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Good reasoning, Robert. People too often take things at face value. = You get a different perspective when you're a PWP. I was diagnosed last year at age 44. I've seen it reported that 10-15% of PD cases are diagnosed before age 50. You don't hear much about us though. Thanks for the posting. I agree with you 100%. Keith Chancey 45/13 months Memphis, TN = robert l dolezal wrote: > = > Once again, Judith supplies a cutting-edge report on our disease. Were= it > not for her, at least one among us would know a whole lot less. > = > But this one causes me a few problems, all stemming from the following > statement: "About 7 million people around the world have Parkinson's > disease, which usually strikes after age 60, causing progressive tremor= , > muscle rigidity and other movement problems." > = > I can personally attest to the tremor, and the muscle rigidity, and mos= t of > my movements are definitely problems! - but where did these guys come u= p > with a PD population of 7 million "around the world?" > = > For starters, if up to 1.5 million of us have it in the U. S. of A., wi= th a > mere 290 million people, how can there be only 7 million with the disea= se > in a world of about 6 billion people? I'll not even bother to compute = the > ratios. > = > Nonetheless, printed in such a prestigious journal, these are terribly > frightening numbers. Frightening because those in power, political and > medical, see them and believe and rely on them - or pretend to do so. > = > Frightening, too, because you know that this release was reviewed for > syntax and substance before it was printed, and yet it was released, in= a > prestigious journal. > = > And then the real flight of whimsy: "Which usually strikes after age 6= 0." > = > All these years I had thought that the oft-repeated average of 57 AT > DIAGNOSIS was far too old - now they tell me it STRIKES "after age 60?"= > Wow! I must've been a preemie! I was diagnosed at 57, but I now know = that > the disease had "struck" at least seven years previous. The symptoms w= ere > there, I just didn't recognize them as Parkinson's. Nor did the respec= ted > geriatrics doctor I played tennis with regularly who, when shaking my c= old > hand after our match over a period of a number of winters commented, "= You > might take niacin to warm up that hand." > = > I was 52 to 55 then. Parkinson's had struck, undiagnosed, in clinic or = on court. > = > Is there empirical data to support the "7 million around the world?" = The > "strikes after age 60?" Am I an aberration? Are you? And if we are n= ot, > and those numbers are simply wrong, who is going to print an "aberrati= on > clarification?" > = > Bob Dolezal > = > At 11:23 PM 10/14/98, judith richards wrote: > >Brain surgery helps severe Parkinson's > > > >NEW YORK, Oct 14, 1998 (Reuters) -- Patients severely disabled by > >Parkinson's disease can reduce or even eliminate their need > >for medication by undergoing an operation in which implanted electrode= s > >are used to stimulate the subthalamic nucleus, a region > >of the brain that controls movement. > > > >In a new study on 24 patients, 20 followed for a year had a 60% > >improvement in their ability to perform routine activities, and > >their average dose of drugs was cut in half in the year after the > >procedure, according to a report in the October 15th issue of > >The New England Journal of Medicine. > > > >The other four patients were not included in the study for several > >reasons, including complications stemming from the procedure > >such as infection requiring removal of the electrodes. One patient who= > >had a brain hemorrhage during surgery, causing long term > >paralysis and loss of speech. > > > >However, 4 of the 20 patients who underwent subthalamic nucleus > >stimulation (STN) have been able to eliminate their need for > >levodopa, the most common drug used to treat Parkinson's disease. > >Levodopa, or L-dopa, eventually loses its ability to control > >the symptoms of Parkinson's disease and can cause uncontrollable > >movements on its own, known as dyskinesia. About 7 million > >people around the world have Parkinson's disease, which usually strike= s > >after age 60, causing progressive tremor, muscle > >rigidity and other movement problems. > > > >Eight of the patients had short term mental difficulties, including > >confusion, hallucination and disorientation after the surgery > > > >Lead investigator Dr. Pierre Pollak of Joseph Fourier University of > >Grenoble and the University Hospital of Grenoble in France > >also presented the new data at the 5th International Congress of > >Movement Disorders in New York. > > > >``The technique is ``not for everyone,'' Pollack said. There is a 2% t= o > >5% risk of bleeding during the neurosurgery, and only the > >most disabled patients are eligible. The ideal candidate is a younger > >patient -- average age in this study was 55 at the time of > >surgery -- with advanced disease complicated by dyskinesias and motor > >fluctuations. > > > >Overall, only 15% of all Parkinson's patients ``will be clearly > >improved'' with subthalamic nucleus stimulation, he said. > > > >But unlike levodopa, STN appears to continue working over time. No > >tolerance to stimulation appears to develop and five > >patients who have been followed the longest -- 5 years -- have had a > >stable improvement in symptoms, he said. Of the 70 > >patients treated with the technique, two have had deterioration in > >mental ability. However, both were in early stages of dementia > >at the time of surgery, Pollak said, but he acknowledged that there wa= s > >a ``speeding of decline associated with surgery.'' > > > >SOURCE: The New England Journal of Medicine 1998;339:1105-1111. > >-- > >Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada > ><[log in to unmask]> > > ^^^ > > \ / > > \ | / Today=92s Research > > \\ | // ...Tomorrow=92s Cure > > \ | / > > \|/ > > ```````