My mother has advanced PD and, to the best of our knowledge dating back a couple of hundred years, no one in her family ancestry had PD.

My mother, like my father and I, did spend about 20 years living in a town in NJ with its own well for drinking water. Well water is well-known as increasing the risk of PD. For the past five years, I've been reconnecting with, among others, former elementary and high school classmates from my former hometown in NJ. To date, only one parent of a classmate has PD.

While heredity doesn't appear to play a role in my mother's PD and well water doesn't either, I believe it's a combination of exposure to certain chemicals plus a gene mutation that causes or causes a greater risk of contracting PD. Science seems to back this up.

1shakeybabe, I lived in the Kanawha Valley for a while, in St. Albans -- I do know we decided NOT to have any more pregnancies while we were there because there were so many instances of miscarriage, birth defects, and cystic fibrosis among the children of families at our church.

I do think chemical exposure has something to do with PD, as does stress (good or bad). After my chemo, and ever since, when I touch a chemical (perfume, cleaning fluids, deodorant, household sprays or scents) I can "taste" the chemicals in my entire body.

This is not uncommon among those of us who had particular chemo regimes. My point is, we do the best we can with what we know. As "No Ears" the wise Winnebago said "Failure to gather enough precise information is the reason we die." Applies to my life very succinctly.

Those familiar with my posts here over the past several years know that I was a beekeeper for over 30 years. I gave up two years ago because for three years running, all of my hives died. To the best of my knowledge they died from pesticides used indiscriminately by pest control and lawn maintenance contractors.

The pesticide-of-preference has for several years been neonicotinoids, a.k.a. "neonics." They are touted by agro-pharm companies as "safe." However, test results about safety are not available. Producers and regulators have stonewalled their release.

The die-off of honeybees is a serious and widely known problem. Lots of causes identified... like mites, viruses, predation, and combinations like Sudden Colony Collapse Disorder. I have dealt with them all.

Neonics make their own kind of havoc. The substances destroy bees brains. Foragers leave the hive and cannot get back. This is one I could not deal with.

Nice neighbors want green lawns and yards free of mosquitoes, borers, crickets, yellow jackets, and so on. They hire companies that promise to make things better. The companies spray, seed, fog, and otherwise poison until everything is green, attractive, and sterile. The substances they use are picked up in blossoms and wash into the streams.

In the creek behind our house, signs wash downstream with each storm with stern warnings to keep children and pets off the grass because of the freshly applied pesticides. (My bees never could read.)

Those of you who know me have seen me rail about this before. Regarding this thread started by Annie, there is a kicker. Neonics, it is now being determined, are not so benign. The substances that destroy bees brains are likely doing the same job on ours. Here is a reference to some work recently done in Japan: http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/12/europe-fears-over-pesticide-link-foetal-brain-harm

Beekeeper

Beekeeper42, thank you for sharing about bees and neonics. I'd been alarmed about the massive decline of bee colonies ever since I saw a news report about them on TV a few years ago but had not heard re: neonics before your mention of this "pesticide-of-preference." As a kid, I was always fearful of bees (especially after getting stung a couple of times!) but, these days, I'm always glad when I see them in the garden, knowing how precious each one truly is to human survival.

An interesting paper published in Nature by G. Willis et al seems to establish exactly his that even minor amounts of various toxins in the eyes can induce PD like symptoms. The surprise he expresses is how little is needed to effect the results and that the eyes are the surprising link into the brain.
A huge warning for users of sprays to use goggles at least I would say.

Mecklenberger, would it be possible for you to share the link to the paper here? Thanks.

I believe chemicals hat a lot to do with the diagnoses of PD. I was in a orphanage from age of 3 -12. They regularly dusted our heads with DDT . When we both our house her in USA,my husband and I, we did not have fan in the bathroom and walls had mildew on it . So I cleaned it with mildew remover . I was standing on a lather spraying the celling , while the cleaner was dripping on m face. Did it for 2 years while asking my husband to put in fan. Then I relays , as long I do it he will not . So I quit .Then it stay like that for several months. I could not stand it so I wash it again and painted the walls , but the paint did not hold . Started peeling. Then my hubby installed , the fan. It tuck him 1/2 an hour . I am sure that is what contributed to me having the disease.