My husband has Parkinson's. I could never figure out why after he ate breakfast or lunch he could have dramatically different symptoms depending on the day. We knew soy sauce was a problem, because he consistently had problems after eating Chinese food. Now I've started looking at labels much more closely and have found that Steve's good and bad foods have helped us tremendously.

Steve -- thank you so much. You have definitely made our lives better. If you have any more to add I would love to see it.

the title "high dopamine diet" is misleading, dopamine is not found in food and if it was, it can't pass through the blood brain barrier so is of no use.

i find that as an advanced pd'er, i cannot eat any protein an hour before i take my carbidopa/levodopa and if i lose control and eat too much protein it can be as much as 3 hours. this was not a major problem when first diagnosed.

here's some information on protein/amino acids affecting pd l-dopa.
http://forum.parkinson.org/index.php...in#entry106416

here's something else to think about. how much dopamine does the brain need so we can "move"? well, what's the maximum amount of an agonist one takes in a day, 24mg?
that may not be the correct number but points to a very small amount of dopamine needed. agonists are dopamine analogs so i assume molecularly one agonist molecule has the same affect as one levodopa molecule. the bottom line is you don't need much.

think about it, if all the tyrosine found in a 8oz steak was converted to dopamine we'd be in a world of trouble. maybe some of it gets stored in the brain, but what about those people who are in all you can eat contests, they don't die from dopamine overload, the brain tightly controls dopamine production, once enough is made there is a feedback mechanism that stops production.

on the flip side,people who fast for a long time don't develop pd, their body starts breaking down muscle to produce dopamine i assume.

sure we have pd because we don't produce enough dopamine but unless we aren't taking in enough of the vitamins and minerals needed to produce dopamine from amino acids and are getting the daily min. requirement of protein and your're eating complete proteins in my opinion someone with pd should worry more about foods which you shouldn't eat within a hour or 2 of taking your l-dopa.

Sorry I have not been on site much, busy experimenting with changing recipes over to gluten-free/ sugar-free and playing music. I ran across this person's site thru a link on the WPC emails that I receive and wanted to pass it on to you all. It is a person that does health and sex seminars mostly , but he developed PD symptoms. You can listen to a UTUBE talk about what he found that worked for him on this link (hopefully)
http://www.marsvenus.com/blog/john-g...sease-symptoms I don't know if this will work , but at least you can copy down the long site and type it into your computer . It made a lot of sense to me. I am well and very busy. Do miss having time to read the input on Neurotalk. Starting to plan garden now and things will get busier still. God bless and guide you all thru our journey thru PD together.

Steve Lord

Steve, a lot of what you say makes sense. Would you recommend spices that don't crush dopamine ?

Also, could you post your sample daily menu plan. I am consistently experiencing surge of dopamine when eating black grapes with food containing little to no fat. Actually, lots of book on dopamine/serotonin/happiness disorders recommend diets low in fat, which makes sense. Unless it's a Omega-3. I found nice combo: white potation + salmon sauteed in olive oil + broccoli.

Question: How are you assessing that your dopamine levels are, or are not, being raised by the foods in this diet? Is it by judging your feeling of happiness, or by a more objective method (and in that case, what method)?

Dan

check this article:
The Best Ways to Increase Dopamine Naturally

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