turimec

[ConcernedMate]

has anyone tried turmeric for their Parkinson? my husband is only on sinemet so far but because his blood pressure drops so much when standing the neurologist will not add anything else. he also has Hashimoto's disease, agent orange, PTSD and Fibromyalgia. His depression is worsening.and i feel like he is giving up please help

[M-o-ggy]

Hi there. I take curcumin. The cheaper versions are not as good in my opinion Perhaps mucuna puriensis would be better than Sinimet but others on here know much more than I do.

I have taken mucuna in the past but stopped when the doctor doubled my prescription as I wanted to get used to the new dose before adjusting the mucuna. I felt much happier I am going through a bad patch at the moment but that could be the Sinimet. Could also be the change from one to the other. Having to try diff things to see what works. I also take Vit B supplements

This forum is a life saver

[ConcernedMate in reply to M-o-ggy]

I have never heard of mucuna but I will research it

[ConcernedMate in reply to M-o-ggy]

Where do you buy your curcumin and mucuna?

[M-o-ggy in reply to ConcernedMate]

Amazon

[park_bear]

You and he need to address his blood pressure problem. Loss of blood pressure upon standing is called "orthostatic hypotension", or OH for short. It can result from Parkinson's or the Parkinson's medications known as dopamine agonists. So your MD is very smart to stick with levodopa.

As to addressing this problem, the very first thing you need to do is get a good blood blood pressure cuff and measure his blood pressure morning and evening, standing and lying down. Before I suggest measures to improve his OH I need to know what these 4 measurements are so as not to endanger him.

I was temporarily disabled for a month - unable to stand without fainting- as result of drug-induced failure of my blood pressure regulation system. So I know about dealing with this problem from experience.

[ConcernedMate in reply to park_bear]

I will get the different bp for you thank you

[ConcernedMate in reply to park_bear]

In the morning his bp in laying 159/82 standing 100/65 night time laying 175/94 standing 98/62 > my husband has had higher laying plus he has had lower standing.

[park_bear in reply to ConcernedMate]

Well done. As is typical for this condition, his supine (lying down) blood pressure is high. This is called supine hypertension. Note that the average of his supine and standing blood pressure is about right - there is a long-term blood pressure regulation system that regulates average blood pressure. It has a slow response. This is also the reason why his evening supine blood pressure is higher than this morning supine blood pressure. During the day when he is sitting or standing his blood pressure is too low, so the slow blood pressure regulation system increases it. At night when lying down his blood pressure is too high, so you see a decrease in his blood pressure from evening to morning.

When I was suffering from this problem my standing blood pressure was even lower and my supine blood pressure was even higher. So his postural blood pressure regulation system is impaired but not completely shot.

So what you want to do to mitigate this problem is to raise his blood pressure in the morning when he wants to become active. He should then not lie down. If he needs to rest he can sit or recline. A simple way to accomplish this is for him to drink isotonic saline. This is a fancy term for saltwater with the same salt concentration as blood plasma. The reason for using this instead of plain water is that plain water will be excreted quickly to maintain the proper concentration of salt and other electrolytes in the blood. Isotonic saline is .9% salt by weight, 9 grams per liter which is about 8 grams per quart. 8 grams is a heaping teaspoon. Best to get a sensitive scale for measurement, these can be had inexpensively from Amazon.

One quart of isotonic saline was about right for me. You will need to experiment to find out how much is right for him. The right amount will let him stand and move about without feeling faint, yet not raise his sitting blood pressure too high. You can check on this by measuring his sitting blood pressure after the saline has been absorbed.

The excess blood volume will be slowly excreted during the course of the day. By evening his supine blood pressure should be about the same as what you have measured. Also, to reduce stroke risk he can sleep reclining instead of supine.

Good luck and let me know how it works out.

[ConcernedMate in reply to park_bear]

Will start tomorrow thank you for information

[NanCyclist]

I drink a turmeric latte each morning. recipes are on line. i use 1/2/t of the spice mix to 1 C of steaming almond milk. Is making a difference with constipation as well as what it’s for, helping m y joints. NOT a scientific study, just came from a friend’s recomendation.

[nov22jlp in reply to NanCyclist]

Good to know will have my husband try it thank .

[sharron2]

My husband has slowly improved his orthostatic hypotension by changing his prostate meds. He just recently changed his sinimet to rytary and his most pronounced affect has been the almost total reduction of his orthostatic hypotension. He is thrilled to be able to get up out of a chair and not deal with the dizziness he has had for the last 6 or 7 years. He has had periods of being almost bed ridden with orthostatic hypotension when his prostate meds and parkenson's meds combined to drop his blood pressure to 47/38 at times.

My husband is a vet with agent orange exposure resulting diabetes, heart disease and Parkinson's. The VA has prescribed him bupropion and sertraline for depression. These medications really helped for depression and anxiety. I hope your husband will consider this if he is not already receiving treatment for depression.

Rytary is evidently expensive, but there are programs to reduce the price to about 30.00 per month that our Neurologist uses for their patients. So everyone should inquire about this program if they choose to use rytary. At this time we are very happy with this medication.

Good luck!

[Fava-1]

I use turmeric all the time in cooking and am now making Turmeric Paste and using for Golden Milk to help sleep at night. There are many recipes for Golden milk on You Tube. Made mine the cooked paste way with turmeric, fresh ginger, cinnamon, water...Look it up and try it. Has many medicinal properties (anti-inflammatory for one) (helps sleep) Just those 2 are good enough for me!