At 07:23 PM 10/28/98 , Teresa Seiler wrote:
>In response to my letter some called the Natural Dopamine snake oil and they
>samelled a rat. I have never had my experience negated so wrecklessly! A more
>judicious approach would be to interview the 30 patients on the program and
>adk to see letters from their Neurologist. I have a policy of studying the
>issue before I form an opinion.
Teresa, Dr. Grinstein is not new to us. On 3 June, 1997, I posted the
following to this list in re a TV show, "Calling Dr. Whitaker."
<<This is a television show that appeared today on the Trinity Broadcasting
Network, which is a religious network that may extend no farther than the
banks of the Trinity River in Dallas, or it may be broadcast by satellite
to the whole North American continent or the world, for all I know. I was
working when it came on, was lucky enough to record the last 20 minutes of
it, but didn't pick up most of the contents.
This show was the second of two shows, and in the first show, which I did
not see, two PWP's took a new natural medication from, I believe, Great
Britain. In the second show, taped forty-five minutes later (but broadcast
a week later?) these men were comparatively symptom free, and they were
raving about it. I didn't get the specifics, but it sounded like they were
talking about natural (and therefore G-d given) rather than synthetic
dopamine. (?) At the end it segued into a commercial for Dr. Whitaker's
vitamins, so both the religious and commercial elements were certainly
present.>>
At the PAN forum in July, 1997, I exchanged thoughts on this product with
several other people. Shortly thereafter, in response to another inquiry,
I posted this, entitled "HP-200."
<<There was also an article about HP-200 in the Parkinson Magazine, 1997,
Issue 8, published by EPDA, European Parkinson's Disease Association. The
article was written by Bala V. Manyam et al. of Southern Illinois
University (www.siumed.edu). His vita is impressive.
This quote from the article may be appropriate:
"With funding from the U. S. National Institutes of Health, a study of the
anti-Parkinsonian effect of Mucana in an animal model of Parkinson's
disease was undertaken. Compared with about the same amount of synthetic
levedopa, Mucana bean powder showed that the presence of levedopa alone did
not explain the anti-Parkinsonian effect."
and...
"HP-200 was released to the general public in India in 1994. It may be
some time before the drug is available elsewhere."
My interest, Elizabeth, was sparked by a television show, "Calling Dr.
Whitaker," on the Trinity Broadcasting Network here in the United States.
See also http://www.calling-dr-whitaker.com/ Donald Whitaker, O.D., had
two shows dealing with Parkinsonism. A person in my therapy group saw them
both, but recorded only the second. Two men from England, patients of a
Dr. Greenstein (?) there, are shown before and after taking a natural
levedopa, and the effect is profound. Is it the same HP-200? I can't say.
Whitaker sells vitamins, and you get the impression that he'd like to be
selling this natural levedopa as well. My calls to his office in
Jefferson, Texas, have been futile so far. His telephone operators don't
seem to know a thing about it.>>
Maybe there's been another inquiry in the past year and a quarter to this
list - I'm not sure. But what we have seen has been impressive, and if my
good listfriends had remembered this much history, they wouldn't be so
quick to compare it to snake-oil. I understand where they're coming from,
though, as we've seen lots of snake-oil. And from appearances, Grinstein
is using snake-oil selling techniques and this sends bad signals to many of
us.
As for me, I had assumed that further research after SIU was not funded by
NIH because of lack of funds; and nobody had enough of a material interest
to cause further work to be done. Now, with NIH having more funding,
perhaps this should get some attention. It may still prove to be
snake-oil, but I think this one's got a chance.
Sorry about your rough introduction to our list, Teresa. As you can see,
we are quite protective of one another. If you stick with us, I think
you'll stand to gain from our attitude. And I certainly hope you will -
possibly contacting the people at SIU, to see why their research work
resulted in a dead end. Or did it?
Art
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Arthur Hirsch {} [log in to unmask] {} Lewisville, TX {} 972-434-2377
(nickname on instant mail, ICQ, and chat programs is cutterson)
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PAN Forum, other photos, and my approach to links:
http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/farley/817/
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