Congratulations....welcome to the bean enthusiast's club! My legs don't jerk if I have enough in me and it sure makes for a better night's sleep. Didn't know Progreso had fava beans. A local health food store has just gotten me in 25 lb of sproutable organic favas...will let you know how they are. The Lord provides all of our needs.
Blessings to all Aunt Bean

Well, we had our first actual rain in weeks.I received a call from dad that it rained for two hours gently & then came a "belly washer" for an hour that made a brown river run down in front our our house. I am at work and have not seen the damage yet. I hope that the new beans (425 seeds that were just showing their little leaves above the surface )were not washed down into the yard. I did just purchase 25 lb of organic favas...and am able to replace them if need be, but the fall crop will be a couple of weeks behind schedule..which means we will have only tincture material, but no beans to harvest if it turns cold in December(below 26 degrees ) like it did last year. I won't get home to see the garden until Friday night....it will be a long wait for me to view the land. The Lord knows best what we need and it will all turn out according to His perfect plan's. I must just rest in the fact that He knows best.
I have a hopeful heart that a research person (with her own lab)will take on the favas to study......pray hard that she will find it a worthwhile project that will help alot of people...worthy of her time and efforts. Blessings to all . Aunt Bean

Hope the garden is okay after the gulley washer. Saw my movement disorder neuro this past friday. he is stopping the mirapex that PCP has had me on since Jan. He said he can see changes in my brain mri from it. Not sure what that meant and since he was very hapy I had stopped the Keppra after PCP had suggested she may take me off it. I told him about the fava beans and he did not "poo poo" it, also a RNP thinks that they are great idea and agrees that they can help.
to those who have not tried them... go for it...

Still haven't gotten home to survey the damage, still praying my first of the fall plantings are still there. If you have not yet tried favas for medication purposes, please do get a G6pd test to check for favism, a genetic enzyme deficiency...just a reminder to those who are new to this site. Also, there is a problem of possible blood pressure spike if you take an MAOI medication....please talk to your physician about these things. Always start out very slow.... small doses of anything new that you are adding to your regimine. Some people feel that "if a little is good, alot is better" . Not so! Please be gentle with your body...it's the only one you've got. We have to do our research thoroughly and proceed with caution. Carefully monitor your symptoms and record what you take and how you feel every hour of the day....this can be a great help to you and your doctor as far as regulating medication. Dopamine is hard to regulate and stress/ pain/ illness can make it fluctuate dramatically with no change in meds. Blessings....Aunt Bean

My 2 cents
 

I've been following along on the fava bean discussion. Finally located some fresh favas and also obtained the fava juice from International Gourmet. Early results are saying that this is helping. I took the beans out of the pods, steamed them and have been eating approximately 16 a day for the past week. Added to that is a tsp of the juice three times a day. Yesterday was the best day I've had in months. My husband commented several times how lively I was. I was able to go on a short trip and sustain my energy for roughly 8 hours. My normal lately has been 1 good hour when the meds kick in exactly right. I start each day with good intentions and wonderful plans and slowly but surely, eliminate almost all of it due to exhaustion, pain, foot cramps, etc.
Most days I feel so badly that I would probably sign up for a clinical trial that involved dog poop on a stick if I thought it would help for a second.
The favas, as you of course know, but just as a side comment to those who may not have eaten them, are delicious. I would eat them if they had no PD benefit.
I'm trying to diary the effects and amounts of the favas. My other meds are 1.5 carbi/levo 25-100 and 1 200 Comtan every 4 hours. My ongoing symptoms are shaking in the left hand, limping, hip pain, nausea, constipation, irritability, foggy brain, poor vision, extreme back pain, slow movement, stooped posture, exhaustion, etc. The effects so far of the favas seemed to help all of these to one degree or another. I have not altered my regular meds.
By the way, I am noting that favas are seasonal so, is there any place to get fresh favas year round?

What??!
 

I am very intrigued by your MDS saying he can see brain changes on the mri from the mirapex-if you can find out what changes he sees by asking him, please let us all know! I would be curious as to how the MDS can tell the brain changes he sees are attributable to the mirapex as opposed to PD progression or something else.

We have tried stopping mirapex several times and the pain is unbearable, even trying to reduce the amount we took was a mistake and we had to go back. We would love to get off of it, because of the brain fog, sleepiness, and other side effects, but just cannot seem to do it. Let us know how it goes for you, and if there is anything you do during the weaning off phase that helped get you through it. Thanks!

I am confused - you say 'we' - do you and your partner both have PD and take the same meds?

Trixiedee

fava revelations...what about winter?
 

Madamlash,

Like you I am new to the fava revelations! My plan is to order sproutable seeds and eat sprouts this winter. I've been making my own juice with fava pods and pouring it into ice cube trays. Also built a planter box so next spring will hopefully grow some! Also, juiced some vegetable juice and added the favajuice to that and froze in pint jars.

do you skin the beans before eating them? seems like they are much better that way!

regards,
md :)

Will freezing hurt the dopamine content?
 

Good morning.
By the way, I love your Bucky Fuller quote. I had the rare opportunity to meet him and his wife several years ago. Quite lovely people!
I have tried the favas as the juice, the bean itself, the bean with the covering, and the bean with covering and pod. All are pretty tasty just out of my steamer. The only parts I really didn't care for were the two strings that run down each side of the pod. Take those off and everything else is good. I'm also hoping that the pod and skin will add much needed roughage to my diet.
I'm about to begin looking into the sprouting. I did read somewhere that the favas lose quite a bit of dopamine when you cook them and cool them. I'm not sure about that and if so, I wonder if freezing them hurts the dopamine content?
Regards
Madam Lash

Lurking, I actually do not have PD, I have segmental spinal myoclonus, they put me on the mirapex and kept upping the dose to where I have been on the max dose 1.5mg q 8hrs. I was having "blinking out spells" short periods of time where I knew I was missing parts of time but didnt realize it until a few minutes after I came back. this usually happened about 1-2 hours after taking the mirapex.
Not sure what he was seeing but at age 55 he stated "you are to young to have these kind of changes" He doesnt feel the mirapex is actually doing any thing to stop my leg as my leg is still going but that it is hampering getting the epidural drugs out of my system. he had seen a mri of my brain which he thought he had requested the recent one but it was actually one from 2003 when I was in car wreck. I had brought with me my copies of the new ones he had wondered why werent done(long story) but with seeing the new ones he just said "it was changes from the meds" and he wanted me off them asap. My first 24 hours dropping from 1.5mg tid to 1mg tid went fairly well until hit hour 28 I was walking down hall at work and it suddenly went like a finger painting and swirlled in color. it felt like someone drove a spike through my head. I could look down in front of me but if I looked out the world became a bad finger painting. I called PCP and nurse said to take 1/2 mg and see what happened after about 3 hours I could see at a distance again. As the week went on it became less of a headache literally. Last thursday my leg did cramp up and ended up taking valium and tramadol to pass out as I couldnt take the pain.
I am now on week 2 of the step down as of today and only taking 1mg bid. Had a headache but just took tylenol extra strength and it eased enough to tolerate. So today hasnt been to bad. Leg is clenching harder so think probably there will be a cramping spell to come. head is doing better, part of the problem i have been having is that my right eye from time to time will get double vision and it is cockeyed across not side by side but at angle across my straight vision. this has been going on since the "fly vision" when they tried to put me on lyrica.
I am eating my fava beans and until I get a reason that I shouldnt then I will continue but MDS did not say I shouldnt be eating them. Not sure if it is related or not but since started the beans I have not had a bout of my liver dumping a ton of bile into my stomach so that alone is a blessing.
Hope this helps if I can get an answer as to what the changes are I will post them.
Good luck and God Bless.