Introduction to the Parkinson's Recovery Project
This website was established for disseminating information about treating idiopathic Parkinson's disease using Asian medicine. The illness model that we use holds that Parkinson's disease is an electrical disorder rather than a cellular/chemical disorder.
Who Is The Parkinson's Recovery Project (PRP)?
We are a non-profit corporation dedicated to charitable and educational work related to the treatment of Parkinson's disease using a model of illness based on Asian medicine. We are incorporated in the state of California, and our board of directors includes acupuncturists, an MD, an editor, and other advisors. Our non-profit status has been approved by the USA IRS.
What Does the PRP Do?
Our primary method of education is the distribution of the results of our research on Parkinson's disease via this website. The publications on this website are available for free download.
When possible, we teach classes in various cities in the USA and in Europe that demonstrate the treatment techniques that we have found to be effective in treating Parkinson's disease. We usually are able to teach two classes per year.
Publications
As of July 1, 2007, a completely overhauled edition of Recovery from Parkinson's Disease (7th edition), was posted on this website. The book is not completely finished. However, those chapters that are finished are available for free download from this website. This book includes the theory, treatment techniques, and treatment plan that we use in successfully treating Parkinson's disease.
The Medications of Parkinson's Disease or Once Upon A Pill, is the result of four years of research on the various medications of Parkinson's disease and explains how the medications work, how they are supposed to be prescribed (they are rarely prescribed correctly), what happens to people who are taking anti-parkinson's medications if they begin to recover, and our reasons for our recent decision to not work with anyone who has ever taken anti-parkinson's medications for longer than three weeks. This medications book also has a tremendous amount of material about Parkinson's disease that we learned as a result of observing the changes that occurred in medicated patients during their recovery. Many unmedicated PDers have said that they learned as much about Parkinson's disease from reading the medication book as they did from reading the Recovery from Parkinson's. The various roles of dopamine in regulating attitude, mood. movement, temperature regulation, social stress, illness, and more is addressed in the book on medication. In general, western style physiology and chemistry of Parkinson's is addressed in the Medication book, and Asian theory about treating channel disorders is in the Practitioner's Handbook. Together, these two books provide an in depth look at the western and Asian understandings of Parkinson's, and the chemical and energetic processes that contribute to this syndrome.
Frequently Asked Questions
This website has a few pages devoted to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). These questions and answers will make the most sense to a person who has already read the book, Recovery From Parkinson's Disease.
How Are We Funded?
The Parkinson's Recovery Project receives no grants or government support as of yet. We depend on unsolicited donations to keep the web site up and running (we now have a paid web manager after relying on excellent volunteer web management for five years), to pay for an employee to handle the correspondence (email and snail mail) and the paperwork end of things, and to cover the various office supply costs - a computer, printer, paper, mailbox rent, etc.
The research of the Parkinson's Recovery Project has all been done by volunteers, and no one on the team is a paid researcher. We pursue the Parkinson's research in addition to running our private Asian medical practices. The Parkinson's Treatment Team of Santa Cruz treated the majority of their Parkinson's patients for free during the first four years of the project. Grants are being applied for to help pay for a continuation of the free, research-related treatment programs, but it may be many years before these grants materialize, if ever. Therefore, donations are gratefully accepted, and are tax-deductible.
Why Does It Take You So Long To Update Your Material?
It is due to the strictly volunteer, "spare-time" nature of this project that it is taking so long for our new findings to be written up and web published. Hopefully, if and when funding is established, there will be much less of a time lag between our research and the web-publication of our results.