Reverett and Madam Lash, I haven't seen you posting to this thread in almost two months and am dying to know how the Aloe Vera is working. Are you still getting the same great results?

John

Hey this stuff is pretty good, huh? I'm a hafta get some! Ever thought that this could simply be due to the laxative effect? That in turn opens up the system to better absorption of our meds? There is already evidence of the gut and its effect on PD as well as H pylori. Just another angle.

I am on day 4 drinking about a pint per day with meds, and I have had a remarkable change in energy..Meds have been working much smoother with very little dyskinesia during the daytime, as where I was getting short periods of dyskinesia when I did anything physicaly challenging..It hasnt extended my daily on time, I still go off at the same time everyday, but I have been feeling much better..I have also had a change in sleep/naps..My naps are longer, and I go into a very deep sleep..My naps usually last about an hour, now they go 2-3 hours..I dont know if this is good or bad

I had been taking a teaspoon of mucuna to go fishing, otherwise I cant get through it..I went out 2 days in a row, and felt eneregtic enough that I didnt need to take any mucuna for that extra added jolt of l -dopa, and I was ok without it, and actually had some energy left when I got home

However, I have tried drinking aloe after my meds wear off at night, and it seems to have the opposite effect..I have had more freezing episodes, and more trouble walking, so it seems it interacts with meds for me, but not without meds

I also had a strange thing happen this morning, that has never happened before..I got a short bout of dyskinesia, before I took any meds, and was on for about 5 minutes, then went off

I'm not on meds and I tried drinking 2 to 4 oz of aloe vera juice a day. I drank it for a month and saw no change. I thought maybe I wasn't drinking enough but couldn't bring myself to drink more.

It may be some sort of "helper" effect. Consider entacapone, for example. Eat it by the handful with no effect except for your liver exploding. But take it with a single Ldopa tablet and you're rolling. Maybe there is something similar going on.

My tthoughts exactly!

And as you mentioned ealier, I hope this isnt another one that ends up on the cutting rooom floor after a few more days

Do you recall when you started taking the aloe did you have a loosening up of your digestive system along with perhaps better absorption of your meds?

I cant really say with confidence that it loosened up my digestive system, but for the first 3 days, I had remarkable changes in med absorbsion, and med performance..I also had an abundance of energy

But on day 4, I had a nightmare of dyskinesia, and sweating for 90 minutes, to get my morning meds to kick in..By the morming of day 4, I had consumed almost a whole gallon of aloe juice..On the night of day 3, I had worse than usual freezing episodes, and trouble walking..I havent found much info online about pd, and aloe, or how much of this stuff to consume daily, and didnt think to read the directions on the container..duhhhh!!!!!!!!!..that are vague at best anyway

The directions say to drink 4-8 oz preferably at meal time..Which meal time?..With how many meals..Are they talking singular, or plural here?

Well needless to say, I have backed off on this stuff, and have about 4 oz with morning meds..Today my morning meds kicked in without much of a production

Today at day 5 or 6, (not sure) it is kind of early to make even a ballpark assessment, because pd is so unpredictable, but I will stay tuned on my experience with it

If I were to make a shoot from the hip judgement, I would say, that its probably not a good idea to drink to much of this stuff on a daily basis

Here is a link, for what its worth......

http://www.ehow.com/how_5601177_star...era-juice.html

i agree....

I happen to live driving distance to the distributor of the aloe juice I am drinking. It is J1 or on some bottles it says JayOne. You can buy it at Henry's, Walmart and sometimes Trader Joes. Anyway, it usually costs around $2 for a 16oz bottle. I was able to talk the distributor into selling it to me by the case so that I would have a good supply.
I seem to get the best result when I drink it on an empty stomach with my meds. I drink at least two bottles a day. I have been able to cut my dose of carbi/levo down from 1.5 pills per dose to 1 pill. It has almost eliminated my dyskinesia and the nasty foot cramp I was getting every single morning.
I don't seem to tolerate coffee well anymore. It causes me to shake even more. However, when I have a particularly long work day to contend with, I have found that if I add 1/2 of one of those little 5 hour energy drinks to my bottle of aloe juice and sip it over an hour's time, it really works well without nasty side effects.
The other thing that is important to me is my weight. I was losing a noticeable amount of weight... 30 pounds in about a 4 month period and that wasn't healthy. I was having a lot of nausea and some days I just didn't want to eat at all. The aloe has fixed that. No more nausea.
I certainly don't view aloe as a cure but, for me it fixes alot of those little nasty symptoms of PD that make life miserable.