I'm wondering how many of us were fed formula rather than breastfed? Breastfeeding is supposed to be protective against later chronic disease...
I was exclusively formula fed and my microbiome is at the low end of diversity (I also had a long course of antibiotics (2 months) several decades ago.
Sorry. Regular birth and breast fed. PD at 57. A bit late to change anything now anyway
would be an interesting survey
Formula fed. Lots of antibiotics as a small child.
Breast fed and had antibiotics maybe a handful of times throughout my 55 years
Breast fed, diagnosed at 49.
I think besides formula- fed, and antibiotics, you can add mercury amalgam fillings, along with other sources of mercury - thermometers and mercurochrome. I was born in 1957, so I was formula-fed, and whenever I got sick, the doctor prescribed antibiotics, didnt matter if it was bacterial or viral. I had a mouthful of mercury fillings, had fun playing with the mercury from broken thermometers, and when I got a cut, my mom put mercurochrome on it. All that was common place. Its no wonder there are so many cases of PD in my generation. And I didnt even mention insecticides.....
Mercurochrome and merthiolate!!! I had completely forgotten that, my mom used that for cuts and scrapes too!
I remember coating dimes with broken thermometer mercury to make them look shiny and new and then playing with them as a kid! 😵💫😵💫😵💫
Art
I worked as a nurses aide in the 70’s and occasionally someone would drop a whole dish of thermometers, maybe 20 or more and we would laugh while we tried to pick up the mercury. A friend of mine remembers balls of mercury being passed out to the students during science class. It’s crazy. Now if one thermometer was broken in a building, it would be evacuated and the hazmat team would be called. Mercury thermometers may be banned but the US still hasn’t banned mercury amalgam.
When I saw the movie, "Terminator 2" the liquid steel guy reminded me of the broken thermometer on the stove that spilled the mercury in the trough that surrounds the burner and I would push it with my fingers faster and faster around the trough like it was on a race track! That little ball of mercury reminded me of the liquid metal guy after he had been blown into little liquid metal blobs that looked like the mercury ball on the stove and they all rolled together to put the liquid steel guy back together.
Oh, and the reason I broke the thermometer on the stove was because I was trying to heat it up to make my mom think I had a fever so she wouldn't send me to school that day! I think I might have been in the second grade. Kids sure do have an imagination!
Art
"All that was common place." Yep, as a mid-1950s baby, that describes my experience, as well.
I think that is the problem--for those of us in our late 50s/60's/70's ... wasn't formula all the rage back then? So most of us were probably bottle fed, as well as most of those without PD. So it would be tough to do a population study.
That being said, I was breastfed. My mom was a bit of a rebel.
Selecting the Correct Vitamin B12 Formula
How can I be so happy with PD? (1,200 words)
How can I reduce episodes of confusion?
Can PD symptoms remain on one side of the body?
How far back can you trace PD symptoms before diagnosis? 
