Thanks Auntie

I ate 1/3 cup slightly roasted (I think) pumpkin seeds yesterday and today and
the results are almost miraculous.
They dramatically reduced the amount of sinemet needed and yesterday I actually just forgot to take any sinemet after 3:30 pm.
They seem to reduce the dyskinesias for me as well.

What a great find!!!

An interesting observation. I eat a lot of pumpkin seeds as a snack and for prostate health. It is a common folk medicine in many cultures.

That being the case I took a quick look at the chemistry behind its use and possible links to tremor (a PD symptom that only rarely bothers me.)

I found this on http://superfoodprofiles.com/pumpkin...ting-hair-loss -
"protecting a man’s prostate gland.

Eating the seeds regularly may help reduce an enlarged prostate and relieve the symptoms of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). BPH is a painful condition that leads to constriction of the urethra and difficulty urinating.

There are several health nutrients believed to be responsible for the way pumpkin seeds help reduce prostate problems. The first is a compound called delta-7-sterine. Delta-7-sterine competes with dihydrotestosterone (DHT) at the receptor sites in the prostate. DHT is strongly implicated in prostate cell proliferation, but when delta-7-sterine is present in the diet in large enough amounts, it seems to help minimize the harmful effects of DHT on the prostate.

Pumpkin seeds contain high levels of phytosterols, including the much studied beta-sitosterol. Beta-sitosterol has been shown to block the conversion of testosterone to dihydrotestosterone by inhibiting the enzyme 5-alpha-reductase. This can have many positive effects, but specifically for prostate problems, the less excess DHT in the body to act upon the prostate the better.

In a double-blind placebo-controlled study of treating benign prostatic hyperplasia with phytosterols, BPH symptoms were shown to be ‘significantly improved in the treatment group’ with no side effects noted.

The high zinc content may be another reason why pumpkin seeds are good for prostate problems. Zinc is important for proper hormone production, including testosterone. It also has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties and is said to enhance our immune response. All of these are potentially beneficial for a man suffering from an enlarged prostate. Alongside eating pepitas, here are some other good ways to get more of it into your diet.

Pumpkins with Seeds Pumpkin seeds also contain other protective factors to help prevent or treat prostate problems, such as good levels of antioxidant carotenoids like beta-carotene and essential fatty acids. All in all, there’s a lot of nutrition, particularly for men, packed into the little green seeds.
Pumpkin Seeds and Hair Loss

Excessive dihydrotestosterone can cause many problems for men, particularly later in life. The same DHT responsible for enlarging the prostate and causing benign prostatic hyperplasia, is also believed to contribute to hair loss and eventually male pattern baldness.

DHT causes hair loss in men by shortening the anagen (growth) phase of the hair follicle. This can lead to progressively finer and weaker hairs that eventually simply stop growing. However, the beta-sitosterol in pumpkin seeds has been shown to act as an inhibitor of the enzyme 5-alpha-reductase. It’s this enzyme that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone.

While we are supposed to have some DHT, most men would feel a lot better and have fewer health problems if there were a little less of this testosterone conversion to dihydrotestosterone happening in our bodies. Snacking on a handful of raw pumpkin seeds regularly may be a good way of lessening testosterone conversion to DHT and minimizing hair loss.

Delta-7-sterine is also believed to reduce the damaging effects excessive DHT by competing with it at receptor sites. This is hard to observe and confirm with something like hair follicles, but many people report a reduction in hair loss when they eat pumpkin seeds regularly.

In fact, some people go so far as to apply pumpkin seed oil directly to their scalp before bed. The idea is to allow the delta-7-sterine, beta-sitosterol, the EFAs and other beneficial nutrients in it to act directly on the hair follicles overnight. The idea’s there, but I’m not sure about the green scalp look. Personally, I think I’ll stick with snacking on the seeds and using pumpkin seed oil on salads and in other recipes to maintain healthy hair."

Not being forced to deal with tremor often, I don't have much personal experience to draw on, but I couldn't help but notice the zinc levels being mentioned. I found this-
"
1. Indian J Med Sci. 2002 Feb;56(2):69-72.

Infantile tremor syndrome and zinc deficiency.

Vora RM, Tullu MS, Bartakke SP, Kamat JR.

Department of Pediatrics, Seth G.S. Medical College & K.E.M. Hospital, Parel,
Mumbai 400 012.

Infantile tremor syndrome is characterized by coarse tremors, mental and physical
retardation, light colored brown hair, skin pigmentation and anemia. Amongst the
theories proposed for the etilogy of the disorder, the nutritional theory is most
accepted. In this case report, we have presented a fourteen-month-old male child
with ITS and documented zinc deficiency. Though most of the previous workers have
proposed vitamin-B12 deficiency as the etimology for ITS, our report suggests
that zinc deficiency could also have a causative role.

PMID: 12508616 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

How do you prepare pumpkin seeds? Do they come with a shell? Do you eat the shell? I see baseball players in the dugout eating some kind of seed, but they seem to chew and then spit something out. Please excuse my ignorance, but I have no experience with eating pumpkin seeds.

Ann

this deserves it's own thread

Hi Ann
The only experience I previously have had was lightly roasting and salting seeds that we cleaned out of halloween pumpkins. The seeds I found were from a persian bakery that I go to and they are not marked in any way- just repackaged from bulk. It would take way too much patience and work for me to husk the seeds, so I just pop the whole dang things in my mouth and chew them up. The husk is definitely uneventful but I figure it is extra roughage.
Yesterday I found some "Alive, Organic Pumpkin Seed Butter" at Whole Foods.
It is VERY expensive but unroasted and tasty. I just used a small teaspoon on toast so hopefully it will last a long time. Oh, and it is green so I guess they have hulled the seeds before grinding them up.
I also have been trying to do some research on pumpkin seed components
and it appears that there is quite a bit of tryptophan the amino acid the body uses to make the feel-good and relaxation neurotransmitter serotonin. Pumpkin seeds also contain high amounts of zinc, which can help the brain convert tryptophan into serotonin.
So beware of complications if you take MAO-inhibitors.

Victoria

PS How to Eat a Sunflower Seed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgKKVKiiMAo

Hi Ann,

I get pumpkin seeds already out of their “shell or husk” at Whole Foods. They are called pepitas, green in color and come organic or conventional. They are roasted and unsalted and are located near the nuts and dried fruit. I put a good amount on my oatmeal each morning! And I also enjoy them in the afternoon with dark (72-80%) chocolate. Good luck finding them, enjoy.

Jill

Hi All,
I note from the above posts that many PWP do not tremor while asleep.
When I sleep my tremor is present, although I am not aware of it.
My wife says that I tremor, shout, scream and fight with demons at night while asleep.
This occurs between midnight and five in the morning, but peaks around three am.
On four occasions I have propelled myself out of bed while completely asleep to ward off (imaginary) attackers in my bedroom.
When I hit the floor hard, I awake from the nightmare with no memory of
these events.
I have had PD for four years along with Restless Leg Syndrome and
Sleep Apnoea.
My tremor persists throughout the day and increasing my Sinemet Plus
intake increases the level of tremor.
If I reduce my intake of Sinemet, the tremor reduces but the stiffness and motor symptoms get worse.
Arsene

I'm sorry to hear of your sleep issues. Nightmares are a supposed side effect of PD. Like yourself, I fight RLS and have many issues in a night of sleep, but no issues of nightmares that I can remember.

A few weeks ago my wife was stunned at seeing my legs flopping all around for over an hour. In fact, when we awoke she asked me if my legs were tired. They weren't. Actually I had considered it a pretty restful night's sleep.

I take 100 mg of theanine before bed, and that has helped to reduce the number of times I awake from 3:30 to 5:30. You can take much more if you need too, as well.

BTW, my shoulders hurt like hell at night, and sometimes my neck too .. another early sign of PD. I wish I didn't know this stuff sometimes.

Best of luck to you.

Arsene,, You are describing REM Sleep Behavior Disorder, which can be dangerous to you and /or your spouse. It can be confirmed by a sleep study at a hospital, but you are describing classic symptoms. I take .5 mg of Clonazapam and have almost no REM problems any more.