PARKINSONS - THERE IS HOPE

Parkinson’s disease is a chronic, progressive disorder of the brain and nervous system that affects 1 per cent of people over the age of 50. It results from the degeneration of certain brain cells that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. The condition slowly reduces the ability of the nerves to control the muscles. Manifesting first as a fine muscle tremor it progresses to ever increasing muscle rigidity making the performing of simple tasks difficult.

Until recently Parkinson’s was always considered to be an hereditary disease. If you had the gene you got the disease. It was a fait accompli. Treatment with drugs would reduce the intensity of the symptoms but not cure the disease. Drug treatment needed to continue for the duration of the disease, and after 2-5 years 50 per cent of patients would need extra drugs to help the original ones keep the disease at bay. Common side effects from the medication are nausea, palpitations and flushing.

Recent research done at the Parkinson’s Institute in Sunnyvale California, where 20.000 sets of twins (identical and fraternal), all veterans of World War II, were studied, showed that environmental factors, not hereditary ones, were the cause of the disease.

This has shifted the focus from genes triggering the disease to chemicals in our food, water, and air triggering it. To hear Dr J William Langston, the Institute’s President and lead author of the report (appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association), say this, is music to every naturopath’s ears, for it is what we have been saying for a long time. Parkinson’s is predominantly the result of a nutritionally deficient and overly chemical zed diet as well as deleterious lifestyle, working and living environment.

Canned, packaged, processed and take away foods are high in chemical preservatives, flavourings and colourings that are toxic to the cells of the body. The more sophisticated a cell is the more vulnerable it is to chemical toxicity. The brain cells are the most sophisticated of all Their finely tuned, complex and delicate chemistries are easily disrupted when foreign chemicals enter them. This causes them to under perform on many levels.

In the case of the substantia nigra and locus ceruleus cells (found in the brain stem) this means an underproduction of that all important neurotransmitter, dopamine.

What Dr J William Langston and his colleagues are telling us is that Parkinson’s can be prevented if we keep our intake of foreign chemicals down.

To do this we must switch to a diet of fresh fruit and vegetables (properly washed to remove all herbicides and pesticides), whole grains, wholemeal breads, nuts, seeds, fresh (not tinned) fish, lean ( not fatty processed) meat, and clean spring or mineral (not tap) water to drink.

In addition to this we must keep our intake of chemical drugs down . The use of antibiotics, painkillers, anti inflammatory and over the counter paracetamol containing, drugs must be kept to a minimum. Seeing a natural therapist who will use such natural healing modalities as massage, or herbs, or acupuncture, or spinal manipulation, diet change, vitamins, or homeopathy will do much to reduce and often eliminate the need for synthetic drug medication.

My own experience with treating Parkinson’s is that supplementary vitamins and minerals do much to help.

If caught in the very early stages when the tremor is very mild - only just noticeable - Parkinson’s can sometimes be reversed with a change away from processed food to a more natural diet, supplemented with extra vitamins and minerals, cod liver oil and flax seed oil.

If treated in the later stages a change of diet plus supplements can certainly augment the effect of the drug medication helping it to achieve a better and more lasting result, with less side-effects and less chance of additional medication being needed later on. In some cases, where I’ve not been able to reverse the disease, I’ve been able to delay the need for medication by up to 2 years. This indicates that supplementation with vitamins; minerals and essential fatty acids can at least delay the progression of the disease.

However, patience is required. Nutrient supplementation, unlike drug medication, takes time to work. It’s worth it, for the results, once achieved, are more enduring. This is because the brain cells are now stronger and more functional, and in need of less medicative support.

Those who stay the course and take their supplements dutifully, long term, can, at the very least, expect a slower progression of their disease with less medication (and less side effects) to achieve it. And it’s never too late to start. The brain cells begin to respond the moment we commence to nourish them optimally.

For further information on the effect of dietary supplementation on Parkinson’s disease I recommend the book:

“Healing Through Nutrition” by Melvyn Werbach MD
Harper Collins, Publishers.

Posted: 7 Dec 2004

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