THese three activities injure my dopamine secreting cells.
 

From my own observation the following injures dopamine secreting cells. 1. At least some types of general anaesthesia.Like the one they gave me that had me in great disttress from restless leg syndrome once I woke up, that disease being due to too low dopamine in certain areas of the brain. At least one study backs me up, plus ask some who has had multi hours of general anaesth during heart by pass, how they feel. Its not pretty even years later. THey look like a deer caught in the headlights. 2. Simply getting cold. Man evolved in Africa , read warm, and has not yet perfected being in thei cold, it suppresses my immune system and to make up for that, my body stimulates my own immunity ( I have a disease that allows me to perceive both of things), But because we havenet lived in the cold long enough, not near as long as we lived in Africa, we havent perfected this imm. stim of ourselves and we harm brain cells when we do it. My tinnitus which gets louder due to any type of brain damage starts screaming at me when I get cold, and if I persist to be cold by that evening I feel like I have a scar across my brain, my dopamine is lower than usual, and it takes even 24 hours to feel normal again. ALso ever notice how sleepy you get after being cold for a protracted period? Sleepy is what any kind of brain damage causes me to get, due to the body trying to heal the damage. 3. SItting in a chair and letting my head fall forward if I fall asleep thus cutting off blood to my brain. I wake up dingy , easier for me to feel due to prior brain damage. and my tinnitus is screaming at me, see 2 above.

Steve Lord

FYI .. restless legs in NOT a sign of low dopamine, though dopamine agonists are prescribed for the symptoms of it. The jury is still out on RLS' causes.

Numerous studies show a deficiency in iron levels in the brain (not serum blood levels, which are usually normal). Interesting because one of the supposed causes of PD is too much iron in the brain. As you are no doubt aware, there are many associations between PD and RLS amongst patients.

Other studies show high levels of glutamine in the brain .. both of these theories has a lot of research behind it but the jury is still out.

And it's similar with PD. The "cause" (if it's singular, which I doubt) is not yet found not controlled. Hell, they cannot even diagnose it definitively .. it's entirely subjective at this point.

No offense intended but you might do better on this board to ask more questions and make fewer definitive statements.

Ah, Breezy then everyone on this board already knows all that will ever be known about their disease and so new ideas have no place here. THanks

I will add that the way people fight off restless leg is to move, move the lets around fast or body , thus they call it restless leg syndrome. That brings me relief. If I stray off my high dopamine diet even a little I get restless leg syndrome to the point it almost drives me out of my mind, otherwise its minimal and sporadic. WHen you see a person in public shaking their leg rapidly while sitting still, they always have an uncomfortable look in the eye, they probably are trying to counteract that low dopamine feeling, I guess ADHD is also a low dopamine disease. Why does that rapid movement bring relief, as it does for me, because it increases dopamine. My brother shares PD and restless leg and ADHD. . I read one definitive statement about ten years ago about low dopamine being the cause of restless leg. You say now there is a split jury. Maybe it could be settled if blueberries do not suppress glutamine but make restless leg better better or eliminates it within two minutes.

STeve Lord

Only a handful of things ever helps my RLS ..
1. Exhaust myself from a really physical day
2. a little (just a litle mary jane)
3. I suppose my pramipexole, though that doesn't seem to pack the punch it used to.

I am enrolled in a sleep study for RLS and hope to know more upon that experience. And yes, RLS is sometimes pure hell.

Steve, out of curiosity, how have the dopamine levels in your brain been measured?

The only way that I know of for doing this is fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging).

I get restless legs only now if dopamine level is low , because I haven't been keeping as aware of my need and taking tincture of fava plant when symptoms first start. Had a weird experience last week. Took tincture first thing in am before going to the garden to work / worked all morning/ fixed lunch/ ate / took a nap and when I got awake about 3:30 realized I couldn't move my legs...like they were heavy wooden boards just laying there. Had DB get my tincture...took some and about 8 minutes later was able to move them and get up. First time that ever happened! Filled tincture bottles that day and got them back in their places. (One beside the bed/ one in kitchen/ one in greenhouse/ one in car/ one in pocket book...so it is never far away with me stuck somewhere. I was concerned at first that I'd had a stroke when my legs were "not connected to my will" , but the L-dopa in the tincture fixed it. God is so good.

By feel.

Steve Lord