[Conductor71]

Wow! If this really works....current issue and the case study is free full text

A diet low in animal fat and rich in N-hexacosanol and fisetin is effective in reducing symptoms of Parkinson's disease.


What makes this so promising is that the person has had PD for ten years.

Have not read the article - too excited but from a quick wikipedia search. N-hexacosanol is a triglyceride or fatty acid ester and a powerful neurotrophic. There is mention of coconut oil. Also shown to be restorative in animal models of diabetes. There's that glucose connection again!

Fisetin is a polyphenol with potent anti-oxidative properties... found in strawberries, apples, grapes, and onions. Fisetin can be extracted from fruit and herbal sources in juices, wines, and infusions such as teas.

Fisetin can be purchased as a supplement.

Well, I am off to read this article!!!

Fingers crossed for all of us!

Laura

[Conductor71]

After reading article, I wanted to clarify that coconut oil should be avoided. Hexacosanol is a long chain fatty acid and found in vegetable waxes (eat the skin); especially in cabbage. Looks like beeswax is a really good source, and it looks like we can buy honey with pieces of honeycomb in the jar.

It can also be purchased as a supplement.

Here is further info:

Neurotrophic effect of naturally occurring long-chain fatty alcohols on cultured CNS neurons.

[Conductor71]

If this person could reduce the majority of her symptoms to near normal with a diet what does this say about the fixation on dopa replacement therapy?
Exercise has a similar effect....

If PD symptoms are due to dying neurons, how are the remaining ones compensating enough to bring a person back to near normal?

[aquario]

Sure wish there was a bigger statistical sample, but maybe it helps explain why, for the last 5 years, I've had a strong need to start my day with an apple and strawberries (in the summer when they're fresh).

Jon

[soccertese]

here's the full article.
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf.../jmf.2012.0060
suffice it to say i'm a little skeptical. the symptoms came back after wheat germ was eliminated? just too strange imho.

The patient’s medication dosage in December 2008, before
beginning the complete diet rich in fisetin and hexacosanol,
included 7½ carbidopa/levodopa 25/100 and 1mg
of rasagiline daily. By June 2009, 6 months after starting the
complete diet rich in fisetin and hexacosanol, the patient was
able to reduce the medication dose to 4½ carbidopa/levodopa
25/100 and ½ mg of rasagiline daily, while benefiting
from amelioration of motor symptoms. In October 2011
medication doses were 6 carbidopa/levodopa 25/100 CR and
¼mg of rasagiline, while maintaining the significant improvement
in allCUSS motor movements obtained in 2009.
-------------------------
the patient is taking almost the same amount of meds as in 2009.

[Conductor71]

Skeptical of what exactly? Statistically, she is not far off the standard 30% med reduction and she is experiencing near 100% in her symptom profile. In DBS, you are lucky to get 50% improvement. Some do not even gain a med reduction with DBS at all. I would rather O.D. on strawberries first.


[Analysis of antiparkinsonian drug reduction after bilateral subthalamic deep brain stimulation].


I know the wheat germ thing sounds sort of sketchy, but it seems a normal response to have a gradual decline when you deny your body something that was in some way therapeutic.

Even if you don't buy the whole dietary approach, there is at least now a person who has done a lot of white rat work for us and identified two substances that really seem to help PWP. I'll take it. There is more here to trust than in the usual animal model experiments that never even make it to people.

No one saw the word "cure". If anything, you can just see if just eliminating the foods to avoid helps. That lower 1.5 pill dose of levodopa and 1/2 rasagaline may seem insignificant from a statistical standpoint, but qualitatively it means quite a bit when told that all you can expect is a downward spiral and meds that become unbearable; well, I guess this sounds better.

I will say they should have used a standard symptom measure on the UPRS scale at the key intervals of 2009 and 2011 after establishing a baseline. The author concludes by stating the need to study this on a larger patient sample.

I think overall the takeaway is that DBS was further delayed, symptoms reduced to almost zero, and she has not had to increase her meds above baseline. This implies that definitely impacts disease progression. My question is how long is it sustainable? It also begs the question of supplement form. Obviously, it is a journal with a bias toward food as medicine, so it remains up to others to see if taking strawberry extract works just as well.

Laura

[lurkingforacure]

Thanks for posting the full article, I noticed she did NOT take wheat germ oil...now I will have to return the vat of it that I ran out and bought right after I read the abstract!

I think this is promising, too, but understand what Soccertease is saying. Yes, she is close to taking almost the same amount of meds as she was before she began the diet.....but, her symptoms are almost gone. And being maintained, two years later. Who among PWP, taking the usual and customary drug regime, can say that?

The bigger concern for me is that she seems pretty clearly in the category of known-causes of PD: neurotoxin exposure. Most of us do not have this luxury-we have no idea how or why we have PD. Nor can we pinpoint with the remoteness accuracy when it all really might have started (symptoms come years later which is not much help). One of the best things about this, though, is that anyone can try it with the only side effect being better overall health.

I had to smile at the end of the article, where the authors state they have no conflicts of interest, because I actually believe it this time

[soccertese]

http://www.bastyr.edu/people/researc...sta-mallen-phd
not much research by this person, has no pd experience listed.
bastyr is not a research institution, they do very little research
http://www.bastyr.edu/research

i can"t take any anecdotal "research" that seriously. honestly, i'm shocked this made it into a "scientific" journal. i'm not even attempting to analyze the "science" since it's all depending on the honesty of one person with no way to independently verifying anything about what went on, from her beginning meds, to the neuro, to her ending meds to whether the person actually ate what was reported.

i'm not as trusting as you are. i hope it is valid but i can"t invest a lot of time and effort in this kind of stuff. lots of people eat very healthy diets, get p.d. and get worse. then out of the blue someone who it seems basically treated themselves reports they got better?

personally, i've tried everything. chelation, i.v. glutathione, i live on brown rice, lentils, fruits and vegetables, take a lot of supplements and i get worse.

[wxxu]

Like most dietary regimens, this one is not said to work for everybody. But it is neither completely "anecdotal" as I see and is at least informative for PWP. Suggestion - for those who want to try, can someone organize an easy to follow but documented trial so that the result can be analyzed?

[Ginny Renoudet]

I'm the retired dietitian in the article. (My neighbors wanted me to share how my walking, etc, improved so dramatically, thus the published article.) Here's an update. I was doing well until late 2013 when I developed an allergy (characterized by flushing and breathlessness) to strawberries and several other foods. By February 2014 I had to stop consuming strawberries. Many of my symptoms began to worsen. In June 2014 I started taking the Swanson brand of fisetin. To approximate the amount in strawberries I divide the each capsule into six portions, taking one at breakfast and one a dinner. Over several months my symptoms again improved.

In January 2015 I became intolerant of rasagiline and synthroid, stopping both in February 2015. Without the rasagiline, I have more tremor, etc, but am able to function well. I'm currently taking 6 carbidopa/levodopa 25/100, and one 25/100 CR at 10 PM.