Reports have surfaced suggesting Muhammad Ali was injected with a drug known to cause Parkinson’s disease in the late 70s as part of a plot by the US government to strip its most influential, charismatic and dangerous critic of his voice and physical strength. Injection of methyl phenyl tetrahydropyrinide (MPTP), an amphetamine, causes ‘rapid onset of Parkinsonism’ according to the drug’s toxicity report. In 1976 Barry Kidston, a chemistry graduate from Maryland, injected himself with MPTP and within three days began displaying symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Muhammad Ali was examined by the Mayo Clinic in 1981 and the world was told he had mild dementia pugilistica – a condition common among boxers. And as the years went by, the world accepted the idea that his boxing career bought on his Parkinson’s disease. Because it made sense, right? Well actually, no. There are no other cases of dementia pugilistica developing into Parkinson’s disease. It just doesn’t happen. Plenty of boxers have taken much worse, more regular blows than Ali throughout their careers and none of them have developed Parkinson’s disease via dementia. If reports are correct and Ali was injected with MPTP at the Mayo Clinic, then the government may have pulled [...]