>>>Jay W. Fidler wrote:
>>> <[log in to unmask]> 06/17/97 12:13pm >>>
>>>Stephan Schwartz - Read your note on Tolcapone . . .
>>>information on compounds particularly toxic for PD.
>>>Recent dental problems have brought me in contact with
>>>new chemicals and I felt my symptms of PD progress
>>>more rapidly?? Have you encountered -
>>> Stannous fluoride? Chlorhexidine gluconate?
Hello Jay:
The possibility that PD is the result of an environmental
poison or toxin has been studied for about ten years. There
is no hard clinical data. Of course if this toxin exists in the
environment details of PD-like symptoms should have been
reported for hundreds of years.
Very low levels of "toxins" found in food, such as
tetrahydroisoquinolines (cheese, wine) are converted in the
brain to cause mitochondrial damage. Also, beta-carbolines
(found in food) are reported to cause mitochondrial damage.
However, they do not necessarily act on neurons in the
substantia nigra. In addition, the food levels of these "toxins"
is so low that huge volumes of food would have to be
consumed in order to match the effects of PD.
Some pesticides and herbicides have chemical structures
that could cause brain lesions of the substantia nigra nerve
cells. More research is needed.
Clinical studies of heavy metals exposure seems to
indicate an increased risk for PD with lead or manganese,
but no such data for copper, iron, zinc and mercury.
Some researchers propose that PD may be a result of
an interaction of environmental factors with a familial
susceptibility in the genes.
Re: your inquiry about STANNOUS FLOURIDE and
CHLORHEXIDINE GLUCONATE and your conact with
these substances during dental procedures, I suggest you
contact either Dr. Daniel E. Jolly, Associate Professor at the
Ohio State Univ. College of Dentistry, or Dr. Ruth Paulson,
Associate Professor of oral biology, O.S.U., College of
Dentistry or Dr. George W. Paulson, Professor of Neurology,
O.S.U., College of Medicine.
Good luck. Stephan 52/6
