Nutrition

Last week, I spent the week at PD Summer School, a full week of Parkinson’s wellness education. Dr. Laurie Mischley has spent the last 2 decades studying lifestyle and nutrition factors associated with either slower (better) or faster (worse) progression of Parkinson’s disease. The goal is to identify and implement positive deviance strategies that can be used to slow Parkinson’s disease progression ...

From the perspective of people with Parkinson's, one of the most interesting presentations at World Parkinson Congress 2019 was Laurie Mischley's talk "Is there any evidence that nutrients modify PD?" during the session "The Microbiome and Diet in Parkinson's disease". Dr. Laurie Mischley of Bastyr University is a leading researcher on diet and nutrition as it relates to Parkinson’s Disease. She wrote a book on the topic that was published back in 2009, and has continued to focus on this topic over the decade since. She is currently leading the CAM Care in PD study (Complementary & Alternative Medicine Care in ...

World Parkinson Congress 2019 Highlights: Remembering Tom Isaacs; Advice to caregivers: "Be a bit more of a selfish pig"; triple amputee with PD exclaims "If I can do it, you can do it. Get out and go!"; PD diet & nutrition study analyzes real world diet of people with PD to determine what helps and what doesn't; “Living Well, Running Hard: Lessons Learned from Living with Parkinson’s Disease”; plus a weekly roundup of Parkinson's related news ...

Mayo Clinic has published a research commentary that analyzes the relationship between low levels of Vitamin B-12 and Parkinson's Disease. While the paper does not prove causality, it does "propose that vitamin B12 supplementation could be considered as an adjuvant approach to improve cholinergic transmission and, potentially, motor and cognitive function in patients with PD." And it makes a case for "future clinical trials of high-dose vitamin B12 supplementation as a well-tolerated symptomatic adjunctive therapy for posture and gait instability and cognitive impairment in PD." Mayo Clinic Video: The paper analyzes the potential relationship between vitamin B12 and acetylcholine metabolism. Dysfunction ...

A recent study concluded that one of the active forms of Vitamin B-12 offers neuroprotection and significantly prevents neurotoxicity in animal models of Parkinson's which are influenced by a hereditary genetic variation in the LRRK2 gene. What exactly does that mean? Well, I'm not a scientist, and if you are reading this, you probably aren't either...so let's try to break this down so the rest of us can understand. (If by chance, you are a scientist, then I would suggest skipping this article, and reading this article instead: https://scienceofparkinsons.com/2019/03/22/b12/. As usual, the Science of Parkinson's website offers excellent detailed analysis, ...

This is a recap of the most interesting news and discussions relating to Parkinson's Disease this past week. We saw people with Parkinson's in Tasmania (Australia) turning heads with the latest Parkinson's Disease fashion trend, wearing red light buckets on their heads. They say it helps improve their symptoms. We saw study results that told us that while research on the gut bacteria/PD connection continues, we should also be aware that gut bacteria can interfere with levodopa treatment. Rock and roll legend Peter Frampton was diagnosed with Inclusion Body Myositis, a rare disease that based on some of the symptoms, ...

Since being diagnosed with PD in 2014, I've had the pleasure to meet individuals who have lived with Parkinson's for 10 to 20 years, and even longer. The common theme for living well with PD is regular exercise and staying active. PD may be a life sentence, but it is far from being a death sentence. Think of exercise as your most important prescription, something that you need to make time for almost every day. Exercise is more important than any medication, but medication is often necessary or helpful to maximize your ability to exercise ...

There is an Italian doctor, Antonio Costanini, who treats Parkinson's patients with high doses of Vitamin B1 (Thiamin). He first published a report about his results in 2013: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3762356/ There are interesting Before/After Patient videos (in Italian, but some have subtitles)...a few are embedded below, more are available at: http://www.ultimaedizione.eu/video-parkinson-pazienti-prima-e-dopo-il-trattamento/ ...