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Post by Richard W on Sept 7, 2013 18:34:39 GMT -5
Some really kind, classy stuff over at the Dusty forum.
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Post by erik on Sept 7, 2013 18:36:46 GMT -5
Quote by jha26:
Well, we can't say that Linda doesn't have fans among fans of other singers, including the fans of arguably the greatest female singer to have come from Britain during the rock era. Their comments are definitely warmly appreciated.
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Post by 70smusicfan on Sept 7, 2013 19:26:00 GMT -5
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Post by 70smusicfan on Sept 7, 2013 20:08:06 GMT -5
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Post by jhar26 on Sept 7, 2013 21:05:20 GMT -5
Quote by jha26: Well, we can't say that Linda doesn't have fans among fans of other singers, including the fans of arguably the greatest female singer to have come from Britain during the rock era. Their comments are definitely warmly appreciated. Fans of a great singer automatically recognize another great singer when they hear one, Erik.
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Post by erik on Sept 7, 2013 21:33:46 GMT -5
Quote by jhar26:
Very true. And just as there probably wouldn't have been Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride, or Emmylou without Linda, without Dusty Springfield, you probably wouldn't have Amy Winehouse, Duffy, Annie Lennox, or Adele. It's just a good thing to know the fact that there are tons of other fans who look beyond the surface stuff.
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Post by charlotte on Sept 8, 2013 14:47:09 GMT -5
music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=825887Alana Nash, who broke the sad news, continues her conversation with Linda on MSN.com today. In the aarp.com interview :Dshe spoke of Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin and Brian Wilson. Here she discusses Emmylou and the current state of country music. She is too kind to Ms. Swift, calling it suburban music not country. Linda is also on the cover of Kirkus Review. The online subscription is quite costly - however you can buy the magazine at barnes and noble and better magazine stands (if they exsist anymore). She is certainly getting some royal treatment. More folks are connecting to that glorious singing voice.
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Post by erik on Sept 8, 2013 18:10:22 GMT -5
Quote by charlotte re. Linda's reaction to Taylor Swift:
It should be said that Linda has felt the way she does about the state of contemporary country music for at least a decade now, and understandably so. In an interview she gave for Country Music Magazine (now defunct) back in February 2003, she was even more blunt, calling it "mall crawler music." I'm afraid a lot of it is awful, at least in terms of what makes it on the radio.
As for Linda being too kind to T-Swift, I think it may have to do, at least in part, with not wanting to sound so intolerant of a generation at least three eras removed from hers in general, and its main singer (or what passes for one, anyway) in particular. She knows also, of course, that the favorite artists she mentions are all in the Americana genre, well removed from the Taylor Swifts and Carrie Underwoods of the Nashville mainstream.
I do wish (and hope) she would be a little more open to other things in the pop music realm, because they are out there. I'd make an effort to turn her on (if Emmy hasn't done so yet) to Tift Merritt, and also Caitlin Rose.
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Post by eddiejinnj on Sept 8, 2013 18:58:02 GMT -5
did anybody get the people magazine and maybe can publish the article. I was going to get it the Thursday it came out in the airport back to nj but didn't want to wrinkle it. then I got really busy this past week and never got it. dam. eddiejinnj
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Post by jhar26 on Sept 8, 2013 19:26:31 GMT -5
Quote by charlotte re. Linda's reaction to Taylor Swift: It should be said that Linda has felt the way she does about the state of contemporary country music for at least a decade now, and understandably so. In an interview she gave for Country Music Magazine (now defunct) back in February 2003, she was even more blunt, calling it "mall crawler music." I'm afraid a lot of it is awful, at least in terms of what makes it on the radio. As for Linda being too kind to T-Swift, I think it may have to do, at least in part, with not wanting to sound so intolerant of a generation at least three eras removed from hers in general, and its main singer (or what passes for one, anyway) in particular. She knows also, of course, that the favorite artists she mentions are all in the Americana genre, well removed from the Taylor Swifts and Carrie Underwoods of the Nashville mainstream. I do wish (and hope) she would be a little more open to other things in the pop music realm, because they are out there. I'd make an effort to turn her on (if Emmy hasn't done so yet) to Tift Merritt, and also Caitlin Rose. But that's just kiddie music, ain't it? Bashing those type of artists is like bashing Sesame Street. But I think that if Linda REALLY thought Swift was awful that she would say so (if asked).
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Post by Dianna on Sept 8, 2013 20:06:05 GMT -5
Re Taylor Swift.. After seeing that answer...I'm kind of thinking maybe that's what she sees in Taylor Swift...imperfection, that somehow is reaching fans...it's its own thing. Music is art and has it's objective talent side...but it's also meant to be enjoyed.
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Post by Linda on Aug 16, 2014 18:53:57 GMT -5
I had a conversation today with someone about how Robin Williams handled his Parkinson news. I'm not being disrespectful in the least, but I look back at the interviews that Linda Ronstadt did with both Good Morning America and Diane Sawyer and the interview most recently with Diane Rehm and remembered the absolute level of dignity and decorum that she spoke of her challenges. My Mom used to say people handle lives challenges differently. That would certainly be true in this case. Although no one really knows how Ms. Ronstadt is handling her challenges today. I'm hoping with the same integrity as I have heard her speak. I have more respect for her today than I did before. Only best wishes to her.
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Post by philly on Aug 16, 2014 19:41:21 GMT -5
It was about a year ago the news about Linda's Parkinson's came out. I think she's still managing without traditional drugs that she wants to avoid as long as possible. I heard that the drugs Robin Williams had recently started taking can contribute to depression, so that possibly could have pushed him over the edge. I see that western nations are going to resume trials of fetal cell implants next month, here is an excerpt: Agreed Barker: “If you follow these patients over time—remember these are cell-based therapies, not drugs, so they work after years not weeks—you can see dramatic results....We have in that study two patients transplanted 20 odd years ago who have almost no features of Parkinson’s today. They are on no medications. The transplants have transformed their lives. Thirty years into their illness, they have a motor-score less what they presented to neurologists in the late 1980s. So when it works, it works extremely well. It just doesn’t work consistently.”www.biosciencetechnology.com/articles/2014/07/long-awaited-global-trial-fetal-cells-parkinson%E2%80%99s
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Post by erik on Aug 16, 2014 21:00:54 GMT -5
Linda is handling her Parkinson's condition quite well, and I would hope that continues to be the case. The bottom line is that this is a terrible and slow affliction; and at some point for Linda, there's going to be that time when she can no longer do any of the things that all of us take for granted, and she knows it, having come to grips (albeit understandably quite reluctantly) that she can no longer do what she loves to do the most, and what we the fans love to hear her do the most.
But I don't mean this in any way as a knock against Robin Williams. Knowing that he had it may have come as even more an extreme shock for him than it had for Linda; and there's no telling how a person should or should not react to the kind of diagnosis that either he or Linda got.
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Post by GUEST on Aug 17, 2014 5:27:34 GMT -5
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Post by eddiejinnj on Aug 17, 2014 8:45:52 GMT -5
according to the new Closer Weekly article, a friend of hers says that she is on medications but acknowledged that "linda doesn't like to take medications but it is a necessary evil to combat her symptoms." eddiejinnj
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Post by Linda on Aug 17, 2014 15:12:37 GMT -5
Linda has been battling depression all her life as have over 50% of the American public, many of whom don't even know it. Knowing you have an affliction like depression is half the battle. Recognizing it early on can be life saving as can staying off the dangerous drugs prescribed for it. Dr. John Gray who lives in the Bay Area should be Linda's best friend: search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=Aux7v_ywlllqNC.OO3TWzQKbvZx4?p=john+gray+depression&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-325&fp=1Just a question. Not trying to overshoot here, but how do you know Linda has "been battling depression all of her life" ? I'm sure you are not a healthcare provider of hers because you know you would have broken the HIPPA Law to come out and say that. Has she said that? Just asking because I have never heard her say that.
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Post by GUEST on Aug 17, 2014 22:07:06 GMT -5
Linda has said so in interviews and other media over the years. In a late 1970s Rolling Stone magazine interview Linda said that she was battling severe depression although I cannot recall the exact issue. If she said that then in writing it was probably years of suffering that brought her to that conclusion. She has also mentioned seeking professional help from time to time for various reasons. In her early days she was very open about her personal life but once she became quite famous she clammed up and pretty much stayed that way. It was her honesty and vulnerability that endeared her to so many in and out of her music. Just a question. Not trying to overshoot here, but how do you know Linda has "been battling depression all of her life" ? I'm sure you are not a healthcare provider of hers because you know you would have broken the HIPPA Law to come out and say that. Has she said that? Just asking because I have never heard her say that. Read more: www.ronstadt.proboards.com/thread/2072/linda-ronstadt-handles-parkinson-challenge#ixzz3AhyrCFYK
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Post by muse on Aug 18, 2014 2:22:14 GMT -5
I'm a long time fan of Linda's I've heard for years that she had depression...Any artist that can put out like lInda or Robin...suffers my friend...they suffer.....that's the blood that sweats thru their art....just sayin'
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Post by fabtastique on Aug 18, 2014 6:18:59 GMT -5
I don't recall reading or hearing Linda say she had suffered from depression ... anyone??
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Post by Linda on Aug 18, 2014 7:33:07 GMT -5
Linda has said so in interviews and other media over the years. In a late 1970s Rolling Stone magazine interview Linda said that she was battling severe depression although I cannot recall the exact issue. If she said that then in writing it was probably years of suffering that brought her to that conclusion. She has also mentioned seeking professional help from time to time for various reasons. In her early days she was very open about her personal life but once she became quite famous she clammed up and pretty much stayed that way. It was her honesty and vulnerability that endeared her to so many in and out of her music. Just a question. Not trying to overshoot here, but how do you know Linda has "been battling depression all of her life" ? I'm sure you are not a healthcare provider of hers because you know you would have broken the HIPPA Law to come out and say that. Has she said that? Just asking because I have never heard her say that. Read more: www.ronstadt.proboards.com/thread/2072/linda-ronstadt-handles-parkinson-challenge#ixzz3AhyrCFYK
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Post by Linda on Aug 18, 2014 7:34:35 GMT -5
Linda has said so in interviews and other media over the years. In a late 1970s Rolling Stone magazine interview Linda said that she was battling severe depression although I cannot recall the exact issue. If she said that then in writing it was probably years of suffering that brought her to that conclusion. She has also mentioned seeking professional help from time to time for various reasons. In her early days she was very open about her personal life but once she became quite famous she clammed up and pretty much stayed that way. It was her honesty and vulnerability that endeared her to so many in and out of her music. Just a question. Not trying to overshoot here, but how do you know Linda has "been battling depression all of her life" ? I'm sure you are not a healthcare provider of hers because you know you would have broken the HIPPA Law to come out and say that. Has she said that? Just asking because I have never heard her say that. Read more: www.ronstadt.proboards.com/thread/2072/linda-ronstadt-handles-parkinson-challenge#ixzz3AhyrCFYK
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Post by Linda on Aug 18, 2014 7:44:34 GMT -5
I stand corrected. She has indicated that she had had depression. Against my better judgement I googled the subject and there were several articles of her stating that.
Well said that she was more open about personal experiences when she was younger. But then aren't we all. I hope her candor and positive thinking continues through her challenge. As I said before I wish her only best wishes.
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Post by the Scribe on Oct 19, 2016 5:50:18 GMT -5
Linda Ronstadt: I Know When Parkinson’s Hit from Listening to My Own Singingby Mary Lyn Maiscott , |October 28, 2013 12:50 pm
In the late 60s, the petite, young Linda Ronstadt, newly arrived on the L.A. music scene, unleashed a voice that would permeate the radio for years to come and leave music writers grasping for ways to describe it—“strong and solid as God’s garage floor,” intoned a 1977 Time cover story. That rich tone and galvanizing power turned songs like “You’re No Good,” “When Will I Be Loved,” and “It’s So Easy” into Top 10 hits. In August, however, Ronstadt, now 67, revealed to A.A.R.P. writer Alanna Nash that she has Parkinson’s disease and can no longer sing. The announcement preceded the publication of her book, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir. By phone from her home in San Francisco, Ronstadt spoke with Vanity Fairabout her career and her struggle with the disease.
Mary Lyn Maiscott: You describe music very well in your memoir. I was thinking if you want to be a music blogger, that would be a way to go, too.
Linda Ronstadt: I’m so not current it’s embarrassing. I listen mostly to live music, and mostly my musical experience was playing music with other people. That’s what musicians do about 99 percent of their time. Whoever is near and compatible and socially interested enough to do that, that’s who you hang out with. In the Troubadour days it was all those songwriters that I hung around with all the time, so I could get songs and find out what was going on. So we all knew each other, and we just carried each other’s word around.
Did you feel like you were part of music history at that time?
No—everybody was just working on stuff all the time. It was just work, what we did. J. D. Souther, I lived with him and he was writing songs all the time. I’d hear him in the other room, plinking away on the piano or guitar. And he’d show me his stuff when it was just begun and I’d listen to it and think, that one’s going to be finished pretty soon, I want to record that. I kind of had dibs on it.
He’s on Nashville now, isn’t he?
Yes, he is. I saw him the other night. He flew up to Washington, D.C., to have dinner with me, which was so sweet. We had a great time. We just went to a little neighborhood restaurant. He was friends with Christopher Hitchens, and I think it was Hitchens’s favorite restaurant. We went in his honor, I think. Very nice little Italian restaurant with tasty food that you don’t have to have a reservation 50 years in advance to get into.
People might be surprised that you are rather critical of your singing in the book. I hope that you occasionally get a thrill when you hear your incredible sound.
I had plenty of voice, but how you use that voice is informed by other factors. There are plenty of people with better musicianship. Of my own peers, Bonnie Raitt has way more musicianship than I do. Jennifer Warnes is a way better singer than I am. And they were around. I was hearing them [laughs], could hear them on a daily basis, so . . .
When you were singing a song like “Love Has No Pride” or “You’re No Good”—these were not songs you had written—did you tend to think of someone in particular?
It wasn’t always the same person. There would be something that would match something that was going on in my life—maybe not the whole song, maybe just a line, [where] I’d go, “That says how I feel about this better than anything else I’ve found lately. That really expresses what I need to say right now.” And then you figure out a way to make the rest of the song fit. And sometimes the song works all the way through. A song like “Heart Like a Wheel” doesn’t falter in one note or one word, not one syllable, not one consonant. It was so completely what I felt I needed to say, and it was shared by lots of people. But [with] a song like “Poor Poor Pitiful Me,” there are a lot of—it was very much a guy’s song about gnarly encounters in hotel rooms. [Laughs.] I had to leave some of the verses out.
Oh?
Jackson Browne taught me that song. He came out to [my house on Malibu] beach one night with J. D. Souther, and we were sitting up playing music one night—I’ve got a tape of the whole thing. Jackson taught me “Poor Pitiful Me” and J.D. taught me “Blue Bayou.” The verse in “Poor Pitiful Me” was “I met a girl on the Sunset Strip,” I think, “She asked me if I’d beat her / She took me up to her hotel room / And wrecked my mojo heater.” It was really funny, and I’m saying to Jackson, “I can’t sing those words, man! That’s not who I am. . . . I have to leave that part out.” [Laughs.]
You say that it took you 10 years to learn how to sing, but you also mention that you didn’t have any formal training until you did The Pirates of Penzance [in 1980]. So what were you referring to?
I had to get out of my own way. Hildegard von Bingen said that singing is like being a feather on the breath of God. Which resonates to my atheist soul . . . You have to keep that little column of air under there, and I had gotten so panicked, my singing style had a lot of fear in it, and my throat was too tight and I wasn’t letting that air out properly. So I was a feather that had fallen to the ground—it’s just lying on the concrete floor.
By the time I got finished with Pirates, I had way more facility with my instrument.
Did that change at all as you got older?
Well, as I got older I got Parkinson’s disease, so I couldn’t sing at all. That’s what happened to me. I was singing at my best strength when I developed Parkinson’s. I think I’ve had it for quite a while.
You think you’ve had it longer than when you received the diagnosis?
I’m 67 now, so it may have started as early as 51.
Are you going by your singing or other—
By my singing. They have a new way of diagnosing Parkinson’s; it’s with an algorithm and they record your voice and compare it to an algorithm. That’s a way they can get an early diagnosis, but it’s not in general use yet. I know somebody that has access to the research, so since my voice has been recorded over the years I might be able to pinpoint when it actually developed, and I think it’s been going on for a long time. I was sick for a long time, but as you get older you do develop aches and pains, and it’s harder to walk and stand up and you get stiff. You know, my hands were shaking and I thought, Oh, I’m old.
So you didn’t get that checked immediately.
It didn’t occur to me to go to a neurologist. I just went to my regular doctor, my chiropractor and said, just, my back hurts. [Laughs.]
Can you literally not sing, or you’re not supposed to?
No, I can’t sing. I wish I could. Ninety-eight percent of the singing I did was private singing—it was in the shower, at the dishwater, driving my car, singing with the radio, whatever. I can’t do any of that now. I wish I could. I don’t miss performing particularly, but I miss singing.
Did you read the A.A.R.P. piece on their Web site, referring to the piece they did on you, saying that there’s some kind of voice therapy?
There’s all kinds of stuff out there . . . but it’s nothing that can give you singing back. Singing is such a complex mechanism. You have to be able to do a whole lot of things at once that require repetitive movements of your vocal cords . . . I couldn’t do any of it [anymore]. I was onstage just yelling really, just shouting. And I can’t even do that now. If I try to put any pressure—I can’t project my voice very far. And my speaking voice is affected. I tried to do the audio version of my book, but I couldn’t do it. My voice didn’t have the strength, and I didn’t have enough range of expression.
Stuff that was easy—like, it used to be easy to brush my teeth, and it isn’t anymore. You wouldn’t think it would be something you would have to concentrate on, like a really difficult movement that you have to coordinate, like threading a needle. You’d think that brushing your teeth wouldn’t be like that. When it started to be hard to do things like that, that’s when I went to the neurologist.
Your last solo album was Hummin’ to Myself?
Yeah, and the last album I did was with Ann Savoy. It was called Adieu False Heart. I’m very proud of that record. Those two records I made with almost no vocal ability at all. But I just acted like I was working with a limited palette, like a painter would do—you know, it’s only browns and ivory and black.
You mentioned to someone that you felt you recrafted your voice to do Hummin’ to Myself.
Yeah, I did. I put a different voice together, and there’s a lot of stuff on there that I’m very happy with. If you compare it to What’s New, I had [on that record] way more color, more breath, more airiness, more access to the upper process of my voice. So I had to use what I had, and pitch was harder. With that stuff pitch is incredibly critical. I’ve usually had a pretty easy time with pitch; I tend to sharp a little bit, but—it was tough, I was really sweating the pitch on that record. But then I got there.
Mary Lyn Maiscott being interviewed about the above interview!! MLM on Linda Ronstadt
soundcloud.com/mlmais/111913ronstadt-mp3
Read more: ronstadt.proboards.com/thread/4000/linda-ronstadt-interviews#ixzz4NWloSmEi
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Post by the Scribe on Oct 19, 2016 6:04:58 GMT -5
Linda Ronstadt Explores Alternative Treatments For Parkinson’s Disease: Is Marijuana An Effective Treatment? Sep 17, 2013 07:19 PM By Susan Scutti
As she prepared to release 'Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir,' Linda Ronstadt, 67, revealed to AARP that although she has only recently been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, she first noticed the symptoms seven or eight years ago.
“I didn’t know why I couldn’t sing — all I knew was that it was muscular, or mechanical,” the well-loved singer told AARP in August. Sensing the problem was more than age or normal wear on her vocal cords, she performed her last concert in November 2009 in San Antonio. Although she had been experiencing symptoms for some time, she said that when she finally went to a neurologist, who diagnosed her with the disease, she felt shocked.
“I wouldn’t have suspected that in a million, billion years,” Ronstadt told AARP even if now she believes her vocal difficulties were one early warning sign of the disease.
Although she has been diagnosed only recently, Linda Ronstadt believes she had early warning signs of Parkinson's disease years ago. Now, she is questioning which alternative treatments, including marijuana, may help her.
Symptoms
Tremor is probably the most well-known symptom of Parkinson's disease, a progressive disorder of the nervous system. The disease develops gradually and over time begins to affect all your movements. The disorder also commonly causes stiffness or a general slowing of movement in those who suffer from it. Other symptoms include your speech becoming soft or slurred.
Parkinson's disease symptoms worsen as your condition progresses over time and although there is no cure, medications may improve symptoms. In rare cases, surgery may be performed to regulate certain regions of the brain and improve symptoms. The most effective medication for the disease, according to the Mayo Clinic, is Levodopa, a natural chemical that passes into the brain and is converted to dopamine. Over time, though, the benefit from levodopa may wear off as the disease progresses. Other commonly prescribed medicines include dopamine agonists, which mimic dopamine effects in the brain. Although not as effective as levodopa, they last longer. MAO B inhibitors help prevent the breakdown of brain dopamine by inhibiting the enzyme that metabolizes brain dopamine: monoamine oxidase B (MAO B). Anticholinergics help control the tremor associated with Parkinson's disease, while amantadine provides short-term relief of symptoms of mild, early-stage Parkinson's disease.
“I’m learning from other Parkinson’s patients that there are different treatments besides the drugs they give you,” Ronstadt told AARP. “A lot of patients tell me marijuana is very effective for Parkinsonism.” Although far from abundant, some scientific research supports this very idea.
Medical Marijuana?
In 2002, Dr. Evzin Ruzicka, a neurologist at Charles University in Prague, reported his findings in Movement Disorders after investigating the effect of marijuana use by those suffering from Parkinson's disease. After requesting patients with Parkinson’s complete a questionnaire asking about their cannabis use and particular Parkinson's symptoms, 39 patients (46 percent) reported their disease symptoms were relieved in general after they started using cannabis. More specifically, 26 respondents (about a third) reported an improvement in tremor while at rest, and 38 patients (about 45 percent) experienced a relief of bradykinesia --- extreme slowness of movement. Relief of muscle rigidity was reported by 32 respondents (38 percent), while 12 patients (14 percent) said they had an improvement in levodopa-induced dyskinesias (involuntary movements).
Such a small study can hardly be called definitive, but the results certainly speak to those who feel their symptoms have been relieved.
Source: Venderova K, Ruzicka E, Vorisek V, Visnovsky P. Survey on cannabis use in Parkinson’s disease: subjective improvement of motor symptoms. Movement Disorders. 2004
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Post by the Scribe on Nov 7, 2016 6:21:17 GMT -5
Good news from down under regarding Parkinson's disease. It has been too many years since the success of Dennis Turner's case but it seems just a matter of time until the protocol for stem cells for the disease is perfected and successful. Meanwhile it behooves all patients to try to stay as healthy as possible (i.e. diet and exercise) so that the treatment is successful. Dr. Joel Wallach has a good, sound protocol for supplementation. On a sad note Janet Reno died this past weekend at 78. The former attorney general also suffered from Parkinson's. With a Clinton White House I think research will continue but under a Republican administration (like Bush) who know?
Stem cells successfully injected into Parkinson's disease patient, in trial treatment The World Today By Rachael Brown Posted 13 Sep 2016, 10:35pm Operating theatre Photo: So far there has been no drug developed to stop the progression of Parkinson's. (Reuters) Map: Melbourne 3000 Researchers have successfully injected stem cells into the brain of a 64-year-old Victorian man as part of a trial treatment for Parkinson's disease, that they say is the first of its kind in the world. Key points: •Parkinson's disease affects 80,000 Australians •Parkinson's occurs when there is a shortage of dopamine in the brain •Recent trial millions of stem cells were injected at 14 sites in the patient's brain
So far there has been no drug developed to stop the progression of Parkinson's, which affects 80,000 Australians.
And the researchers at the Royal Melbourne Hospital said because the stem cells were created in a lab, the ethical dilemma of using them was avoided.
Usually the surgical treatment for Parkinson's is deep brain stimulation, with neurosurgeons drilling holes into a patient's skull and putting wires into two parts of the brain.
But in the most recent trial, millions of stem cells were injected at 14 sites in the patient's brain, Garish Nair, a neurosurgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, said.
He said before the human trial he and his colleagues spent weeks practising on a 3D model.
"The challenge was to do it in a way that you minimise the number of times that you pass your instrument through the brain, to minimise the damage," Dr Nair said.
"So we had to actually plan out a new methodology of doing it. I think we did about three or four dummy runs before we were confident that we got it perfectly right."
He said their hope was that the stem cells would boost levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
"So Parkinson's is a disease which comes because of a shortage of dopamine in the brain," he said.
"The symptoms are a tremor, rigidity, and being unable to express emotions, affecting walking. All of those functions are mediated by dopamine.
"We will monitor these patients to see if they are having any improvement in their Parkinson's symptoms."
Ethical dilemma of using stem cells avoidedDr Nair said the trial would also sidestep the ethical dilemma involved in using stem cells because it was using neural cells manufactured in a lab by a Californian biotech company.
"Stem cells have always had an ethical problem behind it, because you traditionally have been getting it from what is called embryonic stem cells, so you need to get it from embryos that have died," he said. Audio: Listen to Rachael Brown's story (The World Today)
www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-14/stem-cells-injected-into-brain-in-world-first/7844346
"So the beauty of this technique is that this is an unfertilised egg activated in a lab, so there are no ethical issues surrounding this to be used as mainstream treatment down the line."
But others in the field have taken a more cautionary approach, and have questioned whether stem-cell-based therapies are really ready for clinical trials.
A paper published in March, with the contributing author from Melbourne's Florey Institute, warned: "Unless pre-clinical data and regulatory approvals were obtained, premature trials in humans could tarnish many years of scientific work and threaten to derail this exciting field of medicine."
But the trial's researchers said they had ethics approval, Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approval and said pre-clinical trials were conducted on monkeys, as well as on more than 400 mice.
MUCH GOING ON WITH MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS AND STEM CELL TRANSPLANTS
Lots of good news from Clinica Ruiz in Puebla Mexico doing stem cell transplants:
www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article62045372.html
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Post by the Scribe on Dec 2, 2016 18:44:46 GMT -5
BIG NEWS. Finally!! Research in Parkinson's and other degenerative disease is headed towards the Epigenetics model. This is right in line with what Dr. Joel Wallach has been saying all along. I posted some of his videos above. Just getting the right balance of nutritional absorption via a healthy gut will stop most disease in its tracks. People can take vitamins and minerals but if they aren't absorbed into the system they will do no good. A healthy gut makes a healthy body. I wish Linda would get on his program as I think the condition is reversible. Dr. Wallach has 100% success in reversing macular degeneration. While some of us can't afford the out of pocket costs for these expensive supplements I have no doubt Linda could. I hope she doesn't stick to the belief that just because her grandmother had it is why she has it.Parkinson's disease 'may start in gut'By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News website 2 December 2016
Scientists in California say they have transformed understanding of Parkinson's disease.
Their animal experiments, published in the journal Cell, suggest the brain disorder may be caused by bacteria living in the gut.
The findings could eventually lead to new ways of treating the disease, such as drugs to kill gut bugs or probiotics.
Experts said the results opened an "exciting new avenue of study".
In Parkinson's disease the brain is progressively damaged, leading to patients experiencing a tremor and difficulty moving.
Researchers used mice genetically programmed to develop Parkinson's as they produced very high levels of the protein alpha-synuclein, which is associated with damage in the brains of Parkinson's patients.
But only those animals with bacteria in their stomachs developed symptoms. Sterile mice remained healthy.
Further tests showed transplanting bacteria from Parkinson's patients to mice led to more symptoms than bacteria taken from healthy people.
Dr Timothy Sampson, one of the researchers at the California Institute of Technology, said: "This was the 'eureka' moment, the mice were genetically identical, the only difference was the presence or absence of gut microbiota.
"Now we were quite confident that gut bacteria regulate, and are even required for, the symptoms of Parkinson's disease."
'Paradigm shift'
The scientists believe the bacteria are releasing chemicals that over-activate parts of the brain, leading to damage.
The bacteria can break down fibre into short-chain fatty acids. It is thought an imbalance in these chemicals triggers the immune cells in the brain to cause damage.
Dr Sarkis Mazmanian said: "We have discovered for the first time a biological link between the gut microbiome and Parkinson's disease.
"More generally, this research reveals that a neurodegenerative disease may have its origins in the gut and not only in the brain as had been previously thought.
"The discovery that changes in the microbiome may be involved in Parkinson's disease is a paradigm shift and opens entirely new possibilities for treating patients."
Parkinson's is currently incurable.
While the findings need to be confirmed in people, but the researchers hope that drugs that work in the digestive system or even probiotics may become new therapies for the disease.
The trillions of bacteria that live in the gut are hugely important to health, so wiping them out completely is not an option.
Dr Arthur Roach, from the charity Parkinson's UK, said: "In recent years, evidence has been growing that Parkinson's may begin in the gut, but the chain of events involved has so far remained a mystery.
"This work opens an exciting new avenue of study on the gut-brain connection in Parkinson's.
"There are still many questions to answer, but we hope this will trigger more research that will ultimately revolutionise treatment options for Parkinson's."
Dr Patrick Lewis, from the University of Reading, said: "This study really does reinforce the idea that examining what goes on in the stomach of people with Parkinson's could provide really important insights into what happens in disease, and potentially a new area of biology to target in trying to slow down or halt the changes in the brain."
THERE ARE MANY OTHER ARTICLES ABOUT THIS DISCOVERY. DO A GOOGLE SEARCH. ALSO, BEWARE. NOT ALL PROBIOTICS ARE EQUAL. MANY HAVE BEEN TESTED AND DO NOT CONTAIN THE LIVE BACTERIA THEY CLAIM. THERE ARE MANY COMPARATIVE STUDIES SO BEFORE YOU PURCHASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO YOUR RESEARCH. I HAVE SEVERAL AGING CATS IN MY RESCUE ON PROBIOTICS AND I MADE SURE I DID THE RESEARCH.
www.cnbc.com/2016/12/01/parkinsons-linked-to-gut-bacteria.html
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Post by the Scribe on Mar 15, 2017 18:19:39 GMT -5
This was used in a small sample of people. Not found any updated info yet but there were supposedly upcoming clinical trials. www.salon.com/2016/12/04/twitters-cautionary-tale-social-media-hype-about-diseases-and-treatments-does-patients-no-favors_partner/ Can A Cancer Drug Reverse Parkinson's Disease And Dementia? www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/10/17/448323916/can-a-cancer-drug-reverse-parkinsons-disease-and-dementiaListen· 4:49 ondemand.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/me/2015/10/20151019_me_can_a_cancer_drug_reverse_parkinsons_disease_and_dementia.mp3?orgId=1&topicId=1066&d=289&p=3&story=448323916&t=progseg&e=449862133&seg=6&siteplayer=true&dl=1
October 17, 2015·2:18 PM ET
Heard on Morning Edition
A drug that's already approved for treating leukemia appears to dramatically reduce symptoms in people who have Parkinson's disease with dementia, or a related condition called Lewy body dementia.
A pilot study of 12 patients given small doses of nilotinib found that movement and mental function improved in all of the 11 people who completed the six-month trial, researchers reported Saturday at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago.
And for several patients the improvements were dramatic, says Fernando Pagan, an author of the study and director of the Movement Disorders Program at Georgetown University Medical Center. One woman regained the ability to feed herself, one man was able to stop using a walker, and three previously nonverbal patients began speaking again, Pagan says.
"After 25 years in Parkinson's disease research, this is the most excited I've ever been," Pagan says.
If the drug's effectiveness is confirmed in larger, placebo-controlled studies, nilotinib could become the first treatment to interrupt a process that kills brain cells in Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's.
One of the patients in the pilot study was Alan Hoffman, 74, who lives with his wife, Nancy, in Northern Virginia.
Before and after taking nilotinib
Mary Leigh has had Parkinson's Disease for almost 20 years. Here she is before the treatment and after five months of being on the drug.
Hoffman was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1997. At first, he had trouble moving his arms. Over time, walking became more difficult and his speech became slurred. And by 2007, the disease had begun to affect his thinking.
"I knew I'd dropped off in my ability to read," Hoffman says. "People would keep giving me books and I'd have read the first chapter of about 10 of them. I had no ability to focus on it."
"He had more and more difficulty making sense," Nancy Hoffman says. He also became less active, less able to have conversations, and eventually stopped doing even household chores, she says.
But after a few weeks on nilotinib, Hoffman "improved in every way," his wife says. "He began loading the dishwasher, loading the clothes in the dryer, things he had not done in a long time."
Even more surprising, Hoffman's scores on cognitive tests began to improve. At home, Nancy Hoffman says her husband was making sense again and regained his ability to focus. "He actually read the David McCullough book on the Wright brothers and started reading the paper from beginning to end," she says.
The idea of using nilotinib to treat people like Alan Hoffman came from Charbel Moussa, an assistant professor of neurology at Georgetown University and an author of the study.
Moussa knew that in people who have Parkinson's disease with dementia or a related condition called Lewy body dementia, toxic proteins build up in certain brain cells, eventually killing them. Moussa thought nilotinib might be able to reverse this process.
His reasoning was that nilotinib activates a system in cells that works like a garbage disposal — it clears out unwanted proteins. Also, Moussa had shown that while cancer cells tend to die when exposed to nilotinib, brain cells actually become healthier.
So Moussa had his lab try the drug on brain cells in a petri dish. "And we found that, surprisingly, with a very little amount of the drug we can clear all these proteins that are supposed to be neurotoxic," he says.
Next, Moussa had his team give the drug to transgenic mice that were almost completely paralyzed from Parkinson's disease. The treatment "rescued" the animals, he says, allowing them to move almost as well as healthy mice.
Moussa's mice got the attention of Pagan from Georgetown's Movement Disorders Program. "When Dr. Moussa showed them to me," Pagan says, "it looked like, hey, this is type of drug that we've been looking for because it goes to the root of the problem."
The pilot study was designed to determine whether nilotinib was safe for Parkinson's patients and to determine how much drug from the capsules they were taking was reaching their brains. "But we also saw efficacy, which is really unheard of in a safety study," Pagan says.
The study found that levels of toxic proteins in blood and spinal fluid decreased once patients began taking nilotinib. Also, tests showed that the symptoms of Parkinson's including tremor and "freezing" decreased. And during the study patients were able to use lower doses of Parkinson's drugs, suggesting that the brain cells that produce dopamine were working better.
But there are some caveats, Pagan says. For one thing, the study was small, not designed to measure effectiveness, and included no patients taking a placebo.
Also, nilotinib is very expensive. The cost of providing it to leukemia patients is thousands of dollars a month.
Hoffman says his symptoms have gotten worse since he stopped taking the medication as part of a study. Claire Harbage for NPR
And finally, Parkinson's and dementia patients would have to keep taking nilotinib indefinitely or their symptoms would continue to get worse.
Alan Hoffman was OK for about three weeks after the study ended and he stopped taking the drug. Since then, "There's (been) a pretty big change," his wife says. "He does have more problems with his speech, and he has more problems with cognition and more problems with mobility."
The Hoffmans hope to get more nilotinib from the drug's maker, Novartis, through a special program for people who improve during experiments like this one.
Meanwhile, the Georgetown team plans to try nilotinib in patients with another brain disease that involves toxic proteins: Alzheimer's.
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Post by Dianna on Mar 15, 2017 18:56:24 GMT -5
Thank You. I wonder if Linda has tried Kratom? It's a natural herb from Malaysia. I have read people with fibromyalgia have used it and it helped them a lot. Another woman assumed she had fibromyalgia used kratom but turned out she had parkinson's disease. I have had chronic muscle spasms for many years and I don't like addictive opioids and have used kratom and I agree, it works wonders.
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Post by PoP80 on Mar 16, 2017 14:37:54 GMT -5
I've heard this substance has a lot of unpleasant side effects and can be addictive. Glad you found it helpful, though.
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