Parkinsons and flying

[Genghis the Engineer]

Thank all available deities, not me.

But a friend and former (flying) student has just been diagnosed at 45 with Parkinsons. I gather he's just lining up for a battery of tests to work out what variant, what treatment, and various other things that his medics hopefully understand, he needs to, I hope I don't.

For what it's worth he's fit, (otherwise) healthy, and his hobby had been flying for years. Unsurprisingly, a little depressed right now.

When he comes out of the end of this initial diagnosis period, and assuming it doesn't all turn out to be a mistake (one can hope after all) - has he any chance of doing any more flying other than as a passenger, or is that it?

G

[what next]

Hello!

This is what JAR FCL-3 (I don't have access to EASA Medical right now) has to say regarding that matter:

Parkinson’s Disease
[In] the [very] early stages, mild [symptoms may allow continuation of certification with a multi-pilot (Class 1 ‘OML’) restriction,] but as the condition progresses loss of certification becomes inevitable. [Most medication for Parkinson’s Disease is incompatible with flying, exceptions being amantadine and selegiline. Frequent follow-up by an accepted neurologist is required. A practical flight test or simulator check may be necessary.]

We have a case of Parkinson's disease in our family (or rather two, but one has deceased many years ago). With currently available medication, which needs to be carefully re-balanced very frequently, an almost normal life can be lived for some years after being diagnosed. Including driving a car, going to work and so on and maybe flying under supervision as per JAR-FCL.

The worst medical condition that comes with Parkionson's disease is not the bodily effect (as can be seen with Muhammed Ali for example) however, but the frequent states of depression and paranoia that can only be overcome with psychopharmaca. Should your friend experience these, he will not want to fly even if he would be allowed to do it. Depression really is the worst illness I have ever seen in anybody because it will lead to a kind of self-destruction of an otherwise healthy and mentally sane person.

The good news is that medicine is confident to find a permanent cure for Parkinson's disease within the next fife years (they keep claiming that since some time, but maybe now it is true?). For your friend this would mean that he may hope to be cured in his early fifites and will not be too old to resume unrestricted flying then. Maybe this prospect will give him all the hope he needs to overcome some very difficult years that lie ahead?

Best wishes
max

[mad_jock]

I have flown with a couple and it apprently helps with the depression (along with a regular supply of weed)

There were quite cooridinated in the air to be honest more so than the ground.

And sitting in the club knecking multiple cans of cider and getting and giving the piss ripped out of them seemed to help the depression as well.

Same with the end run cancer pilots "mate don't worry about your shoulder strap its not going to extend you life expectancy"

They just want to be treated as normal and none of that PC nonsense. Yes tell your mate to go flying and enjoy himself. When it goes down hill just fly in the cruise but say that he can continue flying with you until he really doesn't want to anymore. You have a CPL so no legal issues him paying for it. Personally I wouldn't charge for that sort of flight. Mainly because I would enjoy it as much if not more that the person in the LHS.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Personally I wouldn't charge for that sort of flight

Absolutely.

Thanks everybody for some very clear and helpful advice.

I think my friend needs to develop a bit more understanding of his condition for now, and deal with some inevitable personal issues, as well as some non-inevitable ones (life kicked him in the teeth twice that week, but that's irrelevant to this thread). But it's good to have an idea of how I can help him out once he has.

G

[Loose rivets]

Life has a habit of doing that.


Although there's no real science to substantiate it, the curcumin thing I witnessed was nothing short of astonishing. I see the thread I started is locked, but still there. It gives a very real insight into one man's battle and the turnaround when he started with curcumin. He's still taking it and for a time reduced the standard drugs to almost nil.

Mac the Knife in SA made some valuable comments and pointed us to research being done not 20 miles from my pal's factory. My pal was unaware of it. The internet makes it a small world.

Mac also posted some very relevant links/clips.

http://www.pprune.org/medical-health/229577-parkinsons-altzheimers-miracle.html#post2640612


I went to a huge bash at my pal's home this summer. He seemed happy enough under the circumstances and really wasn't showing much sign of tremor. His home is in nearly 200 acres of garden - (It all comes from his endeavors in a small lot with a shed and some basic machine tools.) and his workshop is surrounded by a sizable number of projects. Big projects. It's been well over ten years, and I'm hoping it will be that again and more.



.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

My wife was diagnosed with PD in 2005, although she had symptoms for several years before that. No tremor, just stiffness, balance and writing problems but otherwise well - she was quite mobile and still driving. A few years later the diagnosis was changed to MSA. This is the problem - there are several nasty neuro diseases which begin exactly like PD and it's not for some time when other symptoms appear that suspicions are raised. Sufferers of "bog standard" PD can enjoy a life expectancy close to normal and can remain mobile for a very long time. Sadly, my wife died a few months ago from a urinary infection as MSA suppresses the autonomic system and the body cannot fight infections.

[cavortingcheetah]

Heathrow Director.

I've enjoyed your posts over the years and send you sympathies which would be forthcoming even if I hadn't.

[Genghis the Engineer]

And from me HD, my deepest sympathies, as well as respect for being able to turn such a recent personal tragedy into such a meaningful post.

G

[Loose rivets]

I'm so sorry to hear that HD, and echo Genghis' thoughts.

[dirkdj]

Here is some information that may be useful to read, follow the links for further:


Medical scientists have spent the last few hundred years carefully describing diseases which are in reality the end results of civilized-diet malnutrition. Researchers have expended colossal amounts of time and money searching for drug cures for nutritional disorders. And, they have dismissed out of hand even the possibility that pharmaceutical therapy for malnutrition might actually be the dead end it has so frequently been shown to be.
Parkinson's disease proves to be a case in point.
L-dopa (levodopa) is a commonly prescribed treatment for Parkinson's. The human body can make this substance without drug intervention. Vitamin C in very high doses greatly stimulates L-dopa production, as well as enabling your body to naturally and safely produce its end product, epinephrine. DoctorYourself.com - Nerves (http://www.doctoryourself.com/nerves.html)
Another important neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, can be made by your body from dietary choline. Choline is obtainable in quantity, and at low cost, from supplemental lecithin.
If this seems too simple a solution for so dreaded a disease, you are left with a simple cost-benefit question: Since no one dies from vitamin C or from lecithin, why not try it?
Details of vitamin C dosage and administration, written by medical doctors, will be found at
Doctoryourself.com - Titration (http://www.doctoryourself.com/titration.html)
DoctorYourself.com - Vitamin C Therapeutics (http://www.doctoryourself.com/ortho_c.html)
DoctorYourself.com - Dosage Table for Vitamin C (http://www.doctoryourself.com/klenner_table.html)
DoctorYourself.com - Klenner Vitamin C Paper (http://www.doctoryourself.com/klennerpaper.html)
Specifics on how to take lecithin will be found at
DoctorYourself.com - Lecithin (http://www.doctoryourself.com/lecithin.html)
Persons with Parkinson's will do well to embrace a very low protein diet. Mostly-raw-food vegetarianism is the simplest way to accomplish this. A site search from the DoctorYourself.com - Health, Naturally! (http://www.doctoryourself.com) home page for "vegetarian" might prove helpful.
I would like to recommend that you look at either Nutritional Influences on Illness, or The Textbook of Nutritional Medicine, both written by Melvyn Werbach, MD. The books are obtainable on the internet from the doctor's website. Each contains an important section on Parkinsonism.

Copyright 2003 and prior years by Andrew W. Saul.

[flightknight]

Sinemet is the only medication allowed by the FAA. Hopefully other pilots with similar experiences will post alternatives.