Hi AuroraWA: You are right about the genetic factor which raise the risk of PD & plus more sensitive to pesticides. Not everyone is allergic to raisins like my kid, she has hay fever and many food allergies, which make her sensitive to pesticides. Raisins also has sulfur dioxide added as preservative. Sulfur dioxide is highest in yellow raisins, and that's her favorite for the past years. Thank God that my kid stops stuttering and neck-muscle-spasm after removal of raisins and dirty-dozen produce from her diet. Sam's Club, Walmart, and Trader's Joe all have organic produce at decent price. Genetic factor: if I have 1/4 cup of wine, I break out in rash rather than muscle-spasm. There's a genetic factor in Parkison's which makes a person more sensitive to pesticides. In my previous link on PD and hereditary, a twin posted on how his identical twin has PD, and he doesn't, see below link: "My identical twin brother has had Parkinson's for 14 years or so and has diskonesia; a side effect from the drugs he takes to manage his parkinsons. As we know identical twins start out from one egg and split into equal parts. Needless to say I don't have Parkinson's and can guarantee I will not get it. My twin brother is confined to his unit where he lives mostly and has cracked 9 ribs as well as his sturnum with the many falls caused by parkinsons." http://www.caring.com/questions/parkinsons-disease-hereditary Here's an excerpt from WebMD: "The UCLA researchers also found that people with a common variant of the ALDH2 gene are particularly vulnerable to these ALDH-inhibiting pesticides, according to a university news release. People with the variant are two to six times more likely to develop Parkinson's than those without the variant when exposed to the pesticides. The levels at which the pesticides inhibit ALDH are much lower than those at which they are currently used, according to the study in the Feb. 5 online issue of the journal Neurology ... "These pesticides are pretty ubiquitous, and can be found in our food supply and are used in parks and golf courses and in pest control inside buildings and homes." http://www.webmd.com/parkinsons-disease/news/20140203/more-pesticides-linked-to-parkinsons-risk From the below link: "According to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation: Epidemiological research has identified several factors that may be linked to Parkinson’s, including rural living, well water, manganese and pesticides. Some studies have demonstrated that prolonged occupational exposure to certain chemicals is associated with an elevated risk of PD [Parkinson’s disease]. These include the insecticides permethrin and beta-hexachlorocyclohexane (beta-HCH), the herbicides paraquat and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and the fungicide maneb. In 2009, the US Department of Veterans Affairs added Parkinson’s to a list of diseases possibly associated with exposure to Agent Orange.” Separate research has further revealed that ambient exposure to organophosphate pesticides also increased the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.6 Rotenone and paraquat are two additional pesticides linked to an increased risk of Parkinson's disease, and both are lipophilic, meaning they resist breaking down in water and accumulate in your fat. Both are also known to cross your blood-brain barrier. Dousing our crops with large amounts of glyphosate ��" the active ingredient in Monsanto’s broad-spectrum herbicide Roundup ��" may be another factor in the rising rates of Parkinson’s disease we’re now seeing,7 as these residues are found in all virtually all food containing genetically modified ingredients. " Here is a link that might be useful: Pesticides that trigger PD This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Wed, Oct 8, 14 at 9:39

My husband who had AZ had a brain scan and the result was part of his brain had atrophied. It could never get better, that part of his brain was dead. Nothing helps Alzheimer patients. The meds they give them are all experimental, never been proven to help.

Yeah, there's something goin' on. As I've understood it, the only way a firm diagnosis of Alzhiemer's can be made is with necropsy... only then can the heavy placques in the brain be discerned. But I could be misremembering. Mum suffered a stroke in '04 and it was in the right parietal lobe of her brain; affecting short term memory and critical decison making. As it was explained to me, she is the perfect example of LEAPING before LOOKING. She often failed to THINK about a course of action. Now, her dementia has progressed to a point where she no longer really attempts a lot of things on her own. She never knows what day it is. She doesn't know what year it is. But she knows her birthdate, can name her (now deceased) siblings and all her immediate family. She can't always name my brother... and is often confused about who, exactly, he is... confuses him with my deceased father or my husband frequently. She can't name the cats in the house or the dog, but she identifies them by their individual physical characteristics. She has no clue about money any more, either! She reacts the same way at the doctor's office, too. You need to establish medical and legal POA, asap. And you need to esptablish a routine for her. You do the same things at the same time everyday and you ask questions that require her to THINK and guide her to the result you want to see. For instance: every morning I go down to Mum's room, turn on the lights and open the draperies. I wake her up with, "Good morning! it's time to get up". Then I sit in the chair and allow her to "come to". Next, I direct her to the written instructions for unhooking her urostomy from the night collection jug. I prompt her and she usually does it flawlessly. Then I clean and disinfect it. Then we make her bed together, I lay out her clothes for her, and prompt her to wash her hands, face, and fix her hair. And get dressed. I leave her alone to do those things. If I don't hear her coming to the stairs in 20 minutes I go check. Then she has breakfast. We do it the same way, every day. Drives me NUTS, but it works for her and I know the military regimen helps keep her safe. I put the kibosh on the nastiness early. SORRY! I won't live that way... Zoloft has spared me the commission of a felony, lol. Speak to her doctor about depression... very common in the elderly. Mum was 84 lbs. when she came to live with me... but, "Me? DEPRESSED? certainly not! I've never been depressed in my life!". yeah, RIGHT (she weighs 125-130 now). :)

It's good to hear that the instahot is not expensive to run. The water cooler is. I bought a device called Kill-a-watt. You plug your appliance into it and then that gets plugged into the outlet. It tells you the exact volts, amperage, hertz and kilowatts of the device plugged in. I did all my appliances about a year before our remodel because I was convinced I was footing the bill for the streetlight outside my house. The watercooler, with the instant hot on, was the biggest culprit. Note that it does not check 240 volt appliances. Ahh, there is a good ending to this story. As part of my remodel we upgraded our electric service. When we did, we found we had three locations that were causing the huge electric bills. The meter had a short and both clamps that it hooks onto were draining electric and the main wire into the circuit box was also 'burning' as my electrician put it. We upgraded to 200 amp service and ran all new wire for the kitchen (we had aluminum) and surrounding rooms (since the walls were open on the kitchen side). All new appliances and shut the darn water cooler instant hot off. Our electric bill dropped an average of $100 a month!