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Hi, Carol, I think Parkinson Institute is on the right track for some causes of what I have always thought of as the Parkinson Syndrome, rather than Parkinson Disease. There are so many different manifestations of PD and each PWP has a different type, it seems, though some commonalities can usually be observed. My diagnosis reads: Post-Encephalitic Parkinsonism. Now whether that is because the terminology was different in 1953 when it was made or whether there are still such diagnosis being made, I don't know. But I agree with the peremise of inflammation as a possible source of worsening of Parkinson symptoms. Knowing what we do now about the brain being 80% damaged already when the first symptoms become noticable, I can trace several times in my life when I ran extremely high temperatures (105.8 & 106 degrees F)) with bouts of pneumonia, double pneumonia, infection and measles (at age 30). Encephalitis comes with high fevers, so I postulate that those fevers could have burned out cells in my substantia nigra. So, you can see why I agree with doing research in this direction. I wonder if it might lead to understanding why more people under 50 are being diagnosed as having PD. My personal thanks to Bill Langston and his crew! Bev Glad you llike the "Parkinsonnets".