Parkinson's Disease

What are the most poisonous creatures you can think of? Cobras? Scorpions? Japanese puffer fish? Now mix all these together and add 100 or so other nerve toxins. It sounds like a black magic witch's brew straight out of a fairy tale. Shockingly, it's a potion actually found in nature — in the venom of marine cone snails.

These snails live in the coral reefs surrounding Australia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. They use their venoms to hunt worms, other snails, or fish — some larger than themselves.

A heroin addict, who received a bad batch of heroin, lay in a prison bed, with tremors so violent, he had to be restrained. The same tremors affect those with Parkinson’s disease.

Today, thanks to deep brain stimulation, this junkie remains in jail, but his tremors are stilled. That was almost 25 centuries ago, and thanks to this human guinea pig, deep brain stimulation is now used as a practice standard with many Parkinson’s patients who exhibit tremors which inhibit their activities of daily living. In the past few years alone, it has been used on almost 20,000 patients.

Did you ever think where the flowers you sent to Mom on Mother's Day come from? 78% of the stems bought annually in the USA are imported, mostly from Latin America. Because imported flowers can't show any signs of pests or fungus when they arrive here for inspection, many Latino growers literally douse their crops in agricultural chemicals that are banned or severely restricted here at home.