Geez, I seem to have all kinds of advice this morning..please forgive me. I really don't assume I know everything! lol..

My brother-in-law was just recently diagnosed with PD. He is 69, soon to be 70. Was an alcoholic for the first 50 years of his life and quit when he had a stroke and heart attack.
He also has rheumatoid arthritis. Do you think there is a link with alcoholism and pd?

Hi Peachy, In the years upto my diagnosis I really enjoyed a drink, mainly beer. But after diagnosis I was told to drink only in moderation, this I did for a while and coped fine. But as my meds changed my tolerance changed and my nurse advised me to stop or at least cut it down and eventually stop. This took some doing but I managed to stop and I'm quite proud that I have,it's the best thing I've done in years. I think if you're ill like with PD or any other chronic illness you have to use your common sence or if you ain't ill at all and have alcohol problems it all boils down to how much you value your life. I've lost too many dear friends who chose to carry on drinking, one of them at 40 yrs old and another at 46 yrs old. I know for a fact if I'd have drank and smoked like I did in my 20's I wouldn't be here now, no doubt about that.It's about knowing your limitations too.

Yours Sincerely Dirk ;-))

I think anytime you are dealing with a chronic illness, alcohol might enter the picture as a way of coping. I know from my own experience, as my PD got worse, I looked to alcohol to help relax me. There were times that alcohol was the only thing that would calm my tremor. I guess its like anything, everything in moderation.

Mom was always a casual drinker-- one or two drinks a night, which was one less than what I usually had!

When PD hit, at first, there was no problem with alcohol. Then those two drinks were more of a problem.

Then she would have three, and that was really not good. Then we got her down to just a drink every now and then, but it still really screwed things up, made things hard for the home health care aids, interfered with cognitive functioning much more.

I think that her drinking was never a problem before PD, but PD made her lean on the booze a bit more. Eventually, she did stop, and it wasn't like she had to go into a program or anything. It was just a pain in the ass to stop-- for her, for us, for the home health care aids. It just didn't work with the medication at all.

I don't believe it caused her PD, or that PD is caused by any kind of drug use, typically. Even the link between Ecstasy and PD is pretty tentative-- though that stuff is garbage anyway, and whenever anyone asks I tell them to stay away from it.

The way I see it, we all have to stop drinking sometime-- at some age, at some point. We'll also have to stop skiing, or surfing, or other things we enjoy eventually. If you have an illness, sometimes you just have to quit some things a little sooner. One guy might have to quit drinking at 50, but can ski until he's 75. For someone else, it might be the other way around. But PD, and PD meds, don't seem to mix with drinking very well, at least not after the first few years.

--Catalyzt