This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------14D34A3C7DDB Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I truly hate to cause anyone to hit their DELETE key twice, but my post should have looked like this, I'm learning....hopefully. To try to make up for it I'll try to "get a grin out of you" as Don says During our ordeal my husband Gary was trying to hold down his regular full time job (programmer), take care of our two children and me (and I was in pretty bad shape PG,PD,& about done in) AND at the same time completely gut our house & remodel (he mostly was contractor but it was still very time & energy consuming), anyway one morning he woke up looked over & said,very seriously, "I dreamed I was sleeping". (forget it, it was just a dream, get up & go to work)! And from my Kid's Kollection: My teeny toddler,Mark, had found a package of Certs and was woofing them down one right after the other. I said, "Mark, you don't need to eat all those at once, they're for your breath." He reluctantly turned them over and walked away. In a few minutes he was back and looked up at me, and very seriously said, "Mom", "What,Mark?" Mark: "My breath" Me: "Something wrong with your breath?" Mark: "Uh-huh" Me: "What's wrong with your breath?" Mark: " It just comes out & WHIZZLES down. Me:"Need a Cert?" Mark: "Uh-huh" He got it. Oh well, I HOPE you think they're funny, anyway, Thanks, Janet. --------------14D34A3C7DDB Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii; name="CAUSE8.HTM" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline; filename="CAUSE8.HTM" Content-Base: "file:///C|/JANET/CAUSE8.HTM" <Bass HREF="file:///C|/JANET/CAUSE8.HTM"> (From: Janet) This is just various & sundry, any & everythings related to PD in general and "my cause" of PD - allergens. (These are MY opinions & I'm nobody in particular). There is no order to this, just completely random ramblings-Pondering on paper...(or computer)..Anyway, I WARNED you, and it is LONG!! <P> -I appreciated James Slattery's post regarding accidental discoveries - Even I am capable of having an accident! (I've proved THAT well enough). <P> - Wonder if the reason there are no known causes of PD that respond to Sinemet-- is that they do respond to Sinemet? <P> -I agree with whoever's doctor said that it is not just protein that competes for absorption of levadopa - but any food, protein being worse because it takes longer to digest. <P> -I heard an older M.D. allergist tell a patient that really even though we think of allergies & asthma involving children, that the older we are the more likely we are to become hypersensitive because by virtue of our age we have had much more exposure to allergens. <P> -In discussing "my cause" with Dr. Stephen Reich of Johns Hopkins, he commented that the joke is that if a building caught on fire the Parkinson's patients would be the first people out - we were talking about "paradoxical kinesias"- I wonder - it wouldn't be because they got a shot of adrenalin (epinephrine) would it? <P> -According to Merck, epinephrine(adrenalin) is a direct pharmacological antagonist to histamine. <P> -While staying with a friend of the family for a few weeks I discovered that if I played "Mrs. Clean" - washed bedding, gown, cleaned room thoroughly, I could sleep without pain - (I was on minimal meds because of pregnancy) <P> -In the extremely clean air places - chip line, etc. - one of the first effects it has is that I become very sleepy. (In sitting in a newly built empty home for a few hours to see how it affected me, I laid down on the hard floor with just my jacket for a pillow and drifted off - I was ~7 mo. pregnant and couldn't hardly sleep at all for pain & insomnia under my usual circumstances. <P> -I stayed in a Courtyard Marriott for several weeks and found that if I went to the indoor pool/hottub room after the hottub had been in use for a time that I could move normally for some time (on minimal meds w/pregnancy) but as soon as the forced air heat came on it was all over. <P> -At one point during my ordeal, I kept losing hearing in my right ear (affected side) but curiously enough found that if I pressed underneath my ear or leaned way over my hearing in that ear would return. <P> -I believe I'm correct in saying that the carotid arteries that go up either side of your head supply the substantia nigra. When I press my neck muscles in the back of my neck I believe I can "feel" blood flow up the carotids. (I have,according to my MRI, chronic, sustained neck muscle spasm). <P> -As previously noted during an eight week period of NO medications & extreme suffering I found I could make ALL my Parkinsonian symptoms go away just briefly, by simply massaging my neck muscles a very long time with a hand held heat/vibrating massager. <P> -Is autopsy really that good of a time to talk about dead brain cells? - I'm asking a serious question. <P> -Arteriosclerosis is one cause of Parkinsonian symptoms - right? Well there's more than one way to stop up a garden hose - (or artery) (1) Put something in it to stop it up - arteriosclerosis or embolus, OR (2) Squeeze it together really tight -compression- by maybe neck muscle spasms? in the case of the artery. <P> -You could also decrease the water(blood) pressure which would happen if you dilated (enlarged) the inside diameter of the tube(hose artery), and histamine is a "POTENT vasodilator", so that when you stand up the blood pressure goes down. <P> -In just poking around the internet I found studies that mentioned histamine greatly increased the blood vessel diameter in rats. <P> -And also, though this one was too technical for my blood, which isn't hard, there was another study that appeared to me to suggest that the researchers found that histamine receptor sites did odd things (anomaly) when the carotid vessels were occluded (stopped up). My uneducated guess would be they would probably demonstrate the same anomaly if the vessels were compressed,right? <P> -I came to my conclusion about "my cause" because, well, it HAPPENED,then I looked around and, lo & behold, there were already known reasons that substantiated it. <P> -If you ever EXPERIENCE it personally, you're convinced like no amount of talk can dissuade you, you've "seen" the culprit at work. <P> -To you golfers, I suggest to you that it is no coincidence that of my neurologists many and varied cases of PD, that the record holder of longest time to disability was a PRO GOLFER, 20 years & still at it, compared to as little as TWO years to disability for other patients. <P> -I think we are sometimes "over-awed" when some things are really pretty obvious and easy to understand. We are even awestruck and intimidated by such fearful things as -the ALPHABET- when it is in a very long string and has an important looking arrangement when really the meaning of the long string of letters is ridiculously simple. I refuse to be intimidated by the ALPHABET if the meaning is simple, though I am often awestruck and intimidated, and rightly so, of the concepts & meaning of some things and am totally amazed at the understanding, knowledge, and expertise of many people. <P> -Since it has been recently proven that I have billions of brain cells less than many people on this list (the men - though I don't think they have much to gloat over since it also is known that the extra billions they have are just laying around doing NOTHING except making their heads bigger - (Jeff Jones - NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH!!!!) Anyway, this being the case anything I come up with is extremely simple, and to prove it I'll give an example of my simple-minded way of thinking, and really ANY of us, but ESPECIALLY you male types should see that with nothing but "DUH" logic even the "least lustrous" like me can figure out some things. <P> -We'll approach it something like a geometry proof, though it's been a LONG time since I did any of that anyway, sort of "DUH" logic: STATEMENT; Cats can cause mental problems in some people. (Sounds idiotic doesn't it, but wait let's see how we came to that conclusion.) GIVEN: Merck Manual is a reasonably reliable source of information. GIVEN: Cat dander is a very common allergen. GIVEN: Some people become HYPERSENSITIVE to allergens and have whole body reactions (Anaphylactic). GIVEN: In describing such a reaction Merck says symptoms may include "agitation, uneasiness" which are mental symptoms, but also says may develop signs of shock, which when we look up shock the symptoms include "lethargy, confusion, & somnolence (or sleepiness), which also are mental symptoms. Therefore we conclude that: Cats can cause mental symptoms in some people. DUH. <P> -Try another one. STATEMENT: Cervical (neck) muscle spasms may cause Parkinsonian symptoms. (Fantastical sounding - how do we figure that? GIVEN: Arteriosclerosis sometimes causes Parkinsonian symptoms. GIVEN: Arteriosclerosis causes ischemia (and hence Parkinsonism) because of occlusion of the blood vessels. GIVEN: You may also interfere with blood flow through arteries by compression (squeezing tight) on the vessel. GIVEN; Muscle spasm tightens & contracts the muscle along with anything running through it (nerves or blood vessels) and therefore may compress the arteries or veins (as in Thoracic Outlet Syndrome). THEREFORE US DUH PEOPLE CONCLUDE THAT': Neck muscle spasm may cause Parkinsonian symptoms. <P> -It is only one small "Simon Says" baby step to say that- GIVEN: Histamine is released during allergic reactions. GIVEN: I have allergies. GIVEN: My MRI shows I have chronic, sustained, cervical (neck) muscle spasm. GIVEN: Merck says histamine causes muscle spasm. THEREFORE ME,DUH PERSON THAT I AM: thinks it is at least reasonable to suspect that: Allergies cause my Parkinsonism. <P> -The only difference then between occlusion and compression of an artery could be that in occlusion the resulting ischemia would be constant in the case of arteriosclerosis but perhaps not in compression because the blood stoppage could be intermittent. (TIA-Transient ischemic attack. Ischemia is the condition resulting from tissue or organs not getting adequate blood supply). Could this possibly be the reason my symptoms all went away by simply massaging my neck muscles a very long time when I was taking no medications at all?? <P> -It also makes me wonder if that could be another reason that some types of Parkinson's do not respond to Sinemet, and could also cause the declining response to Sinemet with "progression" of the disorder? <P> What say you people with all those BILLIONS of extra brain cells? Without even mentioning that, in fact, that is what happens in reality - it has been demonstrated by actual experiences I have had. <P> I also read some research on the internet that showed that concentrations of certain amino acid transmitters in the straitum (GABA, glutamate, etc) were significantly reduced with histamine perfusion into the striatum. They did not specifically mention dopamine, but it is also an amino acid transmitter present in the straitum,right? I can give you the web location if you are interested. <P> Thanks, Janet ([log in to unmask]) --------------14D34A3C7DDB--