tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-104738052011-12-11T04:06:20.854-05:00parkinson's, politics, that sort of thinganukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.comBlogger341100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-7842237318200441622010-01-14T23:44:00.002-05:002010-05-09T16:05:11.694-04:00

Further detail on the question of why this is not being publicized if it's true, given that the FDA clearly knows about it... In early 2006 a research letter to the editor*, which is not peer-reviewed, was published and publicized across the Internet. This letter was written in support of a 2005 paper claiming to have found an association between dopamine agonists and gambling based on the fact

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-32547823505177055702010-01-14T13:31:00.004-05:002010-05-09T16:07:29.816-04:00

Only those who read product labels, because this definitely hasn't been publicized. I was just perusing the most recent (12/2008) Sinemet product insert and i found the following paragraph: "There have been reports of patients experiencing intense urges to gamble, increased sexual urges, and other intense urges, and the inability to control these urges while taking one or more of the

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-74802622193773696302009-11-12T01:17:00.001-05:002009-11-12T01:18:37.306-05:00

I have re-posted my comments and questions regarding the Mayo Clinic video on YouTube.

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-4315535575863512182009-11-11T21:17:00.005-05:002009-11-11T21:48:22.557-05:00

My friend Bob, who has a terrific blog called Parkinson's Patients: Yes We Can Dance, recently drew my attention to a Mayo Clinic video on YouTube. In it, a physician named J. Michael Bostwick tells us that according to the findings of his recent study, at least one in every five people with Parkinson's who takes a dopamine agonist will experience compulsive behavior as a side effect. That

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-8183007288914742642009-05-11T02:11:00.010-04:002009-05-11T02:45:31.121-04:00

Well, folks, I finally have corroboration from a doctor, published in a peer-reviewed journal (not that I think that means much, but others might) for my assertion that none of the gambling studies to date (which means as of 2007, or early 2008 at the latest), demonstrates the extent of risk of development of pathological gambling when taking dopaminergic meds. Dr. Zand says:"Thus far, published

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-41059390815809836272008-10-25T03:11:00.004-04:002008-10-25T03:30:40.862-04:00

Welcome to Part Three(a) of a three part series.To recap the background provided in Part One, in the 2005 study entitled “Pathological Gambling Caused by Drugs Used to Treat Parkinson’s Disease,” the authors mine records of Parkinson’s patients seen at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN (MCR), between 2002 and 2004, and find 11 people who had developed pathological gambling (PG) - they conclude

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-92150115518730702052008-07-02T01:48:00.004-04:002008-07-02T02:18:56.480-04:00

I am hearing this catch phrase fairly regularly recently, and I have to ask - is this actually something new? i mean, newer than, say, 50 years old, at least? Because if it is, good lord what has medicine been based on up until now? Tea leaves? Magic 8 balls? The whims of medical practitioners? Old wives' tales? All those millions of research studies that have been undertaken in the last half

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-55744407101074470372008-05-05T02:34:00.007-04:002011-03-10T11:51:55.275-05:00

Welcome to Part Two of a three part series. To recap the background provided in Part One, in the 2005 study entitled “Pathological Gambling Caused by Drugs Used to Treat Parkinson’s Disease,” the authors mine records of Parkinson’s patients seen at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN (MCR), between 2002 and 2004, and find 11 people who had developed pathological gambling (PG) - they conclude that

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-11747919234563230982008-04-23T00:33:00.012-04:002010-05-09T16:23:04.331-04:00

In the 2005 study entitled “Pathological Gambling Caused by Drugs Used to Treat Parkinson’s Disease,” the authors mine records of Parkinson’s patients seen at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN (MCR), between 2002 and 2004, and find 11 people who had developed pathological gambling (PG) - they conclude that the PG was caused by Parkinson's drugs. The authors so completely fail to provide evidence

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-81201493696235108012007-09-13T21:30:00.002-04:002008-01-15T04:02:43.124-05:00

Thank you for your very thoughtful response, Mr. Gratton. Here are my thoughts on your comments. Your main premises are as follows:Incendia is a “health-focused publishing company,” not a marketing company. Incendia’s goal is to provide a helpful service to the online PD community.Ignite Health LLC, the nature of which entity you do not describe, rather than Ignite Health the healthcare

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-26868342316783677712007-09-13T21:23:00.000-04:002007-09-14T00:25:40.862-04:00

Please see Fabio Gratton's response to my most recent post. Mr. Gratton is co-founder and chief innovation officer at Ignite Health, and president and CEO of Incendia Health Studios.

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-40694639958248392862007-09-04T01:28:00.000-04:002007-09-04T02:10:17.727-04:00

Just in case there are others out there like me who didn't click into this right away, the Parkinson's Blog Network (PBN) is actually a giant advertisement for Valeant's Parkinson's med.And I don't just mean that Valeant buys space on the PBN, I mean the PBN itself IS the advertisement.You may have noticed that the Legal Disclaimer states that a company called Incendia Health Studios maintains

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-25663927747809013342007-06-09T13:55:00.000-04:002007-06-09T17:27:06.109-04:00

I can't tell you how tired I am of hearing folks who are part of the Parkinson's disease (PD) research machine (who, almost by definition, do not have PD) skip, tra la, right by the need for a symptomatic therapy that works, and I am talking about the cardinal, or defining, symptoms, i.e., motor symptoms, for anywhere near as long as the average life of the disease.Instead, they are out there

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-74650534059427306152007-02-24T02:57:00.000-05:002008-12-11T02:31:13.872-05:00

If you have read my September 2006 post, "Gambling and Dopamine Agonists: Where's the Beef?" you are already familiar with my criticism of the FDA-sponsored "study" that mined the FDA's Adverse [Drug] Event Reporting System (AERS) database and found what it claimed was an exorbitantly high reporting ratio for pramipexole (a dopamine agonist) and gambling. What they failed to reveal was the

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1170658072627527282007-02-05T00:45:00.000-05:002007-12-24T22:28:57.553-05:00

The above study was published in Neurology in August of 2003, in conjunction with its unveiling at the 55th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN). This unveiling came complete with press conferences with lead author, Dr. Mark Stacy, and a press release issued by the AAN and picked up by Reuters.THE ASSERTIONThe authors report that in a retrospective database review of all

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1170485105142523932007-02-03T00:27:00.000-05:002007-02-03T03:32:57.413-05:00

This is the first in a series of articles - not sure how many just yet, but at least four, and probably five - in which I am going to put out there, finally, everything I have learned about the gambling claim. The first article is meant to illustrate why I think the claim is disturbing, in the second, third and fourth, I will take the three most publicized studies apart, one at a time, and in the

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1168875888449982002007-01-15T10:42:00.000-05:002007-01-15T10:44:48.456-05:00

I got an email this weekend from someone asking if I had stopped posting, so I just wanted to put up a short message saying no, I have not stopped. I am currently working on my next piece, which is kind of a large undertaking - I have done what I consider to be extensive research on the topic of gambling and dopamine agonists and I am finally ready to present the whole picture, from analysis of

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1162196346332068672006-10-30T03:12:00.000-05:002006-10-30T11:32:35.110-05:00

If you have read any of my recent posts, you will know that I don’t think too highly of the drug most commonly prescribed for Parkinson’s, levodopa/carbidopa (often referred to as l-dopa). Because of its obvious deficits, I have marveled at its having acquired the moniker “the gold standard,” and have long since concluded that it must have been a stroke of genius on the part of some marketing

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1161662795206239242006-10-23T23:48:00.000-04:002006-10-24T22:43:21.906-04:00

Rush Limbaugh recently opined at how unfortunate it was that Michael J Fox exploits folks by going off his meds for public appearances - he knows that Mr. Fox does this because, you see, "people" have told him. This is my response to Mr. Limbaugh - too long and no, i don't really expect him to take up the challenge, but a girl's gotta try.****************************** I would recommend doing a

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1150665543465509742006-09-02T06:00:00.000-04:002006-09-02T06:09:26.400-04:00

The above is a graph of the distribution over time of the registering of reports linking gambling to either levodopa-carbidopa/Sinemet (yellow) or pramipexole/Mirapex (red) to the FDA's Adverse [Drug] Event Reporting System (AERS) database between November of 1997 and March 2005. The publicizing of the first study purporting to have found an association between pramipexole/Mirapex is denoted in

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1156906047559370382006-08-29T22:16:00.000-04:002006-08-29T23:07:26.480-04:00

I’ll start with the executive summary, in case you don’t have time to read the whole thing. (Terms are defined in the post following the summary)Executive SummaryIn short, that the last 40 years of research developing different iterations of levodopa were not geared toward improving on its strengths is evident in the incessant singing of its praises (and, since 1996 or so, its donning of the “

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1154147739409780472006-07-28T20:01:00.000-04:002006-07-29T00:50:54.886-04:00

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a degenerative neurological condition in which neurons in the brain that produce dopamine, a neurotransmitter that facilitates control and modulation of muscle movement, slowly die. Tremor is the symptom most commonly associated with PD in people’s minds, but it is the other two cardinal symptoms, rigidity and bradykinesia (slowness of movement (1)), that bring people

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1153650369197504742006-07-23T06:12:00.000-04:002006-07-23T06:26:09.210-04:00

Here is a comment that was made by "bmmg39" on my Michael Fumento letter; it is followed by my response:"Anonymous, no one has claimed that ASCs are "curing" Parkinson's and other diseases. They are successfully TREATING people with those diseases, something ESCs have yet to do for even one human patient. By the way, Anuket, HUMAN ESCs were only isolated in 1998, but non-human ones have been

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1143440287597426962006-03-27T01:06:00.001-05:002006-07-30T19:21:18.233-04:00

Michael Fumento wants his readers to think adult stem cell research (ASCR) is the underdog soooooo badly, it is almost cute. He needs ASCR to be the underdog, of course, to create the illusion that those of us who support embryonic stem cell research (ESCR) are the enemies of ASCR - then he can paint us as trying to hide ASCR successes and steal government funding for ASCR - you know, it is that

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1139132039260081372006-02-05T04:03:00.000-05:002006-06-16T20:55:37.310-04:00

I sent the following letter to five of the seven esteemed founders of the site DoNoHarm today. The founders are:Kevin FitzGerald, SJ, PhDC. Christopher Hook, MDRalph Miech, MD, PhDRobert D. Orr, MDDavid A. Prentice, PhDFrank E. Young, MD, PhDJoseph Zanga, MD, FAAPClick here to see the "fact" sheet in question, and click here to see the studies cited to support the whacked out assertion that

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1128796253055572162005-10-08T14:11:00.000-04:002006-08-05T19:03:19.146-04:00

If I didn't know better I would probably think that any embryos used in research had been collectively plucked from a future of bibs, baby food and spit up by the ruthless and immoral supporters of ESCR, when in reality, any embryo used in research was slated to die before it was donated to research. Further, those who argue against permitting the use of excess in vitro fertilization (IVF)

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1123482412559330052005-08-08T01:32:00.000-04:002005-08-09T21:37:29.693-04:00

Dr. William Hurlbut, a bioethicist, is a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics (PCBE) and is staunchly pro-life, (as is Leon Kass, the head of the PCBE.) Some time ago, Dr. Hurlbut had an idea he hopes will provide a way around the controversy regarding embryonic stem cell research (ESCR.) If his idea works, it will be possible to obtain embryonic stem cells (ESCs) without harming

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1123479035922008862005-08-08T01:18:00.000-04:002005-08-08T02:28:53.913-04:00

This entry is sort of an appendix to the entry entitled "Hurlbut, Bioethics and Hypocrisy." If you are unfamiliar with somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), you might want to read SCNT 101 (below) before you read this. Dr. Hurlbut’s idea would use a slightly modified version of SCNT (which they give a different name, altered nuclear transfer, or ANT) to create what the PCBE calls a “biological

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1123478289176112262005-08-08T00:59:00.000-04:002005-08-08T01:18:09.183-04:00

It might be surprising to some to learn that there is more than one kind of cloning. That is why it is important to differentiate between them by referring to them by their actual names rather than the umbrella term “cloning.”DNA cloning, recombinant DNA, gene cloning – these all refer the “the production of many identical copies of a specific DNA fragment.” merckmedicus.comHowever, when the word

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1118371761968252222005-06-09T22:31:00.000-04:002005-06-17T13:37:48.570-04:00

I knew it wouldn't be long before my suspicion was confirmed - scientists don't want to work on the contaminated cell lines the government has to offer. John D. Gearheart, a Johns Hopkins developmental biologist and stem cell pioneer is quoted below during his testimony at a hearing held by the Senate Special Committee on Aging yesterday. "Gearhart, who conducts research on stem cells from

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1118203339963231012005-06-08T00:01:00.000-04:002005-06-08T00:04:35.316-04:00

On August 9, 2001, President George W. Bush announced his policy on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, stating that “more than 60 genetically diverse stem cell lines already exist… we should allow federal funds to be used for research on these existing stem cell lines.” He limited federal funding to “existing” lines because the embryos that were the sources of those lines had

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1118202120838363262005-06-07T23:37:00.001-04:002005-06-08T00:11:20.060-04:00

With reference to the post above, have a look at the table below, and the sources I have listed below it.   Total # lines ever claimed "existing" #  lines acctd for # lines avail # lines not avail Explanation         not avail for shipping will never be available did not exist 8/9/01   BresaGen, Inc., Athens, GA 4 4 3  - 1 1 failed to expand

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1109147532729105572005-02-23T03:08:00.000-05:002006-08-05T19:05:49.606-04:00

Since my January 31 post on this subject, I have learned a great deal more about what cloning ban bills there are (more than I thought) and how many have passed the House (more than I thought) and how many democrats voted in favor of them (you got it - more than I thought.) Here is the lowdown on the two bills that have passed the House. 1) Weldon (R-FL) introduced HR 2505 in 2001 and it passed

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10473805.post-1106972541285518882005-01-28T23:00:00.000-05:002006-03-30T01:00:33.816-05:00

i wrote the following letter in response to an article arguing for complete bans on embryonic stem cell research and cloning for therapeutic purposes. i sent the letter to The Catholic Telegraph on Monday, January 24 and have yet to receive a response. for the moment, I will post my letter without, in some cases, at least, pulling out in the actual chunks of text on which i was commenting - just

anukethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01358908101306624067noreply@blogger.com0