[*Note: 'Willful dupes' comprise that segment of a given group of people (take the HU PD forum group for an example) who believe ANY hope is better than no hope. They are the segment that is so desperate for some sense of hope that they willingly accept as fact any 'hope' that is dangled before them - even false hope. It is through this inevitable segment of the population that myths are allowed to propagate and charlatans are allowed to thrive - to the detriment of all.]
In order to arrive at the 'truth', one first needs to be able to distinguish anecdote from fact. Take for an example the Youtube video (below) of Norman Doidge M.D. (who is on a Dutch talk-show to promote his book) talking about the curious case of John Pepper. Beginning about 30 seconds into the clip, Doidge embellishes his account of JP's case by stating as 'fact' a couple incidents he has no way of knowing or proving. It is based entirely on hearsay from JP.
In the first instance, it is only by accepting and then repeating as fact JP's own dubious account in which he blames a lack of coordination - 50 years prior - on "early signs of Parkinson's", that Doidge now has ammo to hype his book (perhaps we all would have been sport stars if not for those darn "early signs"?).
In the second instance about 30 seconds after the first, Doidge is again stating as 'fact' an embellished account of something he - a psychiatrist with a book to sell - has absolutely no way of knowing or proving. In describing JP's experience with Sinemet or "l-dopa" (an event which incidentally took place 25 years ago, in 1992), Doidge claims, "initially he [JP] had a good response to it, but then he started to get side effects and the response started to wane".
If such loose conjecture (aka 'literary license') delivered void of eye-contact and with excessively shifty body-language fails to raise a healthy degree of skepticism, perhaps a couple of JP's OWN accounts of his Sinemet experience shared in this very forum PRIOR to Doidge's book will.
A few years ago in JP's 'Why do very few doctors prescribe a monotherapy of an MAO-b inhibitor, instead of immediately prescribing levodopa medication?' post, in a rare off-script moment during an exchange about his original Essential Tremor diagnosis (a NON-parkinsonian condition), JP admitted to 'Hikoi', "Other than doing regular energetic exercise and getting rid of the major causes of stress in my life, I only took Eldepryl, except for three months in 2002, when my neurologist said I should start taking sinamet… Because I had got most of my movement symptoms under control, at that time, and because the sinamet did nothing for me, I stopped taking it, after three months. I also stopped going to that neurologist, or any others, since then, for my Pd." Source: healthunlocked.com/parkinso...
In an even more revealing reply to 'Idq1997' (in the same exchange about JP's original ET diagnosis), JP conceded, "I took selegiline for ten years, with no other Pd meds, other than in 2002, when my neurologist advised me that I will be needing to take sinamet, as I had been on selegiline for a long time, and would be needing the sinamet. I took it for three months and becuase it did nothing for me, I stopped taking it... I am aware that this could mean that I do not have Pd, as sinamet is often used as a test for Pd..." Source: healthunlocked.com/parkinso...
In other words, JP was administered the standard 3-month "levodopa challenge" in order to confirm a parkinsonian condition - and FAILED - thus contradicting Doidge’s 'literary' depiction of the event. MOST notable, however, is his acknowledgement at that time of like likelihood that, "I do not have Pd".
The logical MINIMUM prerequisite for someone who presumes to write a book ambitiously titled, "Reverse Parkinson's Disease" should be to FIRST be able to demonstrate a confirmed diagnosis. The DaTscan, "the FDA-approved imaging agent which provides an assessment of the integrity of the striatal dopaminergic system via the dopamine transporter to help physicians determine whether patients have essential tremor (ET) or a parkinsonian syndrome (PS) movement disorder such as Parkinson’s disease (PD)", will help accomplish that. Source: genewsroom.com/press-releas...
Thus far, however, 25 years since his original ET diagnosis (1992), and 15 years since self-publishing his first edition of "Reverse Parkinson's Disease" (2002), JP continues to avoid this test like the plague. Rational minds should wonder why.
Perhaps the most important, and most sacred 'marketplace' on the planet is the marketplace of ideas. Ensuring the highest quality of product requires us all to be discriminating consumers of the ideas delivered. Meanwhile the myth lives on...
