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Hi Gloria, Sounds like a plan to me. Let us know -and we'll be there if we possibly can. I still am thinking about the reunion. It was so much fun. Love, Marty -----Original Message----- From: Phil Tompkins <[log in to unmask]> To: Multiple recipients of list PARKINSN <[log in to unmask]> Date: Friday, October 16, 1998 9:47 PM Subject: Why I am hopeful Despite the failure so far to achieve full funding of the Udall Bill, despite the inability of our PD organizations to work well together, despite someone in the NIH fudging the research numbers to look like there is more PD research than there is, despite the fact that the age of onset is decreasing, despite the fact that PD remains poorly understood by the public at large, and despite the fact that my PD and your PD don't go away but just get worse as time passes, I remain hopeful that ways to arrest and reverse PD are immanent. This is because of recent trends like these: * NIH appropriations as a whole are increasing. * Some NIH institutes other than NINDS, such as the Institute of Environmental Health Science, the Institute of Mental Health, are funding research in PD and/or are conducting PD laboratory research themselves. * The brain research effort as a whole, and research in neurodegenerative diseases in particular, have increased, partly due to the "Decade of the Brain" program, partly because that's where a lot of the excitement in medical research is these days. * Research efforts in diseases associated with aging have increased, largely due to the increasing proportion of older people in the population. * Considerable progress in PD research has been made in a relatively short time, mostly following the discovery in the early 1980's that MPTP causes PD and can be used to create laboratory research models of PD. * New companies which produce medicines based on research in such areas as neurotrophic growth factors and genetic engineering have sprung up, and these medicines are now undergoing clinical trials. We shouldn't just sit back and wait for the results of all the above -- we still need to work for more funding, better public understanding, etc. I just want to give some reasons for hanging in there. Phil Tompkins Hoboken NJ age 60/dx 1990