Someone here posted once about gou teng. Seems like it is very promising.

1. http://www.mdlinx.com/neurology/news...e.cfm/2432373/

In a patient after taking cat's claw, they noticed his symptoms improved.

2. http://www.newscientist.com/article/...reatments.html

Tested it on 115 people with very good results. Symptoms seemed to stabilize. It is supposed to increase autophagy for alpha synuclein.

Based on the current knowledge I have, a good way to manage PD is to take gou teng and combine it with exercise. There are 2 problems however:

1. Where to get gou teng ? What is it ? Is it a tea ?

2. What was the dose in the experiments ?

I noticed in the other gou teng thread, people here really didn't react on the thread. In this one, nobody seems to react either. Not that people have to react, but as nobody reacts I get the feeling people here are very sceptical about gou teng. However, my personal point of view is that this is the best thing available that you can buy over the shelves and try on your own. This is an agent that was already tested on 115 PD patients and seemed to be succesfull. Other independent studies with 1 and 3 patients also showed the same benefits. On cultures and fruit flies it was discovered that a substance in gou teng clears the supposed protein causing PD. I am really considering this agent but the low response of everyone here on gou teng scares me a bit for doing that.

http://www.rockefellernews.com/22232...ht-parkinsons/

If everything goes well, we will have an improved medecin in 2013 already.

Cat's Claw is a very good herb that I take occasionally. Was just given a bulk pound of it , and another of horsetail herb by a friend. Usually thsomethiing unexpected like this means it is very important. She had perchased extra just to share.
Cats Claw is something you can buy in capsules and just follow the bottle instructions.
Using bulk it needs put into water and brought to a boil and simmered at least 20 minutes/covered , then strained . Usually 2 teaspoons per cup of water is a general rule for most herbs which are leaves and flowers (areial parts) for steeping. For things like roots and barks that have to be simmered/ covered generally you use about twice as much water because of evaporation. Then I divide it and drink 1/2 in morning and evening.. If your body reacts favorably..then slowly increase . RESEARCH..FullyCat's Claw it is good for many things...but may react to pharmaceuticals...ask you doctor or pharmacist..I have a book with Herbs and know drug interactions to check that is invaluable.but don't have time this morning.. will check and write back specifics some time this week if you all are interested in Cat's Claw Herb
HERBS ARE DRUGS ..use extreme caution

Thanks for the info. So you tried cat's claw already ? Did you feel any benefits from it ?

"Early this year, 115 people with Parkinson's were given a combination of traditional Chinese medical herbs, including gou teng, or a placebo for 13 weeks. At the end of the study, volunteers who had taken the herbs slept better and had more fluent speech than those taking the placebo.

Gou teng appears to stabilise symptoms, says Li Min, a traditional Chinese doctor at Hong Kong Baptist University. Now, Li and her colleagues have figured out how it might work."

just because you read something on the internet doesn't make it true. i am very skeptical of any research from an unknown chinese researcher.

Don't get frustrated or think something you post is not worth looking into just because it has low response rate. People are busy, often they want to do a bit of research on their own before responding, and sometimes they have never heard of what has been posted!

I personally have never heard of cat's claw, and will do some more research into that. Also, though, like soccertease posted, we have to be careful with what is put out there-so many claims turn out to be false.

Thanks for posting about this.

Haha, I am not frustrated. I just was a bit surprised because I have the feeling people here are experimenting with all kinds of agents that sometimes were only tested on fruit flies and rodents; but then when there is something published that looks like it was succesfully tested on people, nobody talked about it. That's all.

I know I have to be carefull with internet stuff. But ... maybe the research done was OK. I still think it is a pity they didn't tell more about the exact dose they gave to patients. After this news, I am convinced there are PD patients that will try this. The problem is that if their claims are correct, gou teng increases autophagy. I read this is helpful, but if the autophagy is too strong, then it can also cause neuronal death. This means that taking too much gou teng can also be damaging. So you have to be in the exact dose range or you can fasten up progression of your PD.

i think this wasn't taken very seriously because your supporting articles are very weak.
http://www.rockefellernews.com/22232...ht-parkinsons/
this article was in a unknown blog by an unknown blogger. Plus he stated a lot of nonsense such as
"It should be noted that there really is a drug to fight the Parkinson’s. This drug, which goes by the commercial name of Levodopa, works by reducing the Dopamine level in the brain, thus helping the central nervous system coordinate more efficiently."

just my opinion.

What most people call Cat's claw is a South American vine, Uncaria tomentosa, commonly available in health food stores. The TOA-free variety is used successfully in Lyme Disease which, some say, is implicated in PD.

Gou Teng, Uncaria rhynchophylla, is a different plant, rarely used in the west. It is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) but is hardly ever used alone. My girlfriend is a TCM doctor who makes a formula that contains Gou Teng among many other things, e.g. Wu Gong http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQPeQ...eature=related (centipede.)

I take this formula to halt the progression of the disease though it does lessen tremors quite a bit for me. She emphasizes consulting a TCM doctor before experimenting with exotic TCM ingredients. If you want to white rat yourself you can get Gou Teng at http://www.emersonecologics.com