Newbie

[Dr Henry Pieters <HENRY@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everybody !

I am new to this group, as you will all probably realise.  I am a
Medical Research Scientist, doing research on blood platelets.  I
also have a general interest in science, mostly biological sciences.

My father, who is now 87 years old, has had Parkinson's disease for
about 10 years now.  I think the worst thing for him is the fact that
he couldn't play the violin since he started to get tremors (he was a
violinist by profession).  Now he gets frustrated with himself and
severely depressed. Of course, depression is part of the symptoms of
Parkinsonism.  For my part, I feel very sorry for him, to see someone
become less and less mobile and at the same time having to depend on l-
DOPA with all its side-effects.  I have heard of some interesting
experiments on animals (and on humans, I believe) where a certain area
of the brain is grafted from a healthy donor to a recipient's brain
with Parkinson's - resulting in almost complete cure !  They will
have to look at the long term effects of course, but this is
promising.

Well, that's it for now....

Like to hear from you !

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| Henry Pieters, PhD.             Email:  henry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx       |
| P O Box 339 (G2)                                                   |
| Department of Haematology                                          |
| University of the Orange Free State                                |
| Bloemfontein, RSA                       PHONE: (+27 51) 405 3571   |
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|    <<<<<<<<<<<<<    DISCLAIMER    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>                  |
|    All messages are my own, not those of the University            |
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