The science of Parkinsons. Easy to understand information about pd provided by scientists.

[Hikoi]

scienceofparkinsons.com/

Check it out. The latest blog is on The drugs – Dibenzoylmethane and Trazodone – currently used to treat cancer and depression, respectively.

In this post, they review the research and discuss what it could mean for us with Parkinson’s disease.

[zawy]

Concerning trazodone: My doctor thinks my anxiety, lack of sleep and lack of smell could be the beginning of a dementia or Alzheimer's, and has convinced me it's not the beginning of Parkinson's as the tremors are more like just from anxiety and not classic PD and there's no rigidity. Maybe what I feel is a reduction in facial expressions is just depression. She prescribed me trazodone (used a lot for anxiety), "fresh food", yoga, and not watching TV before bed. I questioned and teased her about what in the world "fresh food" means if not "fruits and vegetables". But it seems she did a good job in prescribing trazodone because it had not crossed my list of things to investigate and it seems to be improving sleep. I do not sense the anxiety is less, but I feel a little happier and more like my old self. Weight lifting helps sleep and anxiety. If I did an hour of it per day, I think it would help twice as much as the trazodone and the combination could might get me back pretty close to normal. I also take 10 mg melatonin. This combined with 50 mg trazodone is the right combination for me. 50% more of each is what I take if I want a deeper and longer sleep. If I wake up after 5 hours from 10 mg / 50 mg then I'll take another 5 mg / 25 mg plus water and peeing to get through the rest of the night. The problem with melatonin is that it only works for 4 hours and I don't know if any time-release form is really doing what it needs to do. I would need to wrap 5 mg in something that takes 4 hours to dissolve. Iburpofen sometimes reduces the anxiety which indicates I might have inflammation in the brain which could be the result of damage caused by some kind of plaque (AD PD, dementia, or some other type of neurodegeneration).

Trazodone definitely makes me sleepy. I would not take it if I need to be awake.

[Serenity_finaly-1]

Wow that's a lot of info. I wish I didn't have a 10 second attention span. I will have to rest up to conquer this post.

[lempa_nik]

I think, speaking of Trazodone, we should also link readers to this extensive thread of rhenry45:

healthunlocked.com/parkinso...

[JohnPepper]

It is not difficult to be excited when we read about these 'new' drugs or the alternate use of existing drugs. The problems are that:

1. it takes forever to come onto the market

2. They claim that it "MAY" help patients with Pd

3. They don't talk about the possible side effects.

Many forms of exercise have been found to slow down the progression of Pd. Fats walking, in my case, has actually reversed many of my Pd symptoms. Other people are busy trying it with good effect.

Why does someone or some organisation spend some money on trials to find which form of exercise produces the greatest benefit?

We know that exercise brings about a beneficial effect on Pd, so why don't doctors tell their patients precisely what to do?

[Hikoi in reply to JohnPepper]

These drugs are already available for other uses John so they are on the market now and have been tested regarding side effects.

You say many forms of exercise have been found to slow Parkinsons so to prove that would mean that there is research going on.

There certainly is a buzz on social media now about exercise and PD. There are also countless pd groups around the world which focus on exercise and pd.

[JohnPepper in reply to Hikoi]

Is there ONE study being done on the comparative merits of Fast Walking, boxing, Dancing, Weight lifting, Tai Chi, Yoga etc?

[PDConscience in reply to JohnPepper]

EARTH TO JP... NEWSFLASH: THE SECRET IS OUT (and has been out for years)! Everybody already knows that prolonged aerobic exercise is beneficial for symptomatic relief - regardless of the "form". Multiple studies already conducted prove exercise's benefits are determined by heart-rate, time, and consistency (not by the particular form of the activity, or whether the word "conscious" is attached).

[JohnPepper in reply to PDConscience]

JP back to Base. I have a very strong feeling tat fast walking does more than any of the other exercises to reverse Pd symptoms. It might help patients to know this!

Not only has exercise relieved many of my symptoms, it has carried on doing so all the time, not just for a couple of hours, as happens with medication, but ALL THE TIME!

Having said that, we know that exercise does a lot more than medication for our Pd, so why are neurologists generally just prescribing medication and not urging their patients to start walking?

[Hikoi in reply to JohnPepper]

John You believe fast walking is best for pd, but in all the years you have posted on this site you have been unable to show proof. I find it strange that walking should be better than any other type of exercise for pd - whats so magical about it? If it is proven to raise GDNF (I have still to see your proof) cant other types of exercise do the same, of course they can. See PDconscience post.

However it's OK for you to believe that walking is superior, just as it is OK that others dont agree and prefer other exercise programmes.

As to blaming neuros, finding someone to blame is easy, but what about our own responsibility for our own health and wellbeing. There is heaps of info about exercise out there.

[JohnPepper in reply to Hikoi]

Yes! At this stage, I can only talk about fast walking in addition to taking an MAO-b inhibitor, because that worked for me. I read about cycling, boxing, dancing and other forms of exercise where others claim it has helped them to overcome some Pd symptoms as well.

Why do we get zillions of articles about this and that medication, when none of it has yet been shown to slow down Pd symptoms, other than MAO-b inhibitors? There are lots of stories about various forms of exercise that HAVE slowed down Pd symptoms, in addition to mine.

That is why I suggest that it is time to do a study on all those various exercises on actual Pd patients and see which of them improves the most. That would be far more worthwhile than all those dollars and pounds being spent on medication studies, where none of them has been proved to reverse the Pd symptoms.

As for PDConscience, he is merely being rude and slanderous. He should declare himself and lets see where he is coming from. Let him give me proof of all his accusations.

[PDConscience in reply to JohnPepper]

JP, In the 15 years since your magnum opus "Reverse Parkinson's Disease" was first published, a grand total of zero science has concluded that any one form of exercise (whether conscious or unconscious) is superior to another. Factors of intensity, duration, and of course the individual's physical ability/dedication to a routine are what actually matter. Your unqualified "strong feeling" about the superiority of fast-walking likely has more to do with book sales, road-show financing, and ego-salvaging than empirical evidence.

[JohnPepper in reply to PDConscience]

Thanks for your ever supportive comments. I am no longer going to respond to your destructive comments as they come from somebody who has vested interests in either medication or the medical profession.

[BUZZ1397 in reply to JohnPepper]

Good decision JP. If this was FB you could restrict or report them. Trolls (they purposely post inflammatory posts on websites in an effort to stir up drama or harass other members) must be shunned here, no choice..

[JohnPepper in reply to BUZZ1397]

Agreed!!!!

[zawy]

Wikipedia says trazodone is the 2nd-most commonly prescribed medication for insomnia