Did you grow up on a farm or were you exp... - Cure Parkinson's

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Did you grow up on a farm or were you exposed to pesticides in your youth?

Jerebet profile image
27 Replies
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Jerebet profile image
Jerebet
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27 Replies
Hikoi profile image
Hikoi

No neither

Never grew up on farm, however i worked on a farm from the age of ten till seventeen , then went in to the forces and was exposed to Cs Gas on many occasions

( with out a gas mask)

Al

shakenlady profile image
shakenlady

I GREW UP ON THE FARM. WE MIXED 24D / BRUSH KILER MADE AGENT ORANGE.

lotl profile image
lotl

I handled many pesticides and weedkillers in 70's.

lotl

I grew up on a farm where pesticides were tested

shasha profile image
shasha

i used to live close to a farm where pesticides were used to spray crops and a neighbour who bred dogs had a litter which were deformed and died or had to be out down - the vet thought it may have been the bitch who drank frim a puddle in the fields where she was walked ...

merlethegirl profile image
merlethegirl

Yes, I was a crop marker for spray planes. DDT infused for sure and who knows about the herbisides and fungicides/ Even now here in North Dakota, with all the sloughs...there are hardly any mosquitos. I think this state is very polluted..

ronn profile image
ronn in reply to merlethegirl

Merle, North and South Dakota are at the top of the list for per-capita cases of PD and they also use more Anhydrous Ammonia as fertilizer. I wonder if the researchers have looked into that possibility. The stuff is deadly.

I believe we played basketball against Maddock, one year, in high school. The Bisbee Chiefs.... I don't remember who won.

Lennie profile image
Lennie

My cousin and I both have PD. We grew up on farms about 5 miles apart in the 50's-60's. Very little chems were used on these farms, no deformed animals were born there. My cousin has another cousin (much older than he) who also has PD.

maryedith profile image
maryedith

both

Susie01 profile image
Susie01

For me, the answer is yes on both accounts. We also had well water, who knows what was seepinig into it! The other culprit my doctor believes played a part was the use of Kerosene heaters.

This is another interesting factor, we did an MRI just to rule out MS (though it was clearly PD at that point). On the MRI I had global atrophy. He said that my brain had not fully developed, that when he sees this it is usually something that happened before age 10. We moved away from the farm when I was nine, and had city water, etc. Though several years later, we moved back to the farm, the pesticides and the well water.

The question there is, why did I get PD and none of my siblings or parents? My sister has chosen not to believe I have PD because I am the only one who has it, guess she is in her own denial. She keeps trying to come up with other things that I might have other than PD...

I think there is so much that we do not know in regards to this disease!

shasha profile image
shasha in reply to Susie01

how interesting that you mention keroscene - we had parafin heaters all my life - and i hated the smell ...

texasbred59 profile image
texasbred59

I grew up on a farm (also with well water) but none of my 13 siblings or parents show any sign of PD. But maybe it's a combination of things. I put my head through a windshield when I was 20 but I had friends in High School that used to tease me because I didn't swing my arms when I walked. . . I wonder if they can ever figure it out.

tlongmire profile image
tlongmire

I used a lot of Weed-B-Gone (pretty concentrated & without a mask) for many years in the rock areas of our yard. I remember a woman passing by and saying you should be wearing a mask and me telling her I'd been using it for years and didn't have any problems. I believe this exposure may have contributed to my PD diagnosis. I wish I would have known then what I know now. :o(

jazzfan53 profile image
jazzfan53

The house I grew up in (Late 50s-early 60s) was surrounded by farms, we had well water and my father was using Chlordane all over the place. Back then it was considered all part of the "miracle of modern science"...And even today, the chemical companies continue to demonize Rachel Carson and her 1962 book "Silent Spring". We live in a sad world.

PatV profile image
PatV

Yes spent summers on a farm and also applied herbicides to lawn as a kid. I thought I was invincible. Out of a very large family, I'm the only one that I know of with PD, but great uncle on mom's side had it. He was a farmer.

muttie profile image
muttie

E

hummm ...... IT DOSN''T SOUND GOOD FOR ALL THE GOOD OLE PESTI CIDES!!! I spent 32 years, in the summertime,with a WELLl AND A VEGGIE GARDEN] we shared with our wonderful neighbors , Mary and Jack . Mary and I Dx ourselves...we were both RNs,,,,, way before the docs did. Mary died two years ago from PD,I miss her soooo much!!! We NEVER would have put herbicides or anything like THAT on our precious veggies!! Heaven forbid!! Just a little bit of Miricle Grow on it once in awhile to keep those nasty aphids and other pests away,,,,hummm!!!

Beachdog profile image
Beachdog

Not I ;)

srarndt profile image
srarndt

No on the farm, yes on pesticides, herbicides and fungicides along with mercury and lead...

Steve (Bisbee, AZ)

Jerebet profile image
Jerebet

Thank you all for your responses. Seems pesticide exposure is something many of us have in common.

Hi,

My grandfather farmed cotton. I lived in the city and would work on the farm in the summers. He had a spray rig that he attached to his tractor and us grandchildren would spray the weeds. We also sprayed each other sometimes. So stupid!!

Also, my grandfather was diagnosed with PD in his later years.

I also lived in the country for 10 years of my adult life. Actually, my first signs of PD were after living in the country for a very short time. We had a water well and lived right next to a cotton field. The crop dusters sprayed two or three times a year and I had a big vegetable garden. So, you can put 2 and 2 together...

FifteenyearsPD profile image
FifteenyearsPD

Yes - grew up on a farm and drank well water as did my siblings and parents.

3 siblings are still alive - and I am only one who has PD AND has always had terrible respiratory allergies. I read an article recently that made some connection between the two. I have wondered about this for years.

Any one else have bad allergies (hay fever/ asthma/ respiratory problems) also grow up on farm (or spend lot of time on one and drink well water.

CSEI profile image
CSEI

i also spent many days on my uncles farm in iowa while growing up ,also at age 16 and 17 I detasseled corn for those two years through the summer months. I believe pesticides could be one of the causes of pd

Auntiekath profile image
Auntiekath

Yes I did grow upon a farm for the first 15yrs of my life. At age 16 I worked in an office at Nelsons Acetate and used to deliver post to the other offices breathing in the chemicals.

MichaelOM profile image
MichaelOM

Where I grew up in NJ in the 1960's, these trucks (we called them "smoke trucks") used to drive through the neighborhoods all summer pumping out clouds of pesticides to kill mosquitoes. All the children dropped everything, got their bikes and chased after them. It was like a polluted Pied Piper and was just as popular as the ice cream truck. Some parents discouraged this behavior (between drags on their cigarettes), but I can't remember any forbidding it. What a dumb world we live in.

margie profile image
margie

DDT, Pesticides and well water.

Joealt profile image
Joealt

I've heard that automobile exhaust may be one of The Causes of PD

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