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No Bob.... it DOESN'T mean you're already dead. But if ya keep all this "PD bean counting" up, ya WILL be.... <grin> Suffice it to say, ya really don't wanna have an IRS audit by the guy who decided there's between 500,000 and 1,500,000 Parkies in the US. Can ya imagine - "You sir, owe between $50 and $50,000 in back taxes?" YIKES! Barb Mallut [log in to unmask] ---------- From: Parkinson's Information Exchange on behalf of robert l dolezal Sent: Thursday, June 11, 1998 4:37 PM To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN Subject: I am already dead NIH says that 50,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with PD each year. Of all the Parkinson's statistics tossed around, this should be the easiest to come up with, and most accurate (although it still may not be REALLY accurate.) But, assuming this is true, and if there are 500,000 with the disease in the country, and that number remains relatively stable, year after year, doesn't this mean that each year 50,000 with the disease must die? (50,000 x 10 = 500,000, so if 500,000 is stable then ...) Doesn't that, in turn, mean that average lifespan after diagnosis of PD is a mere 10 years? And, if average age at diagnosis is 57, one-half of the annual diagnosis is younger than 57. So, if 50,000 of us die off each year, then 10% of the PD population goes to the great beyond each year. Assuming that those diagnosed at a younger age (under 57) survive longer, doesn't this mean that those of us OVER 57 must be passing on at a rate even faster than 10%? If this is true, wouldn't it mean that I am already dead? Bob 62 and 23/24ths/6