More about coenzyme Q10: can taking it in high doses slow down the progression of Parkinson's disease?

Rush University Medical Center is participating in a large-scale, multi-center clinical trial in the U.S. and Canada to determine whether a vitamin-like substance, in high doses, can slow the progression of Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects about one million people in the United States. "At present, the very best therapies we have for Parkinson's can only mask the symptoms - they do not alter the underlying disease," said neurologist Dr. Katie Kompoliti, a specialist in movement disorders. "Finding a treatment that can slow the degenerative course of Parkinsons's is the holy grail of Parkinson's research." The substance being tested, called coenzyme Q10, is produced naturally in the body and is an important link in the chain of chemical reactions that produce energy in mitochondria, the "powerhouses" of cells.
Read article at physorg.com
Comment: Research has shown that Parkinson's patients have impaired mitochondrial function and low levels of coenzyme Q10 and, moreover, that the vitamin-like substance can protect the area of the brain damaged in Parkinson's.

“Growing evidence” of a link between pesticides and Parkinson’s.

The Telegraph reports that using pesticides in your job increases your risk of developing Parkinson's. Thus gardeners and farmers are three times as likely to get this illness.

Two common pesticides when combined may increase the risk of Parkinson’s disease

Read article at environmentalhealthnews.org (USA)

As a result of Georgina Downs' campaign, people in the countryside at risk from crop sprays must be given better protection, the High Court has ruled.

Crop sprays a risk to health, rules High Court
article in the Telegraph

Extract:

"the Government has been ordered to "rethink" its policies on pesticides so that human health is given more priority.

The ruling by Mr Justice Collins is a landmark victory for Georgina Downs who launched a one-woman campaign after her own health was damaged by crop spraying.

She argued that the Government had ignored evidence that agricultural chemicals damaged the health of people who - like herself - lived close to crop fields.

In his ruling the judge said Miss Downs had produced "strong" evidence to back her case and granted her application for a judicial review.

He said the Government had failed to meet its obligations under EU law to protect rural residents and communities from the possible harmful exposure to pesticides.

Miss Downs, whose home near Chichester, West Sussex, borders crop fields, launched her independent UK Pesticides Campaign in 2001.

Last month her campaigning against the unrestricted use of pesticides earned her a Woman of the Year award.

She had claimed that the Government based its decisions on an assumption that people suffered only occasional and short-term exposure.

Miss Downs said the Government had failed to address countryside residents such as herself, "who are repeatedly exposed to mixtures of pesticides and other chemicals throughout every year, and in many cases, like mine, for decades".

She told the court that she had collected evidence that agricultural chemicals caused a variety of health problems including cancer, Parkinson's disease, ME and asthma.

And she claimed that under current rules local people were not even entitled to a warning about what was being sprayed near their homes and gardens."

Lack Of Vitamin D Linked To Parkinson's Disease

A majority of Parkinson's disease patients had insufficient levels of vitamin D in a new study from Emory University School of Medicine. The fraction of Parkinson's patients with vitamin D insufficiency, 55 percent, was significantly more than patients with Alzheimer's disease (41 percent) or healthy elderly people (36 percent). The finding adds to evidence that low vitamin D is associated with Parkinson's, says first author Marian Evatt, MD, assistant professor of neurology at Emory.
Read article at sciencedaily.com

There is strong evidence that exposure to pesticides significantly increases the risk of Parkinson's disease, experts believe.

Link between Parkinson's Disease and Pesticides
There is strong evidence that exposure to pesticides significantly increases the risk of Parkinson's disease, experts believe. It comes as another study, published in the BMC Neurology journal, has made the link to the neurological disease. The US researchers found those exposed to pesticides had a 1.6 times higher risk after studying 600 people.
Read article at BBC News (UK)

Another warning of the harm done by prescribed medications, e.g. Zestril

Dr James LeFanu: Second Opinion

Extract from the article in the Sunday Telegraph:

"Suddenly feeling unwell? It's probably your medicine, writes James LeFanu

The news this week that drugs used in the treatment of Parkinson's can turn people of impeccable character into pathological gamblers is a reminder that medication is the likely culprit for any novel or unusual symptom.

Surprisingly, this most reliable rule of thumb is often overlooked by doctors, as a lady from New South Wales discovered when prescribed Zestril for raised blood pressure. After six months she began to have "extremely debilitating" episodes of nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. A gut specialist did all the usual tests and, finding nothing wrong, recommended the fashionable high-fibre diet.

Another six months elapsed with a further dozen or so episodes till she woke one morning with a terrifying swelling of the lips and tongue - diagnosed as the allergic condition angio oedema, which she was advised was caused by house dust mites. She says this "did not ring true", and on further investigation she found that both the tongue swelling and bowel symptoms were known side-effects of Zestril. Besides the gut specialist she had consulted four other doctors "but not one had made the connection"."

One wonders which is worse - the serious/harmful/dangerous side-effects of prescribed drugs, or the medical profession's scandalously widespread ignorance about them!...)o:

Note: Prescription drugs and doctors' lack of knowledge/understanding about their adverse side-effects are major causes of morbid obesity and all the many illnesses associated with obesity.

Lose weight and improve your health in many ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

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Using pesticides can increase your risk of developing Parkinson's disease.

Gardeners 'more likely to get Parkinson's' - Telegraph

Extract:

"Gardeners may be increasing their risk of developing Parkinson's disease by using pesticides, researchers have warned.

A study has found that the potential damage caused to the brain by pesticides is similar to being knocked unconscious in a boxing ring.

The risk of developing the degenerative condition increases according to the level of exposure to pesticides - as well as the frequency of being struck unconscious, the study showed.

Dr Finlay Dick from the University of Aberdeen, who led the study, said that further research could identify which pesticides were associated with this effect, so that these agents could be substituted."

You can improve your health by eating less salt. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html

Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)