Is Parkinson's an autoimmune disease?

[Pepysmum]

My mother has Parkinson's she also took antihistamine for several decades prescribed by her GP for sneezing and allergic reactions etc. It took ages for her to get a diagnosis of Parkinson's.

I have several autoimmune problems, all my three children had/have varying degrees of allergic reactions to : milk alllergies, eczema, asthma, hay fever and Reynaud's syndrome.

I am concerned that Parkinson's' may be hereditary via the route of the predisposition of autoimmune diseases.

Anyone heard about links of Parkinson's to autoimmune problems?

[Wendy39]

Hello.

I am sorry to hear of your health concerns for your family. I am afraid that I do not know much about Parkinson's Disease, despite the fact that my paternal grandmother had it, as we didn't live close by at the time. I have just quickly Googled the question about whether Parkinson's Disease is considered Auto-Immune and there are loads of articles coming up.

I'll attach the latest dated one I could find, from 21st June 2017.

It seems to say that Parkinson's is partly AI.

I hope it helps and I hope someone else here with more knowledge of this can help.

Have yout tried posting this question on a Parkinson's HU group, as well as this Lupus UK one?

Best wishes

Wendy

sciencedaily.com/releases/2...

[Hidden in reply to Wendy39]

I was under the impression that Parkinson's isn't classed as an autoimmune disease and actually nor are the others you have mentioned - although they may all lead to autoimmunity or be part of it.

But I could be wrong about this and I'm only talking about clinical distinctions here - I know that many in the alternative medicine/ naturopathic world do regard all these you've mentioned as autoimmune.

And really my feeling is that we are only at the foot of the mountain in terms of understanding immunology and autoimmunity. I've had eczema all my life and have Hashimoto's and Sjögren's too. I also had Alopecia Areata as a child which is classed as autoimmune and many allergies as well. Supposedly these are different families but who knows? Only a decade or so ago Ulcerative Colitis was viewed as IBS but now it has been moved to the IBD autoimmune family. Nothing is set in stone in this area of medicine.

[PMRpro]

New work published this year suggests it may be:

newscientist.com/article/mg...

But that doesn't mean it is hereditary because it is a/i - there is a difference between hereditary and a genetic predisposition which is the case for most a/i. It is thought that about 1 in 10 cases of Parkinson's is a familial form but the rest aren't:

parkinsons.org.uk/informati...

[Pepysmum]

Thank you for your info. I have read the links above and all are extremely interesting . Worthy of further investigation. Many thanks.

[Paul_Howard Partner LUPUS UK]

Hi Pepysmum ,

The causes of Parkinson's appear to be poorly understood at present, but there is no suggestion that it is autoimmune on the Parkinson's UK website that I can find. You can read about the causes at parkinsons.org.uk/informati...

Parkinson's UK also suggest that it is very unlikely for people to pass the condition on to their children - parkinsons.org.uk/informati...

[PMRpro in reply to Paul_Howard]

Paul - very new work, published in June 2017 suggests it is at least partly a/i.

futurism.com/new-study-find...

and see my post above. Given the price I obviously haven't read it...

nature.com/nature/journal/v...

[Paul_Howard Partner LUPUS UK in reply to PMRpro]

Interesting findings. Thanks PMRpro