Anyone using one? Maybe for high blood pressure? My story is a little complex but the bottom line is that you might want to look into these for PD. Especially in light of the anxiety thread that Peggy started.

First, my condensed story. About one year ago I went through the worst stress period of years of stress. A veritable "Ben Hur" of stress episodes. It was so bad as to trigger a panic attack as well as two episodes of total paralysis. The stress abated and I struggled to my feet once more, but the experience left me determined to reexamine the whole mess of PD. The trail has led me into the jungle of the endocrine system, as I have hinted from time to time here.

Still trying to condense this, I have steadily improved over the last year - going from being almost house bound to staying close to home to increasing the radius more and more. I have been assisted by my GP who was able to observe me walk in to his office and leave in a wheel chair as an attack took me. I have not made a decision yet as to whether or not to see an endo but probably will.

Tentatively, though, by trial and error it seems that my adrenals are producing too much of a stress hormone called aldosterone. It regulates the sodium - potassium balance. When those get out of whack muscles and neurons don't work. The ebb and flow of the two electrolytes can vary from hour to hour as well, and, as a result, many of the problems that I thought to be the PD meds waxing and waning were instead the hormones ebbing and flowing on a similar schedule.

So, as I slowly pieced this together, aldosterone emerged as the likely candidate. There is no easy test for this, so I opted for medicating as though it were the problem to see if anything positive came out of it. In this case there were three old and relatively safe medications that would be expected to help. The first was a group called potassium-sparing diuretics. The problem with them was that rising levels of potassium can cause you to produce more aldosterone. But the fact was positive in that it fit in with my hypothesis. The second group was the ACE inhibitors. They work by blocking the pathway from renin in the brain to aldosterone in the adrenals. Unfortunately I ran into a rare side effect that threatened my kidneys.

Number three are the beta blockers. I have been taking one called "Bisoprolol fumarate" for about a week now and am seeing improvement in these areas- GI tract much improved; sleeping well; attacks of weakness almost gone; FREEZING NOTICEABLY REDUCED, especially in the evenings. And I'm off to a good start. That is pretty good for a week and supposedly these can take as much as a month to get up to speed. OK, that's the condensed part.

From Wikipedia-
"As beta adrenergic receptor antagonists, they diminish the effects of epinephrine (adrenaline) and other stress hormones. "

"Beta blockers block the action of endogenous catecholamines (epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) in particular), on β-adrenergic receptors, part of the sympathetic nervous system which mediates the "fight or flight" response.[7][8] There are three known types of beta receptor, designated β1, β2 and β3 receptors.[9] β1-adrenergic receptors are located mainly in the heart and in the kidneys.[8] β2-adrenergic receptors are located mainly in the lungs, gastrointestinal tract, liver, uterus, vascular smooth muscle, and skeletal muscle.[8] β3-adrenergic receptors are located in fat cells.[10]"

"Beta blockers inhibit these normal epinephrine-mediated sympathetic actions,[7] but have minimal effect on resting subjects[citation needed]. That is, they reduce excitement/physical exertion on heart rate and force of contraction,[17] and also tremor[18] and breakdown of glycogen, but increase dilation of blood vessels[19] and constriction of bronchi.[20]"

"There is clear evidence from many controlled trials in the past 25 years that beta blockers are effective in anxiety disorders, though the mechanism of action is not known.[29] Some people have used beta blockers for performance enhancement, and especially to combat 'performance anxiety'. In particular, musicians, public speakers, actors, and professional dancers, have been known to use beta blockers to avoid stage fright and tremor during public performance and especially auditions. The physiological symptoms of the fight/flight response associated with performance anxiety and panic (pounding heart, cold/clammy hands, increased respiration, sweating, etc.) are significantly reduced, thus enabling anxious individuals to concentrate on the task at hand. Stutterers also use beta blockers to avoid fight/flight responses, hence reducing the tendency to stutter."

"Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is theorized to be the result of neurological patterns caused by adrenaline and fear in the brain. By administering beta blockers immediately following a traumatic event, as well as over the next couple weeks, the formation of PTSD has been reduced in clinical studies.[32]"

1. Neurology. 1996 Jun;46(6):1548-51.

Improvement of levodopa-induced dyskinesia by propranolol in Parkinson's disease.

Carpentier AF, Bonnet AM, Vidailhet M, Agid Y.

INSERM U 289, Hôpital de la Salpétrière, Paris, France.

Seven patients suffering from Parkinson's disease (PD) with severely disabling
dyskinesia received low-dose propranolol as an adjunct to the currently used
medical treatment. There was a significant 40% improvement in the dyskinesia
score without increase of parkinsonian motor disability. Ballistic and choreic
dyskinesia were markedly ameliorated, whereas dystonia was not. This study
suggests that administration of low doses of beta-blockers may improve
levodopa-induced ballistic and choreic dyskinesia in PD.


PMID: 8649546 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

I am using one and it helps immensely with anxiety. I started experiencing freezing, but not your regular run of the mill three second start hesitation, no mine started off as freezing blocks lasting anywhere from a half hour to two hours depending on where I was.

I didn't know what was happening to me, but neither did my MDS. I went to an endocrinologist, to a new GP who wanted me screened for some rare, scary forms of endocrine cancer, and talked to my OB-GYN who was the only doctor who thought it sounded like Thyrotoxic Periodic-Paralysis. In the end, my GP and OB-GYN were the only ones to probe and think outside the box and order further tests or offer to test my potassium levels during an episode of weakness. I really thought I had a separate endocrine issue and then realized after researching that I was having panic attacks which I think triggers the freezing or is it the other way around? The drug that stops the symptoms of thyrotoxic periodic paralysis? beta-blockers

The question is what triggers what? Are they still two distinct things? I will say that the freezing that occurs in both feels quite different. A stress or anxiety induced PD freeze is more like my muscles locking up and legs shaking. It lasts a few seconds. The other, episodic freezing is like profound loss of muscle tone and feels more like what I would imagine true paralysis to feel like.

On a happy note, I can back Rick and say that a beta blocker works. I tried Klonopin but it didn't seem to help with reducing the panic attacks. I take 5 to 10 mg of Propanolol daily as needed and it helps immensely. An extra bonus, is that you can fight this without a drug. I have been seeing a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist and essentially been slowly reversing the negative feedback loop that adds fuel to the fire. I have greatly reduced the episodic blocks or freezes and all but eliminated the minor freezing at home. This is not to say that it is eradicated, but I wonder if stress triggering our adrenals does not account for variability or subtypes in PD? Is it a sign that our endocrine system plays a part in the etiology of PD? Or is this yet another sign of dopamine dysregulation? Or maybe all three of these?

Laura

Can't take time to search archives now, but I reported on propanolol and tremor control last year. It controls my tremor extremely well as in I have no break through tremor when using it.

There have been a few studies on its us for PD but don't recall the consensus on it.

Laura