[paulhParticipant]

My mother has recently passed away after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma. The rapid deterioration in her condition was startling.
Starting with lower back pain that began a couple monrh before it became so severe she had to be hospitalised…. 2 months later she was no longer here.
My question is relating to parkinsons. She had been diagnosed with PD about 4 yrs ago. Starting with shoulder pain, slight forgetfulness, slight slowing of her movement. After her diagnosis with MM, it was obvious she had had this for a long period of time, and by the time it was identified it had changed the function of her bone marrow at genetic level and was untreatable.
I’ve since read about parkinsonism relating to MM. Is it possible that MM was directly related to her PD? Or perhaps caused PD, or the other way around?
Another related issue is my dad…. now ill with dementia with lewy bodies (linked with parkinsons). He spent many years working with (and covered in) DDT in sheepdip. The coincidental links seem too implausible to be ‘coincidental’.

Has anyone seen any research or studies about these links they could point me to please. Thanks

[mulberryParticipant]

Hi Paul, your life sounds extremely stressful and I’m sorry for your loss of your mother.
It is a known issue that myeloma can be missed in elderly people with other serious health conditions. So your experience of your mother dying shortly after diagnosis sadly is not uncommon. Myeloma UK have been trying to educate GPs about myeloma so that this possibility is considered earlier when myeloma treatment would control the disease.
There is some evidence that myeloma treatments (such as CAR-t cell treatment) can cause neurocognitive problems as occur in Parkinson’s disease and Lewy Body disease but I haven’t seen anything that suggests myeloma is directly related. (Although they both may be related to chromosomal changes caused by toxins in some cases?) I had looked for research as my mother had Lewy Body dementia with Parkinson’s features and I have myeloma. If you find anything, I’d be interested to read it. With best wishes to you and your father.

[paulhParticipant]

Thanks for the reply…. the reason I asked DDT was I read a while ago a research paper from the US on the effects of DDT on the brain. Long story short is that it concluded that exposure to birds caused measurable brain impairment. And given the 3 diseases my parents have/had are all unsubstantiatedly linked it begs the question whether their illnesses are linked and/or caused by environmental factors (DDT). I’ll try find the paper I originally read and try find anything else that might suggest environmental causes

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