> From: KF Etzold <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Dead or Dormant Cells > It should be easy to find out if a braincell is dead or dormant. One more > offensive method is an Autopsy. I think it should be relativly easy to tell the > metabolic state of cells. I also think some indirect methods should reveal the > state, such as scans, chemical analysis, > electrical measurements. Indeed I suspect that there is material in the > literature (Janet, you are good at this), that should have some > analysis on this. > K-F Etzold Hi Why wait till you are dead ? There are plenty of experiments you can try on yourself . Here is one I tried recently . It is well known that PWPs lose their sense of smell . Is this because the neuron circuits that interpret nasal stimulation are dead or inactive ?. I took snuff to stmulate these circuits . I did this at 3 different times relative to my L-dopa intake. 2 hours after my L-dopa pill the response to snuff was strong and immediate . 18 hours after taking my last pill the response to snuff was weak and took about 30 seconds . A repeat after a couple of minutes produced a quicker and slightly stronger response . 40 hours after taking my last pill the response was so weak and took so long that I was beggining to wonder if any of the pinch of snuff had actually gone up my nose . There was a very weak reaction after about a minute or more . A repeat after a couple of minutes did speed up the reponse time and reaction some what . Theory PD is a neuron brain firing pattern that is abnormal . This understimulates certain areas of the brain ( nasal stimulation processing area ) and overstimulates other areas ( like parts of the Thalamus and pallidus ) . When one is " on " having taken L-dopa the brain neuron firing pattern is more normal so ones sense of smell becomes more normal . The longer one is in the abnormal neuron firing pattern the longer it takes for the " left out " neuron circuits to activate . If they are not activated for very long periods they will begin to die ( theory ) . In most PWPs this stage has not been reached . I was hoping that stimulating the neural circuits associated with smell would stimulate other diabled PD neuron circuits thus showing PD to be an integrated neuron firing pattern anomaly . But the experiment failed to produce conclusive evedence . In other words taking snuff after 18 hours since my last L-dopa pill did not pro duce an obvious improvement in walking . I hope to repeat the experiment using ammonia or smelling salts to give an even stronger nasal stimulus . This is all part of my on going attempts to see what stimulations can be used to normalize the abnormal neuron firing pattern I believe PD to be . Nasal stimulation cannot be used as a cure but as one off experiment to understand the nature of PD . peace Alastair ( [log in to unmask] )