Does he have parkinson's? PD is a progressive disease that you can't "void" meaning cancel. Can't say you can avoid it either. but as far as foods are concerned for the person with PD, you will want to avoid protein around medication times as protein can inhibit the efficacy of the meds.
From one of my favorite websites, nutritionfacts.. If you go to the site and do a search on Parkinsons, you'll get several videos with the full clinical studies data attached. If they take out this link, which they often do, Google Dr. Michael Gregor and go to his site about nutrition. He publishes videos daily about diet, always with all of the latest scientific clinical data attached. Good luck!
"Similarly, certain plants, such as berries, and plant-based diets in general may help prevent Parkinson’s. See my last post Avoiding Dairy to Prevent Parkinson’s. This may be partially because of pollutants that magnify up the food chain into the meat and dairy supply, but it could also be from the protective phytonutrients in healthy plant foods. For example, as you can see in my 3-min video Treating Parkinson’s Disease With Diet, I profile a case report in which a dietician struck with Parkinson’s was able to successfully clear most of her symptoms with a plant-based diet rich in strawberries, whole wheat, and brown rice. These are rich sources of two particular phytonutrients, N-hexacosanol and fisetin, but there hadn’t been a formal interventional trial published, until now.
At its root, Parkinson’s is a dopamine deficiency disease due to a die-off of dopamine-generating cells in the brain. These cells make dopamine from L-dopa derived from an amino acid in our diet. Just like we saw with the serotonin story I described in my three-part series The Wrong Way to Boost Serotonin, A Better Way to Boost Serotonin, and The Best Way to Boost Serotonin, the consumption of animal products blocks the transport of L-dopa into the brain, crowding it out. With this knowledge, researchers first tried what’s called a “protein redistribution diet.” This is where people could only eat meat for supper so the patients would hopefully be sleeping by the time the negative effects of the animal protein hit.
The researchers didn’t consider cutting out all animal products altogether until it was discovered that fiber consumption naturally boosts L-dopa levels. Thus, a plant-based diet would be expected to raise levodopa bioavailability and bring some advantages in the management of the disease through two mechanisms: reduced animal protein intake and an increased fiber intake. That’s why plant protein is superior, because that’s where fiber is found. So researchers put folks on a strictly vegan diet, saving beans for the end of the day, and indeed found a significant improvement in symptoms."
I second what blanny said! Dr Greger is probably the only doctor I trust 100% with no hesitation. Nutritionfacts, I support them regularly. Nutritionfacts has a list on their site of ailments and foods,among many other things, that you can get free information on (peer-reviewed study results). One grandmother died with Alzheimer's, my grandfather with Parkinsons. Those two diseases are related, it is not a coincidence that they both had related diseases. I do not believe (imo) it is an inheritable disease, but I do believe the habits that encourage these diseases are inherited and can be changed. Diet is one of the biggest factors. Read The China Study by TColin Campbell for more health info.
By "void" do you mean avoid? Most foods are good, except the ones with sugar, but there is no known food to eat to AVOID Parkinson's disease. If there were, the inventor would be a gazillionaire...get a good doctor who specializes in Parkinson's as one of the famous actor has it (I can't think of his name), and he has for almost twenty years. His dopamine levels need to be elevated by taking the drug that elevates it. This is NOT a food. It is a prescribed drug. Thanks for caring for your loved one.
WhoDoIThinkIAM, I knew I liked you for a reason, LOL! I had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Gregor in person this summer giving a talk about the top 10 killers and how we could reduce our risks. Most people are clueless about how much their diet can affect their health outcomes. I'd much rather eat a healthy diet than take a pill. Any kind of pill has a side effect. And often two or three or ten. Eating fruits and veggies, grains, nuts and legumes don't have those kinds of side effects. Here's to good health through a plant-based diet! And here's to science and education and fact-based study.
Blannie. Very interesting post. I also learned that taking dairy around the time you take your Parkinson's meds will cause the meds to not work as well as they should. Our nutritionist recommended cutting out wheat due to it causing inflammation. My dad had two knee replacements plus he is at the stage of shuffling and freezing and the inflammation in his knees hinders his movement more. He has constant knee pain and weakness. We are trying supplements, especially one for the liver to help him detox due to the Parkinson's causing the body to not naturally detox as well as a person without it. Green veggies, especially broccoli were recommended as well. Thanks for your informative post. I am still learning and any information helps greatly.
Oh one more question for anyone on here. Dad goes to a neurologist, who I am very disappointed in because he is just into giving medications and is not proactive. He does not offer any information to help, just wants to prescribe. Is there another type of MD that he should go to instead of a neurologist? Unfortunately, there is only one in our area the specializes in Parkinson's...I have researched our area and cannot find another one, which is discouraging because I don't believe our neurologist has our best interest in mind. It is very hard to be proactive on all aspects of this and I am looking for someone that actually cares and is not overloaded in his cases. Any suggestions?
Blueeyedcyn1 if your nutritionist is interested in scientific study about diet, have him/her go to the nutritionfacts site. And it's a dot org site, which the moderators took out in the links above. I hate when they do that!!
For each of Dr. Gregor's videos, he gives the full scientific study or clinical trials that back up his conclusions. You or your nutritionist can read them in full. Dr. Gregor takes no money for his videos and doesn't sell any products. He works for the Humane Society of the United States, so he's not trying to make a buck by selling supplements or magic powders or pills. The reason what he's promoting doesn't get more play in the media or with doctors or the medical profession is that there's no money to be made in having people get healthy from eating a healthy diet. No big pharma $$$$$. No billions in surgery, pills and doctors. So the science gets buried. Or doctors say that people won't stick to a healthy diet. If their choice is pain and suffering or a healthy diet, I think many people would choose the healthy diet.
Blannie - Thanks! I have great trust with the Dr. we are working with - he actually diagnosed my mom having breast cancer when her primary REFUSED to believe it and actually told her she did not have that. We went and had her tested and sure enough, the diagnosis was correct.
I will definitely check out Dr. Gregor's videos. I am VERY bad with diet/nutrition, never have been so this is a big learning experience for me. Since I cook the meals, I am looking forward to seeing what foods he is recommending and making a big change. I would rather have a healthy diet than take medications also. Thank you for the information about the nutritionfacts site. (yes I hate when they take out the links also...) I have my work cut out for me! :)
Blueeyedcynd1, if it were me, I'd go to Yale, it's only 40 minutes from the town you list on your profile. They have a whole movement disorders division. Here's the link, but you know the moderators will probably take it out. http://medicine.yale.edu/neurology/divisions/movementdisorders/index.aspx . If they take the link out, Google Yale Neurology movement disorders + New Haven, CT and you should be able to find it. Here's what their page says: "The Yale Movement Disorders Clinic provides consultations and care for patients with Parkinson's disease and related illnesses, tremor disorders, Huntington’s disease and other choreas, dystonias, tic disorders, myoclonus and other movement disorders either caused by primary nervous system dysfunction or secondary to medical illnesses and medications including tardive dyskinesias. The group has a special interest in primary and secondary ataxias, gait disorders, restless legs syndrome and stiff-person syndrome. The physician specialists also provide in-patient consultation to physicians at Yale–New Haven Hospital for the aforementioned movement disorders."
I'd definitely get your dad there for one consultation. Then they can recommend a doc closer to you who they think is good. Good luck and keep us posted!!
blsnnie. the moderators take out all links except ones to AC itself. They do miss a few here and there. You can post what is essentially a link by making a few changes like "dot com" instead of ".com"
Hippocrates - "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”
Research on Alzheimers is recently pointing to lack of Vitamin K in the diet. If the patient hates leafy dark green veggies, you can buy a supplement at the drugstore.
Blueeyedcyn1....I would strongly encourage you to find a Neurologist that is a DO. They are trained the same as MDs but also have extensive training in treating the whole patient, and using alternative therapies. My husband has had PD for 18 years. He is doing remarkably well because he has a DO neurologist. And for what it is worth, my husband is an MD. When he was still in practice, he firmly believed in alternative therapy.
@bdeartrm - Thank you very much! We are seeing a D.C. who is helping with vitamin supplements, especially for dad's liver, which is weak and will help the liver detox the body. I will also see if there is a neuro DO around. I am not sure of the difference between D.C and D.O (my afternoon homework). I will definitely look in that direction. Thank you greatly!
Blannie - Thank you for your time in research! You rock! I will definitely check into this and also ask if there is anything closer that they are affiliated with. I have the link - thanks again, it was still there when I read it! Yeah! I definitely have my work cut out for me, but I at least have a better starting point. Again thank you greatly and I will keep you informed. Talk to ya soon!
I'd done some reading on nutrition, but when I tried to ask my husband's neurologist about it, her answer was "I'm not aware of any foods that should be avoided." I'd love to have a list of them, but I can't locate the one I found earlier. I believe one of them was soy, which as a vegan, is the mainstay of my diet. From reading the above replies, I'm wondering if animal products are what he should avoid???????
Also, we've been having strange weather here. So strange that we made national TV the other day. In this place where it never snows, we had 4-6" of it. Our town has no snow removal equipment at all. Temperatures have been as low as 7. (I don't own a winter coat.) My husband, who also suffers with osteoarthritis throughout his body, has been suffering terribly. He moans even in his sleep. I don't know what to do to help him. I don't know if the fact that he is shaking more is due to the parkinson's or the stress the cold weather is placing on his body.
My mother, 87, has been a vegetarian for close to 50 years, has had Parkinsons for 15 years, dementia for about 8 years and a history of stroke over about 20 years, so I beg to differ on the diet theory. However, since my father passed 15 years ago she never cooked and ate ready made processed, frozen meals from the supermarket.
Friends of the family, he passed at 95, she, 93, went into a nursing home as her mind was failing though she was physically well. For a lifetime she cooked from scratch, butter, whole milk, meat, white bread, sugar and flour - all the stuff that's supposed to be so bad, but all cooked from scratch, no take out, junk or fast food. Maybe it's all the processed, junk, take out and fast food that's making people so sick?
Now living in the country I plan to grow a lot of my own food and keep chickens and rabbits for eggs and meat for me and my dogs so I know what we're eating.
amott6 - my chiropractor suggests to stay away from wheat products, go gluten free, which is a pain, because wheat is in everything. I haven't tried it yet, but that is one suggestion for the Parkinsons. Plus green leaf veggies help. The cold sure won't help his shaking if he is cold through. Dad also has occasional shaking fits in the night where his body won't stop shaking for about a half an hour. We are trying some supplements to help with this. I know I shake when it is below 30 here in CT and I feel any injury I have sustained...snow, rain, cold - YUCK. After all this caregiving, I am moving to a warm climate for sure!! Good luck! Hope your husband feels better and hope you hang in there! Oh and that weather you had is coming our way! Ick....
The Michael J Fox Foundation website might be of interest to you. Michael J Fox (Family Ties) was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1991. He is a staunch supporter in the research of the disease.
Foods rich in B vitamins help the brain. The brain needs cholesterol, so don't overdo the statin drugs, see the new guidelines for statins. Dark leafy greens supply Vitamin K which helps neurons function. Balanced electrolytes keep the body's electrical circuits, so lots of fresh juices especially orange and dark grape juice.
Pstiegman, that is interesting. My husband has been shaking more, dragging his right leg and forgetting more recently. He's also been staying in bed more. His heart doctor re-started the statin because his cholesterol has gone way up. Now I wonder if that is what caused this change? We've also had very strange weather -- we had 4-6 inches of snow for the first time in 90 years!! We have an appointment with his neurologist tomorrow. I'll ask about the statin drug. Thanks.
amott6 - I have learned that cholesterol lowering drugs - statins - after the patient is 60 and 70 yrs may cause muscle damage, weakness, increased risk of falling and cognitive impairment. My dad is 76 and he has been on Zetia for many years. Our chiropractor agrees with these side effects. My dad is due an MD appointment early January and I am going to ask our doc if he really needs to be on it still at his age with his Parkinson's. Dad has been weaker, his muscles are weak and hurting and he has been forgetting and getting confused more often lately. I also was told that green leafy vegetables, especially broccoli in his diet is definitely better than being on statins way too long. Women especially should not be on statins for long. I also thought that Dr. Oz's statement about statins saying it takes 38 people to be on statins to help one person in twenty years, which I am not surprised seeing most pharmacutical companies are making money hand over fist with medications. The article is on his website if you want to read more about that. This is what I have learned so far, I can't wait to hear what our MD has to say about this. Hope this helps also. I will let you know what our MD says. Hope you both have a very Merry Christmas!
Re statin drugs, also google Dr Joel Wallach for YouTube talks & published interviews. He has said that those taking statin drugs for more than 10 years and following a low or no cholesterol diet are 52 percent more likely to be diabetic and 100 percent more likely to experience dementia.
Folks HAVE to do their own research...doctors for the most part are neither studied nor practiced in health, wellness or nutrition. Their training mostly focuses on mechanical repair (such as orthopedics), emergency care (heart attacks/strokes AFTER the fact) and figuring out what drugs to give for a diagnosed illness. Now, THAT'S scary!
"Similarly, certain plants, such as berries, and plant-based diets in general may help prevent Parkinson’s. See my last post Avoiding Dairy to Prevent Parkinson’s. This may be partially because of pollutants that magnify up the food chain into the meat and dairy supply, but it could also be from the protective phytonutrients in healthy plant foods. For example, as you can see in my 3-min video Treating Parkinson’s Disease With Diet, I profile a case report in which a dietician struck with Parkinson’s was able to successfully clear most of her symptoms with a plant-based diet rich in strawberries, whole wheat, and brown rice. These are rich sources of two particular phytonutrients, N-hexacosanol and fisetin, but there hadn’t been a formal interventional trial published, until now.
At its root, Parkinson’s is a dopamine deficiency disease due to a die-off of dopamine-generating cells in the brain. These cells make dopamine from L-dopa derived from an amino acid in our diet. Just like we saw with the serotonin story I described in my three-part series The Wrong Way to Boost Serotonin, A Better Way to Boost Serotonin, and The Best Way to Boost Serotonin, the consumption of animal products blocks the transport of L-dopa into the brain, crowding it out. With this knowledge, researchers first tried what’s called a “protein redistribution diet.” This is where people could only eat meat for supper so the patients would hopefully be sleeping by the time the negative effects of the animal protein hit.
The researchers didn’t consider cutting out all animal products altogether until it was discovered that fiber consumption naturally boosts L-dopa levels. Thus, a plant-based diet would be expected to raise levodopa bioavailability and bring some advantages in the management of the disease through two mechanisms: reduced animal protein intake and an increased fiber intake. That’s why plant protein is superior, because that’s where fiber is found. So researchers put folks on a strictly vegan diet, saving beans for the end of the day, and indeed found a significant improvement in symptoms."
Dr Greger is probably the only doctor I trust 100% with no hesitation. Nutritionfacts, I support them regularly.
Nutritionfacts has a list on their site of ailments and foods,among many other things, that you can get free information on (peer-reviewed study results).
One grandmother died with Alzheimer's, my grandfather with Parkinsons. Those two diseases are related, it is not a coincidence that they both had related diseases. I do not believe (imo) it is an inheritable disease, but I do believe the habits that encourage these diseases are inherited and can be changed. Diet is one of the biggest factors. Read The China Study by TColin Campbell for more health info.
For each of Dr. Gregor's videos, he gives the full scientific study or clinical trials that back up his conclusions. You or your nutritionist can read them in full. Dr. Gregor takes no money for his videos and doesn't sell any products. He works for the Humane Society of the United States, so he's not trying to make a buck by selling supplements or magic powders or pills. The reason what he's promoting doesn't get more play in the media or with doctors or the medical profession is that there's no money to be made in having people get healthy from eating a healthy diet. No big pharma $$$$$. No billions in surgery, pills and doctors. So the science gets buried. Or doctors say that people won't stick to a healthy diet. If their choice is pain and suffering or a healthy diet, I think many people would choose the healthy diet.
I will definitely check out Dr. Gregor's videos. I am VERY bad with diet/nutrition, never have been so this is a big learning experience for me. Since I cook the meals, I am looking forward to seeing what foods he is recommending and making a big change. I would rather have a healthy diet than take medications also. Thank you for the information about the nutritionfacts site. (yes I hate when they take out the links also...) I have my work cut out for me! :)
I'd definitely get your dad there for one consultation. Then they can recommend a doc closer to you who they think is good. Good luck and keep us posted!!
Hippocrates - "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”
Also, we've been having strange weather here. So strange that we made national TV the other day. In this place where it never snows, we had 4-6" of it. Our town has no snow removal equipment at all. Temperatures have been as low as 7. (I don't own a winter coat.) My husband, who also suffers with osteoarthritis throughout his body, has been suffering terribly. He moans even in his sleep. I don't know what to do to help him. I don't know if the fact that he is shaking more is due to the parkinson's or the stress the cold weather is placing on his body.
Friends of the family, he passed at 95, she, 93, went into a nursing home as her mind was failing though she was physically well. For a lifetime she cooked from scratch, butter, whole milk, meat, white bread, sugar and flour - all the stuff that's supposed to be so bad, but all cooked from scratch, no take out, junk or fast food. Maybe it's all the processed, junk, take out and fast food that's making people so sick?
Now living in the country I plan to grow a lot of my own food and keep chickens and rabbits for eggs and meat for me and my dogs so I know what we're eating.