Parkinson's Disease

[John F]

James Levine has Parkinson's Disease. So did Pope John Paul II and Muhammad Ali, whose death was the occasion for this informative article.

Parkinson’s: A Progressive, Incurable Disease
By DENISE GRADY
JUNE 4, 2016

What is Parkinson’s disease?

It is a progressive, incurable deterioration of the part of the brain that produces a chemical needed to carry signals to the regions that control movement.

How common is Parkinson’s?

About one million people in the United States, and between seven million and 10 million worldwide, are thought to have Parkinson’s, according to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation.

What causes it? Was boxing a factor for Ali?

The exact cause is not known. As with many disorders, experts suspect a combination of genes and environment, meaning that people with a particular genetic makeup may be predisposed to the disease if they are exposed to certain environmental factors.

Head injuries, such as those sustained repeatedly in boxing, are among the possible risk factors listed by the National Parkinson Foundation. So is exposure to certain pesticides. These factors have both been suggested as possible contributors in Muhammad Ali’s case.

Can Parkinson’s disease be treated?

Medication can ease the symptoms for a time, but the disease continues to progress. In some cases, implanted devices called deep-brain stimulators can also help with symptoms. But Parkinson’s is not curable.

Is it fatal?

The disease itself is not fatal, and many people, like Ali, live with it for decades. But as it advances it commonly causes breathing problems, like the ones that led to his hospitalization a few days before he died.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/05/healt ... ainer.html

[jbuck919]

Let's see, the US has approximately four percent of the world's population. One million cases here should translate into approximately 230 million cases worldwide. That sounds a great deal more realistic.

It is a horrific, debilitating, nightmarish disease. No one in my family has ever had it, but I have had friends with family members who suffered from it. It goes way beyond what that article implies. It may be true that it is not a direct cause of death (for that matter, neither are most cancers), but everyone who has it dies because of it unless he happens to dies of something else first. One particularly tragic case is Michael J. Fox, who has early-onset Parkinson's diagnosed when he was only 31. He's still going, but sheesh, the poor guy.

As for Pope JP II, he should have resigned. On his second trip to Baltimore, he looked like a wind-up version of himself placed in the popemobile. Parkinson's also affects thinking, and he should not have trusted himself to think straight for at least the last decade of his papacy, when he made some of his worst decisions. It is my understanding that on his deathbed he refused palliatives because they could have been interpreted as euthanasia. Yes, I am intruding personal opinion into that assessment and not being entirely objective. No apologies.

[jserraglio]

As for Pope JP II, he should have resigned.

If he had, as he put it, "come down from the cross", he might never have been canonized.

[jbuck919]

As for Pope JP II, he should have resigned.

If he had, as he put it, "come down from the cross", he might never have been canonized.

He still hasn't been canonized, nor should he be. There are causes open for many popes, including the extremely dubious Pius IX, who once kidnapped a Jewish child because it had been revealed that someone had secretly baptized him. Canonization is like the Medal of Honor. It should be reserved for people of heroic virtue. (That is in fact the exact wording of the requirement, and of course they have to have been orthodox Catholics with no known lapses, which excludes for example Dorothy Day who had an abortion as a young woman.) Few if any popes qualify; they are just famous and therefore are popular causes. JP II himself canonized more people than all his predecessors combined, thereby degrading the standard.

[jserraglio]

As for Pope JP II, he should have resigned.

If he had, as he put it, "come down from the cross", he might never have been canonized.

He still hasn't been canonized, nor should he be. There are causes open for many popes, including the extremely dubious Pius IX, who once kidnapped a Jewish child because it had been revealed that someone had secretly baptized him. Canonization is like the Medal of Honor. It should be reserved for people of heroic virtue. (That is in fact the exact wording of the requirement, and of course they have to have been orthodox Catholics with no known lapses, which excludes for example Dorothy Day who had an abortion as a young woman.) Few if any popes qualify; they are just famous and therefore are popular causes. JP II himself canonized more people than all his predecessors combined, thereby degrading the standard.

Ora pro nobis
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=6996

[lennygoran]

Ora pro nobis

I had to look this up and was surprised the Miriam Webster dictionary asked me:

Seen and Heard

What made you want to look up ora pro nobis? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).

Regards, Len

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictiona ... ro%20nobis

[John F]

I had to look this up and was surprised the Miriam Webster dictionary asked me:

Seen and Heard

What made you want to look up ora pro nobis? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).

For some reason, the Merriam (sic) Webster Dictionary online adds that boilerplate after every definition - all the ones I've checked just now, anyway. This is the kind of information that dictionary compilers use. I guess the MWD people want us to do their work for them.

[jserraglio]

Ora pro nobis — from the Roman Catholic Latin Litany of the Saints -- means pray for us -- the congregation asks a slew of saints to do that for them, John Paul II having been named one of those saints in 2014.

[lennygoran]

For some reason, the Merriam (sic) Webster Dictionary online adds that boilerplate after every definition - all the ones I've checked just now, anyway. This is the kind of information that dictionary compilers use. I guess the MWD people want us to do their work for them.

Too many surveys being requested-I just don't have the time! Regards, Len

[some guy]

orthodox Catholics with no known lapses.

Well, that's interesting. The knowing is more important than the lapses themselves. So you can have any number of unknown lapses.

But what if you're canonized and then someone discovers a lapse in your murky past?

Do you then get uncanonized?

This particular standard does seem to devalue the rather important values of forgiveness and redemption. Given that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, as I've heard tell, then how does anyone get canonized? And so you have a(n inevitable) lapse (and have been unsuccessful at covering it up) and God Himself forgives you (after being sweetly asked) and the forgiveness, from God Himself, counts for nothing?

That can't be right.

[John F]

That's all pointless. The RC Church determines by its own criteria who is eligible and who gets chosen, just as the Baseball Writers' Association determines who is elected to the Hall of Fame. The criteria of both bodies change from time to time and may be waived at the descretion of the selecters. The opinions of thee and me simply don't count.

[jserraglio]

orthodox Catholics with no known lapses.

Well, that's interesting. The knowing is more important than the lapses themselves. So you can have any number of unknown lapses.
But what if you're canonized and then someone discovers a lapse in your murky past?
Do you then get uncanonized?.

If by lapses you mean moral lapses, Saint Augustine's sins are revealed in detail in his own Autobiography. But in R-C parlance, lapses can also mean lapsed from practicing one's faith, as in the phrase "lapsed Catholic". There were no lapses in that sense after Augustine converted.

Some saints (Christopher, Ursula, Nicholas, aka Santa Claus) have been demoted to "legendary" status which might be seen by some as a euphemism for uncanonized. AFAIK, none have been demoted for moral turpitude uncovered after they were named saints, though it all depends on what you mean by that. Augustine, I recall, called repeatedly for the persecution (i.e. torture) of heretics. Should that disqualify him from sainthood, or are we to place his opinions in their historical context?

[jbuck919]

orthodox Catholics with no known lapses.

Well, that's interesting. The knowing is more important than the lapses themselves. So you can have any number of unknown lapses.
But what if you're canonized and then someone discovers a lapse in your murky past?
Do you then get uncanonized?.

If by lapses you mean moral lapses, Saint Augustine's sins are revealed in detail in his own Autobiography. But in R-C parlance, lapses can also mean lapsed from practicing one's faith, as in the phrase "lapsed Catholic". There were no lapses in that sense after Augustine converted.



Some saints (Christopher, Ursula, Nicholas, aka Santa Claus) have been demoted to "legendary" status which might be seen by some as a euphemism for uncanonized. AFAIK, none have been demoted for moral turpitude uncovered after they were named saints, though it all depends on what you mean by that. Augustine, I recall, called repeatedly for the persecution (i.e. torture) of heretics. Should that disqualify him from sainthood, or are we to place his opinions in their historical context?

Aurelius Augustinus, like all saints of ancient times, is a saint by popular acclamation rather than official canonization. The first saint to be canonized by a pope was St. Francis of Assisi, and he also led a profligate youth. Complete repentance and devotion have been known to work. Perhaps what I should have written is that there are now automatically disqualifying factors. Thus Dorothy Day will never be eligible because the RC church is bonkers on the subject of abortion. Thomas Merton will never be eligible for two reasons. First, he fathered a son out of wedlock as a young man (as did the never officially canonized Augustine). Second, he allowed himself to fall in love toward the end of his life while he was a vowed monk, though the relationship was not consummated.

It is, as you imply, difficult if not impossible to find famous people of moral virtue who can serve as realistic role models. I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better that my mother had not borne me.

[jserraglio]

. . . a saint by popular acclamation rather than official canonization.

John Paul II was effectively canonized by acclamation (Santo subito!) at his 2005 funeral. The Church made it official in 2014 — Following on the heels of DiMaggio into Cooperstown, J-P II was voted into Heaven in his 4th year of eligibility.

[jbuck919]

. . . a saint by popular acclamation rather than official canonization.

John Paul II was effectively canonized by acclamation (Santo subito!) at his 2005 funeral. The Church made it official in 2014 — Following on the heels of DiMaggio into Cooperstown, J-P II was voted into Heaven in his 4th year of eligibility.

Yes, I was mistaken about that, to my shame. Wishful thinking, for never was a man so deficient in being made a saint only a few years after his death. Anyone who decided that he would try to make forbidding women to be ordained a matter of doctrine rather than discipline should be excluded for that reason alone.

[maestrob]

JohnF:

I tried to Reply to your thread on Charles Rosen, but it disappeared! Will try again later........

[John F]

I realized I had posted it to the wrong board - it's now in CMG Review of Books. Sorry!