we have been aggressive about this disease for over 8 years and have done almost everything and used almost everything there is which might have an effect of PD. here are our results:
we have used zandopa for 7 years. in spite of a lot of bad looks and lectures from the docs, it allowed my husband to avoid sinemet for three years. it tastes nasty, regardless of what it is sweetened with. our local compounding pharmacist offered to put it in caps for us but after the second time, the FDA police walked in and told him he was not allowed to use customers own product. our fed at work, making life harder for everyone. taking it as is was really impossible for don as it made him nauseated....a common effect of dopa. the pharmacist showed me how to stuff caps and i still do it. he even offered to put some time release stuff into the mix if the plain caps were still too strong. not necessary. the caps work fine but it requires a lot of them. don't know why zandopa doesn't just leave out the other stuff and put them in cap form. the effect of the zandopa has been terrific. even when he went on sinemet, we always hung back with the sinemet and made up for the difference with zandopa just to keep him from having to take too much sinemet and risk the side effects. recently, he has been doing a lot of PT and balance therapy and i give him a zandopa booster half way thru the sinemet cycle just to tide him over. his doc said that activity doesn't 'eat up' the sinemet but i beg to differ. it absolutely does. when don is emotional or exercises or worried, the sinemet does practically nothing. he will stumble, freeze, stutter step and his whole demeanor changes, including his mood. the zandopa relieves this.

last week, he forgot to take his sinemet a few times and since he was on the 'booster' zandopa, he wasn't without anything except the gait problems....they went away. also, he forgot one night and it was too late to take sinemet (he interferes with sleep) so i gave him a big dose of zandopa and much to my surprise, after a day of stuttering around and almost falling numerous times, he got up an hour later and walked smoothly to the bathroom. that gave me the idea of stopping the sinemet and seeing what zandopa would do.

he has had umbilical cord stem cell - gave him a great complexion three months later but due to the use of dmso, a huge anti-inflammatory, he got immediate relief in most of his symptoms....which all goes to prove that inflammation is a real factor. after a week, the symptoms came back and since we didn't know at that time that it was the anti-inflammatory which was at work, it has taken years and me getting arthritis to figure out what to do.

i decided to give him some of the myristin which i use for arthritis along with the recent zandopa switch....only because i thought that if it works against inflammation with me, why not with him. well, that worked well...all going to show that inflammation is still a problem in spite of all the stuff he takes. myristin is a fabulous product and i order it by the case. it lasts about four hours and i take it with samE and get results within the half hour. fortunately, i get obvious signals with arthritis so i have a little reminder when i get busy and haven't taken it. you can order it online from the family of the man who developed it, an interesting story. no, you won't get mad cow disease.

don has had glutathione iv's (good for two years and then began to have hypoglycemic reactions....but that's just him, he has hyperinsulinism). for years, he had high dose C iv's along with glutathione and trace minerals and it kept him off sinemet for almost three years. it was bizarre, half way through the iv bag, he would start to feel good, laugh and joke around and move smoothly. the dr was slack-jawed. this was all at my insistence so i feel vindicated by the study that proves giving high dose C/glutathione delays meds by 2 1/2 years. they didn't need a study...they could just have asked me...ha, ha.

he also has chelation for metals but not as often as we'd like as we moved away from our source.

we are now working on trying to stop the glutamate cascade which may be the villain in why don is unable to exercise....having been an athlete, he believes in exercise but can only do minimal stretching and the slightest big more locks him up like he has rigor mortis. this drives us crazy since we KNOW that on one level, exercise is really helpful. we have a stationary tandem bike just standing in the bedroom to get back to....he got benefits (oddly enough, they were digital as well as in his gait which became very graceful again) right away (unexpected) but by the third time on the bike, the old exercise intolerance kicked in and he locked up. our plan now is minimal carbs (insulin triggers the cascade) and trying menatamine, which stops the cascade. we'll see.

will try the aloe right away. like al lieberman used to say, 'if it works, try it'.

hope this has helped someone.

Thankyou scrumptious. That was kind of you to go to so much bother to help others. I was not aware of all the treatments you recommend, and I will look them all up. It's good to read of things that are not on the usual drug route. You've certainly put in your homework! I am newly diagnosed and I want to look into "alternative therapies". It can't do any more harm than some of the drugs, although I realise that may be the route I have to take eventually.
All the best, Ladybird.