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judith richards wrote: > Subject: How many have PD? > I have noted the letters recently about statistics concerning the > number of people with Parkinsons. They range from "one in 20 in the > U.S." to "1,000,000 in the U.S." to "7,000,000 around the world," and > from "60,000 in Canada" to "100,000 in Canada." As far as I know, there > is no registry of Parkinsonians, and no firm numbers anywhere. They are > all estimates. Some will be more accurate than others. Right, but that common remark brought me a private flame from listmember Rita Weeks, who with fellow Nebraskans sweated blood to get a registry established there, I believe the only one in the US. The most credible estimate of PD numbers is that of Lang and Lozano in the NEJM review I cited recently; 1 million in the US, or about 0.3% of total population. I've seen elsewhere that that includes about 3% of those over 60, and the proportion will grow as our population ages. But mere totals are the least important benefit of a registry. We might well learn a lot about where PD comes from, and consequently how to deal with it. Cheers, Joe -- J. R. Bruman (818) 789-3694 3527 Cody Road Sherman Oaks, CA 91403-5013