My brother was diagnosed with Parkinson's in his 40's. My father had it too. My father is now deceased. My brother had DBS (Deep Brain Stimulation) surgery about three years ago when the various medications he was taking were no longer effective. My personal observations regarding the difference in his symptoms from before his surgery and after are between day and night. I often forget he even has Parkinson's Disease now because the change has been so dramatic. I know he never forgets and he could tell his own story about any possible down side to the surgery.

My husband has had Parkinson's for 30 years. He was diagnosed at the age of 38. Two and a half years ago he had deep brain stimulation surgery (DBS) when medications were no longer working. He only had the DBS on one side of his brain which did alleviate his Parkinson's symptoms, the physical symptoms, but left him with increased mental side effects. I would like to know if there is anyone else out there that could share their story with me if they had DBS surgery and suffered increased mental side effects from this surgery or was everything great and "perfect" after their DBS surgery? We do not regret having the surgery and after 2-1/2 years some things have improved mentally but it has been a long road to get to that point and things still are not what they used to be mentally for him. Dolly

dear david, i just heard about the frontline special and then saw your blog and am so excited to share with you some thoughts that i and a couple of my young onset pd friends have. i was diagnosed at 40 and have had this disease for 14 years. i functioned very well for many years; when i was "on" you'd never know i had an illness, and then i'd go off and it would be evident - the whole jekyl and hyde thing. now i am to the point of having both predictable and unpredictable off times where no amount of medication works and i just have to tolerate the rigidity and discomfort for up to 3 hours before dopamine works again. so why no one is looking at alternative treatments? it seems that all the research goes to finding new drugs that don't solve the problem. what about the concept that our bodies are capable of growing new neurons. i'm sure you are familiar with mucuna pruriens, which is the fava bean plant. if you take mucuna, it too has naturally occurring dopamine so works as a substitute for sinemet. there is a phd in england who has developed an organic, highly condensed vegetable paste that is made from peas, carrots, beans, and spinach. it works as a substitute for levodopa as it has naturally occurring levodopa in it. dr. grinstein believes we need to stop using the synthetic dopamine and get it from natural sources and encourage the body's natural tendency to grow new neurons and to move towards health. i have been taking his products for 2 years now and am actively involved in cutting back my medications in the hope that my body will move towards health. he is a strong believer in organic foods, pure water, sunshine and exercise. he believes you can get vitamine d from sunshine and that your skin cells produce dopamine that can then be used in the brain. it's really much more complex than that but i just wanted to give you a sense of the breadth of his knowledge and insight. i encourage you to check out dr grinstein's web sites. he heads an institute called nutritional medicine research. he studies food biochemistry and molecular biology. it would be phenominal if we could get his efforts funded. you can learn about him at www.br13.com. regards, nina