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I have noticed a tendency of late to treat some far from certain things about the cure as if they were articles of faith. These include: - The cure is coming soon - The cure will be found . - the cure will benefit everyone - the cure should be the paramount consideration of the PD community - time is running out - we must have the cure now - And finally (the one I shall no doubt run foul of) - anyone who disputes any of these is thinking negatively. I have no wish to start an argument but I would love to start an exploration of these statements in the hope that should we find in practice that any of them is not in fact true we will be better prepared to deal with that reality. To this end I offer the following thoughts. ## The cure is coming soon: Of course it depends on how you define 'soon' but I see the following as indicators that the cure is still some years away. * they are still at the basic research stage with the most lines of investigation - no-one has yet got past the 'this looks very promising' stage. As the lead time from E Day (Eureka Day) to C Day (Cured Day) is anything from 5 to 10 years we have that period of time still in front of us AS A MINIMUM. It could well be very much longer. * I would suggest that the medical establishment anticipates that the cure will be some while yet. A strong indicator of this is the proliferation of centres performing PD surgery and the numbers of doctors learning the techniques. You don't invest that much time money and infrastructure unless you anticipate a return on your investment over a reasonable period. ## The cure will be found Again it depends on exactly how you define cure. If we are talking about eradicating a disease so that it no longer exists then we are really going up against the odds. I tried to think of how many and which diseases medical science had eradicated and there aren't many - and most of those were 'cured' by preventing people getting them in the first place. If the 'cure' for Pd falls into that category it will only occur after they find the cause and wonderful as that will be it won't be of much help to those of us already afflicted. As any cure of this nature is only likely to occur after a cause has been found I would think it is a long way off yet. Any cure which will benefit those of us who already have PD will, by definition, be one that cures the individual but does not remove PD from the earth. Which means that the often expressed wish - for the day to come when we are cured and PD is no more - is meaningless unless we are talking about two different days and two different cures. ## The cure will benefit everyone This, as already discussed, will depend on what form it takes. A preventative helps only those who don't yet have PD, an inhibitor is better for those in the early stages than for those in the later, and so on. ## the cure should be the paramount consideration of the PD community I believe that it is far from certain that the cure is imminent and also that we do not know that it will be of equal benefit to all of us. Consequently I believe that research into managing the disease should have at least equal priority. This type of research has the added advantage that benefits flow from it continually as opposed to us all waiting on a cure that will be some years yet and may be a great many years yet. ## time is running out - we must have the cure now I too would like to see a cure in my lifetime (preferably one I can benefit from), but I have never quite worked out why so may of us seem to think that it MUST happen in time to save THIS generation - what's so special about us? ## anyone who disputes any of these is thinking negatively. It is not negative to see things as they are. A positive attitude which exists by ignoring the realities is really denial Dennis. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dennis Greene 49/dx 37/ onset 32 There's nothing wrong with me that a cure for PD won't fix! email - [log in to unmask] Website - http://members.networx.net.au/~dennisg/ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++