My Quest to Overcome Parkinson's Disease--Part 2

After receiving the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, I started on my quest by trying to learn everything I could about the disease and possible helps to over-come it (if any) on the internet. I wrote down anything that they claimed would help with tremors and to help prevent dementia ( as the doctor also informed me that Parkinson’s disease could also cause dementia). I listened to countless informational talks ( mainly to sell their books or information packets or supplements ) and paid for many of the so-called helps from the information I found online. I also kept a record of any of the herbs or vitamins that were similar with all these promises of health and wellness programs that I found. As a result, I ended up purchasing countless bottles of vitamins and supplements from the local health food store and online. I also watched several videos ( one with Michael J Fox ) that told of the work they were trying to do to find a cure for the disease—-however, nothing as yet has been found to cure Parkinson’s—as my doctor re-iterated —“there is no known cure for Parkinson’s.”

Later, after trying to take the medicine prescribed by my Neurologist that was supposed to help with the symptoms of Parkinson’s, Carbidopa/Levodopa, and finding that I couldn’t tolerate this medicine (even changing the dosage) without feeling sick to my stomach, I found a natural form of dopamine that I tried without any of the other side-effects. Unfortunately, doctors cannot prescribe these natural forms and cannot help you with the dosage to take, so I was probably taking too low of a dose to really help. I did find a double-blind study done in England online, however, that showed that this form of natural dopamine—Mucuna Pruriens—worked as well if not better than its counterpart Carbidopa/Levodopa in their study with rapid onset of action and longer time without increase of dyskinesias. ( Dyskinesia is the involuntary, sudden, uncontrolled movement that affects the whole body with Parkinson’s ).They concluded that another study was warranted—but I couldn’t find that another was ever done. (In layman’s terms —In Parkinson’s disease the patient's brain stops producing the needed dopamine —and as a result they develop less motor control, have shaking, freezing of limbs and even dementia—not a pretty picture to look forward to. Since the medicines prescribed only help the symptoms and don’t really cure the disease—eventually, even with medication, they progress and become worse ).

For several weeks now, I have been charting my morning intake of vitamins and supplements and also dieting to loose weight—-with no real changes in my shaky hands so far. I also found that a gentleman, who claimed to have been healed of Parkinson’s disease, used Qi-gong to help him ( he was also a vegetarian )—so I tried doing Qi-gong exercises in the morning. Exercise is one of the things that is also supposed to help slow down the progress of the disease and my doctor also recommended Tai Chi or kick-boxing as a possible help. At 75 years of age—-can you see me kick-boxing??--I think I'll stick to Tai Chi. Michael J. Fox was also using kick-boxing to help him manage his disease. In spite of all I was doing, so far, I still had my same symptoms and still felt tired all the time—even with extra B vitamins to help with energy. I will still stick with the exercise program, however, as I know that any progress in that area takes time.

Recently, my niece came for a visit—-Her mother, who was my sister, passed away with cancer several years ago. I was able to be with her for several months before she died and we tried to do everything to help—unfortunately, she agreed to chemotherapy treatment and she got only worse from there on. Her daughter brought me a book and told me that if only they had found this book sooner—maybe it would have saved her mother’s life —and she hoped that it would help me. It felt like my angel of a sister was sending me a message from heaven.—-“try this!”

The book is entitled “ The China Study” and is written by a well known Doctor of Nutrition science, T. Colin Campbell, PhD. Believe it or not, I couldn’t put this 417 page book down and finished reading it in one day. His research results were astounding —-they all concluded with the same result—-a healthy diet is paramount in over-coming disease! and the overwhelming evidence showed that a whole foods —plant diet based diet leads not only to disease prevention but even to the possibilities of over-coming and even reversing disease. The many case studies showed that this was possible with forms of cancer, heart disease and even many forms of autoimmune diseases. Unfortunately, Parkinson’s is not an autoimmune disease and was not listed in his book as one of the diseases he was working with. In his book, however, he offered the reader a chance to test his theories themselves by trying a whole food —plant based diet themselves for one month. So, this is what I plan to do—-what do I have to lose anyway—except a few more pounds! The diet I was on had me eating a lot of meat—more than I usually would do—and also vegetables and fruits—-no sugar ( I used stevia instead ) and no carbs. No breads, potatoes, pasta, etc. I figured if I had been able to keep to this diet so far, it would not be so hard to change over to the other—plant based one. So, I went to the store and filled my cart with vegetables and fruits and a loaf of organic whole-wheat sprouted bread, vegan dressing, almond butter, and sprouts—and I will see what happens. I will continue to take the low dose of Mucuna pruiens but stop taking all the other vitamins and try, instead, to get all the nourishment and vitamins from the food I am eating. This is part 2 of my Quest—-and I will go from here.