For those who care for someone with Parkinson's disease
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A PWP I know from another forum is having some pretty good results with quercetin, an herb commonly used for allergies. Here is the link to that thread, he has had PD over ten years and experimented with many different things over the years. Of significance to me is that if you read the entire thread, he has cut his sinemet almost in half and his requip by almost as much over the past six weeks. I do not think this is placebo at work, as the timeframe is way too long. Here is the link, do some research, and see if it might be something that could help your loved one (BTW, we are going for it ourselves, just started, so nothing to report.....yet!): http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread147503.html |
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| Keep us posted... |
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Any update on this? I'm reading about Mucuna, which contains L-Dopa. Has anyone tried this and what are the results? We are really having some "off" periods right now, so we are ready to try just about anything to get my guy back to having a bit more on time. I just hate to see him suffer as he has been the past few days. |
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Go to the link and see, I think the poster is still feeling positive about the quercitin. We have mucuna and use it occasionally to get going. Bought it from Banyan Botanicals here in the US, it's organic. I'm not affiliated with them or have any incentive to recommend them, it's just where we bought ours. It will help you come on fast, but it also will leave you high and dry fast. Quick on, and fast off. It's a bit dangerous because of this, and so that's why we only use it occasionally to get going in the morning. Plus, you can take mucuna with food, which we can't eat so much as a cracker with sinemet. I mix it in my husband's smoothie because putting it in water is horrific, he can barely gag it down that way. The cool thing about mucuna is that techinically, because it does not contain any carbidopa, it should not be able to cross the blood brain barrier. In other words, it should have no effect on PD symptoms. But yet it does. Most folk speculate that the mucuna has other properties we don't know about which enable it to cross that barrier to get into the brain. However it works, we're grateful. Just be careful to include it as a drug on the list of what your loved one takes, and also keep track of how much he/she takes, or you could accidentally find you have increased the total ldopa intake way beyond what you thought! |
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lurking, Carbidopa is the one that doesn't cross the blood/brain barrier. " CarbiDOPA cannot cross the blood brain barrier, so it inhibits only peripheral DDC. It thus prevents the conversion of L-DOPA to dopamine peripherally." and "Carbidopa is used with levodopa to treat Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's disease is believed to be related to low levels of a chemical called dopamine (DOE pa meen) in the brain. Levodopa (Dopar, Larodopa) is turned into dopamine in the body. Carbidopa is used with levodopa to prevent the breakdown (metabolism) of levodopa before it can reach the brain and take effect. Carbidopa is only effective if it is taken with levodopa. It has no effect if it is used alone." Before the combination of Carbidopa and L-Dopa they used to give large amounts of L-Dopa to patients which made them very nauseous and many couldn't hold the medicine down. these large amounts were needed as the body would absorb most of the L-Dopa before it could be carried through the blood and enter the brain. So there is no mystery as to the why the L-Dopa in the mucuna enters the brain and yes any reaching the brain will increase the total amount of L-Dopa in our system combined with our medicines. Or I should say in addition to our medicines. Be very careful if you are thinking of trying this so you don't overdose! Take care, best of luck and hang in there. |
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Al, I know the carbidopa is in sinemet to shuttle the levodopa to the brain to keep it from breaking down in route. I guess what I was trying to say is that mucuna has no carbidopa, so the levodopa in mucuna should, technically, break down before it gets to the blood brain barrier and therefore have no effect on PD symptoms....but anyone who has taken mucuna knows that it most definitely does effect symptoms. Mood, for one, absolutely. A calmness, we've seen that as well. The real problem is that it hits fast and dissipates faster, and you could find yourself in a real bind. Anyone who knows the name Warren Olanow (look him up if you don't) might be surprised to learn that he has obtained several patents on mucuna applications for central nervous system disorders. This man is one of the most famous names in PD the world over....makes me really wonder what all mucuna contains, and what all it might be able to do, if someone like him is getting patents on it for diseases like PD. You can google both Dr. Olanow as well as the US patent and trademark office and see his patents online, it's so convenient. There's obviously way more to mucuna than we know, and I'd love nothing more than for a natural product containing mucuna to come out as an alternative to the drugs we currently have, what with all the horrific side effects. |
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Actually, quercitin is a bioflavanoid and not an herb. It has a lot of different actions. It can interfere with some meds - always wise to google any of these things and your individual meds to check what kind of interactions there might be. Quercitin is also a cancer fighter. Very interesting that it can be used for Parkinson's. Just popping through tonight, haven't been on here since Dec probably. |