential for making it worse. -So I act on this belief and do what is normally done to reduce exposure and I improve over time also, it seems to be consistent. -As I mentioned it not only appears to be true on the extremes, but also in the smaller things - ie rainy days are better, showers help, steamed down rooms are better, places like golf courses where there are few people and no animals are better, usually hospital rooms & many doctor's patient rooms are better because of good filters, hard floors that are regularly cleaned are better, conversely crowded places are bad, cars or the smaller the enclosed area is and the more allergens it contains the worse it is, and it is amazing how many references are incidentally made in books on Parkinson's that I've read - things like - the patient or spouse telling the doctor that they couldn't demonstrate the disability because he's so much better at the doctor's office, or many references to symptoms just disappearing at times for no identifiable reason, or the fact that showers always help, or a walk, or that they always avoid crowds,etc. Also things like time to disability may vary as much as 20 years on groups of people who all have virtually the same number of dopamine producing neurons - 0 -begin to make sense. Added to that many,many confirmations in my own walking test lab - ie worse in almost every case when around people who have animals, worse around where concrete work is done, worse in certain cars, better in model homes, etc & etc. They've been diligently searching for a hereditary/environmental or rural or toxin (only to certain people) cause, then doesn't this answer fairly well to them all? (The rest is just me trying to interpret what I've read & heard so ask somebody who has studied it if you really want to know about it) Anyway,since I knew that my body produced histamine in response to allergens I looked it up to see what it might do to me. I quickly found that (according to Merck) it is a "potent vasodilator" makes you wonder if it conceivably could cause orthostatic hypotension, swelling, discoloration,etc? It is a pro-inflammatory agent - I had a variety of odd infections - half a nose that looked like Jimmy Durante,yes, half, or as I prefer, Barbra Streisand, anyway other odd infections confined to the right side,etc. It causes muscle spasm (My MRI showed chronic cervical (neck) muscle spasm, that had actually curved my spine) and since I believed the neck muscle spasms were central to my condition,it seemed to make sense(even though I'm not supposed to have histamine receptor sites there I don't think, but then again I don't have them where I'm supposed to either (nose, etc) since I don't react there.)Oh well, and Merck's section on anaphylactic (or whole body) reactions to allergens was interesting too. It mentioned things like agitation, uneasiness,digestive effects, heart, flushing, etc. It can even, because of the vasodilation etc (I think) cause shock, the treatment for which is epinephrine (adrenalin) & dopamine. So, I wondered, would you ever need a lot of dopamine to balance an abnormal amount of histamine? I don't know. Do you? And this whole spiel may be wrong, but anyway it makes about as much sense as the alternative options, Oh, well. Do you want the long version? Thanks,Janet - [log in to unmask] (one L) But with the new diagnostic tool - DOPASCAN - as mentioned in this list maybe these conversations will become obsolete, anyway I thought I'd answer your question.