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Peripheral System and PD 1 Dec 99 Thanks, Hans, for re-posting the piece on the enteric nervous system, I missed it the first time around. If I recall correctly, dopamine is a major product of the adrenal glands, and its main effect is to increase blood circulation at times of stress. But no doubt, dopamine mediates the numerous symptoms of autonomic malfunction that appear in PD, and those symptoms can't be blamed on degeneration of brain neurons because dopamine doesn't cross the blood-brain barrier. Sinemet and other PD drugs do seem to alleviate some of those autonomic symptoms (maybe), but that leaves the riddle of why PD should affect organs outside the brain, quite different from the substantia nigra, only because they happen to secret dopamine. 'Tis a puzzlement. Cheers, Joe -- J. R. Bruman (818) 789-3694 3527 Cody Road Sherman Oaks, CA 91403-5013