Originally Posted by Fiona

Yes, you are welcome here - wanted to echo that from the Other Shores side of the world. The thing is, I don't think there are a whole lot of people out there who are going holistic to the point where they are choosing not to do the meds. I would give a lot to be in your shoes in some ways because while you are still at the moment of not having started with them, I think there are many things you can try.

While I have and continue to pursue alternative solutions, I think it's a whole different ballgame once you get on the medication. It's very hard to go off it, and it complicates many of the other things you might try.

I personally think Ayurvedic treatment hasa helped me - it might help you a lot more because you don't have to fight through layers of synthetic chemical effects to get to whatever is ailing you. I went to India for my treatment, and kind of can't imagine doing it another way, although that may be a very limited perspective.

I do know a few people who have stopped some degree of the medication - I think people that aren't taking meds generally don't post a whole lot here - although there are definitely exceptions. Also there are people here who have minimized their meds significantly (Ron Hutton and others) and people like me who have made autaunomous decisions to stop one aspect of them, like the dopamine agonists, or the other way round - to pursue the agonists and not the l-dopa therapy.

I suggest you look around this forum and search for some of the threads concerning Ayurvedic treatment, mucuna pruriens, glutathione therapy, amino acid or neurotransmitter therapy, hypnotism, ear acupuncture implants, fava beans, exercise modalities - there are a lot of ways to approach it -and while I know it's time-consuming to read and digest, there is a lot of good info here to be uncovered also.

You could also look at sites like parkinsonsrecovery.com, and parkinsonsonline.org for some alternative views of things. In light of your DAT scan, I''m not sure how to comment...we don't routinely do those in the US, and I'm not sure how they are read in Europe. Does low dopamine activity definitively indicate the death of neurons, or even the appropriate response being to address that with synthetic dopamine replacement? I personally question those assumptions...

I guess the thing is that you will have to figure out what is right for you, and a lot of that work you will be on your own with in terms of collating and evaluating information and different ways to go. There's no real alternative protocol widely in use, I don't think...My personal reccomendation is to keep questioning the status quo thinking about this condition, because I think much of it is based on paradigms that have not been updated nearly as much as needed, and have been extremely influenced by market forces. So it's a lot of work to go the route you're thinking of, but I think there's a lot of hope, too.
Fiona

Originally Posted by trixiedee

Reverett. I already take curcumin as it's also goood for MS and I have avoided aspartame and MSG for about 20 years because I can't stand the taste of artificial sweeteners or the effect of MSG. I eat healthily although I don't avoid gluten and dairy.

Will look into alpha lipoic acid and acetyl-L-carnitine.

"There are two things that are proven to stop or even reverse PD. One is exercise and the other is caloric restriction."

I do yoga but don't have much energy for excercise. Caloric restriction? I am already quite thin and very depleted - how can that help?

Thanks for the advice...