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Now, this news IS depressing. Not only do we get to
lose our cognitive functioning, we get to have Hitler
as a fellow PWP.       Carole H.


--- judith richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Parkinson's led to Hitler's defeat, expert says
>
> VANCOUVER (CP) --July 27, 1999--Parkinson's disease
> affected Adolf Hitler's
> mental
> functions and probably led to his defeat, starting
> with the Battle of
> Normandy, says an American neurologist.
>
> Hitler's disease was a carefully guarded war secret,
> said Dr. Tom Hutton,
> who will present his findings Wednesday to 2,400
> delegates at the
> International Congress on Parkinson's Disease.
>
> Hitler's shaky hands and other motor control
> symptoms of the disease were
> well concealed but "it now seems apparent that
> Hitler also exhibited
> cognitive deficits of Parkinsonism toward the end of
> World War II," he said.
>
> Hutton is a Texas doctor who treats Parkinson's
> patients and has a passion
> for studying how neurological disorders have
> affected historical figures. He
> said up to 40 per cent of Parkinson sufferers will
> lose executive
> decision-making functions and become mentally
> inflexible. Hutton's study of
> Hitler is published in the current Parkinsonism and
> Related Disorders, an
> official journal of the World Federation of
> Neurology research group.
>
> Hutton and co-author, psychologist J. L. Morris, are
> associated with the
> Neurology Research and Education Centre in Lubbock,
> Tex. They said their
> study points to Hitler's Parkinson impairments as
> "arguably determining the
> outcome of the Battle of Normandy."
>
> "Allied forces invaded Normandy on June 6, 1944,"
> Hutton said in the study.
> "German defenders called for reinforcements . . ..
> Hitler refused.
>
> "The request was slow in even getting to Hitler due
> to a sleep disorder
> common in Parkinsonians consisting of insomnia
> followed by daytime
> somnolescence."
>
> The Germans mounted a counterattack but it was too
> little, too late.
> "Hitler's slowness to counter attack at Normandy may
> have been secondary
> tomental inflexibility and difficulty in shifting
> concepts due to
> Parkinsonism," Hutton said.
>
> "This reduced the effectiveness of the Axis powers
> to conduct the Battle of
> Normandy and impacted the outcome of World War II."
>
> The Bulgarian Belladonna plant was the treatment of
> choice at the time for
> tremors and Hitler is believed to have been
> prescribed that, ostensibly for
> his abdominal gas.
>
> Now neurologists have several drugs in their arsenal
> to help reduce such
> symptoms and to replace the chemical messenger
> called dopamine in the brain.
>
> In Parkinson's disease, the loss of dopamine
> gradually and progressively
> impairs muscle movement.
>
> In a five-year study to be released today, a drug
> called ropinirole
> hydrochloride (ReQuip) is said to cut the
> undesirable side effects such as
> twitching and jerking associated with other standard
> treatments such as
> levdopa.
>
> CP 0228ES 27-07-99
> --
> Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
> [log in to unmask]
>                          ^^^
>                           \ /
>                         \  |  /   Today’s Research
>                         \\ | //
> ...Tomorrow’s Cure
>                          \ | /
>                           \|/
>                        ```````
>

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