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On Tue 17 Feb, Brennan, Terry wrote: > In this ongoing dialogue, while agreeing with Stephen (quoted below) I'd > like to add the idea of trying to determine why some, like myself, > arrive at the edge of the PD abyss at a much earlier age (22 in my case) > than is 'normal.' At a talk given recently Jim Lowe (Professor of neuro-pathology at Nottingham University) indicated that his current opinion of the most likely cause of PD was that there are in fact a whole lot of causes (maybe 20 or more). All these causes are mechanisms which result in increasing the level of Stress on the Dopamine-producing cells. How many of these 'causes' a person has, and their relative strength, are effectively programmed into us at birth (Not necessarily by Heredity, ; it could be just the way the dice fell for variable 'x'. If the stress gets too high, the cell gives up and dies (Apoptosis). A pathologist can see nothing to indicate how or why, because Apoptosis is intended to leave no trace of its happening. (Free radicals are one of the potential causes.) He reeled off about 7 already-identified causes, which of course I can't remember. Has anyone else heard of this theory? Note: this theory, if it is correct, knocks the 'Sudden catastrophic loss of cells occuring sometime in our past' theory on the head which is a pity, because I rather liked that one. It means that we are indeed pre-programmed to develop PD from the time we are born! Regards, -- Brian Collins <[log in to unmask]>