A little over a year ago, I switched to a WFPB diet. At the same time I began exercising, partly because I had more energy and felt better than I had in several years. Considering where I was when I started, I'm amazed at how well things are going and wanted to see if others have had similar results (or not). About 4 months ago I began with HDT, and that may have helped a bit as well.
So, if you're WFPB, please let me know how you're doing.
For those who don't know what WFPB means, it stands for Whole Foods, Plant Based.
Whole Foods means that the food is complete as it was grown, including whole grains. Grinding and cooking are fine, but otherwise no refining or concentrating. No processed foods such as added oils or refined sugar.
Plant Based means only plants and no animal food products, such as meat, fish, chicken, dairy or eggs. Otherwise commonly referred to as 'vegan'.
I'll be happy to answer other questions about WFPB.
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JAS9
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Whole Foods means that the food is complete as it was grown. Grinding and cooking are fine, but otherwise no refining or concentrating. No processed foods such as added oils or refined sugar.
Plant Based means only plants and no animal food products, such as meat, fish, chicken, dairy or eggs. Otherwise commonly referred to as 'vegan'.
I was pretty much vegan for years, I did include olive oil, and some fish. I ate healthy fresh greens, steamed veggies, beans, veggie entrees ,and fruit.....was always lower on energy, great blood tests though. Now I include poultry, but still fight fatigue.
I probably had eggs once, twice yearly, egg whites that is, had a few frozen yoghurts each summer, high protein, low fat, plain yoghurt once, twice weekly, and low fat milk for coffee/tea every day. Everything I ate was organic.
Oh I got parky long before I was vegan, and I assume that JAS9 and KERRINGTON did too. But maybe I'm wrong? My change to vegan gave me energy that I then used to exercise. And, yes, I'm fully vegan for almost18 months now and still love it.
I recently found the symptoms of CJD were awfully similar to those experienced by pwp and that made me curious. ..Googling "CJD symptoms" will show what I mean. ..
Yes, I was diagnosed with PD almost 11 years ago, and I was eating what I thought was a fairly healthy diet. I switched to WFPB a little over a year ago and I think it's helped with some of the symptoms.
Well, I think you do need some "essential oils" such as omega 3. There are sources for omega 3 for vegans and vegetarians. I grind flax seeds and put that in my oatmeal almost every day. You can also get omega 3 supplements that are based on algae, not fish. They say that the brain is made up largely of omega 3, and as we age our brains shrink, but shrink less if you take in omega 3.
"CJD symptoms" not CID. It was prevalent some 25 years ago when people became aware of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalitis) and there were many deaths of cattle and the humans who ate beef.
The neurological problems were similar but even worse than with parkinsons.
I wondered if there was a connection and whether people with a vegan diet could avoid the disease or mitigate the damage.
Interesting. I think that there are probably several triggers that bring on PD. If, for example, CJD and Lime Disease both attack the brain, then the brain's defenses would begin producing Alpha-synuclein to fight it off. Alpha-synuclein is the protein that gets misfolded somehow in PwP. If that's all true then the damage and symptoms would seem to be similar.
Well done Jas9. I have gone whole foods but have salmon 2 days, chicken 2 days, and beef 2 days. The other day is free and sometimes includes a bone broth based stew or just a soup. For breakfast and lunch I have smoothies. Breakfast is Budwig's cottage cheese and flaxseed oil as a base then add MP for dopamine, an egg for protein, psyllium husk for dietary fibre, spirulina for anti neurotoxicity (journals.plos.org/plosone/a... and blueberries, all made more liquid with high probiotic Swedish Filmjolk. My lunch smoothie is primarily neurogenesis focussed with grape juice, beetroot juice, strawberries, astragalus, and ashwaghanda. Before bed I have another smoothie of pineapple juice, banana, potato starch, cacao, and a pill of GABA.
My main meal is about 4/5 cruciferous and dietary fibre (low sugar) veges from the farmers markets or the vege shop, all steamed then heaps of herbs and turmeric.
I have noticed my tremours are nearly gone, my feet are tingling less, but my short term memory is still crap.
I also do John Pepper's hours fast walk every 2nd day, and do the NIR helmet daily and sometimes twice daily.
I started as soon as I couldn't drink my latte with my right hand and it took about 3-4 months before I could use my right hand again. My smoothies change slightly whenever I come across new ideas for neurgenesis and untangling that alpha-synuclein. My latest search is on foods to increase BDNF with probiotics, so foods that feed probiotics are now high on my list and also foods that promote HGH (Human Growth Hormone). All very interesting.
I do the opposite--super high fat, low carbohydrate. But though I eat meat, I don't eat too much because I want my protein low. So I guess my diet is mostly plant--green plant--based as well, with tons of fat from all sources. The point of this diet is to trigger autophagy--the body's cleaning process. Hopefully it will help my brain get rid of alpha-synuclein.
I also stick only to whole foods. Grains (except for oats) are processed before they ever get to the grocery. Otherwise you couldn't eat them at all!
The main, worst culprit for all of us, imho, is sugar.
I think refined sugar combined with added refined and concentrated oils are really, really bad. But sugars and oil that are naturally in whole foods are fine and healthy. To me, processing food to be pure sugar or pure oil is the problem. But we can disagree; that's ok with me. Or maybe we agree? I do eat nuts, seeds, avocado, etc. so I'm not exactly low fat. But I eat plenty of fruit and berries, so I'm not low-carb by any means.
I've looked into autophagy and getting rid of alpha-synuclein. You might be interested in this company's approach. They have a way to clean out the alpha-S and are recruiting for stage 2 human trials: enterininc.com/enterin/
You might also find this video interesting. It sounds as if you've already figured out that protein restriction is a good way to regulate TOR and trigger autophagy. This takes it a step further: youtu.be/dwJASNFy9XQ
The problem with that video is that it is not only leucine that triggers mTOR--it is all branched chain amino acids. They are found in animal products sure, but also legumes, some nuts, and grains. Insulin, and insulin growth factor (another autophagy inhibitor) in particular is triggered by carbs...of all sorts.
The only "free" macronutrient, autophagy-wise, is pure fat. I guess it would not matter the source, theoretically, but you wouldn't find me scarfing down bottles of industrial vegetable oil either! (Lots of other bad reasons ;o)
Of course, you need some protein to live, including BCAA's. So you want to balance flooding your body (inhibiting autophagy) and giving it just enough to build new cells.
The way I do it is by fasting. ZERO protein, for periods of time. Then back to animal, vegetable, whatever whole sources to build back up.
But I agree there are lots of ways. And thank you for the trial info...Im going to look at it now!
Interesting approach. Do you use a software tool or a web site like cronometer.com to balance all of the proteins and nutrients?
As you might know, there's at least one study that demonstrates that IGF-1 levels are higher in people who consume meat and that vegans have the lowest levels as well as more IGF-1 binding receptors. I've seen nothing that shows that carbs trigger IGF-1, certainly not more than animal products do, have you?
Also, 2 years ago I investigated taking rapamycin (generic name "sirolimus") in order to trigger autophagy. I took a low dose for over a year. I might go back on it. There aren't a lot of studies on rapamycin's effect on PD, but here's one: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/200...
Oooh, jealous, where did you get rapamycin? I take metformin, which sadly I think is the poor-man's substitute.
I don't use any software tools, because I have been doing keto long enough now that I have a feel for it. I measure my blood and urine occasionally. As I said, my diet's high fat, low carb, and low protein too...a lot of folks don't understand that and think we shovel meat and bacon into our mouths. Absolutely not. My 30g of carb a day are almost all high fiber green veggies (a LOT of kale :o)
The reason vegans have lower IGF-1 is, I suspect, because most vegans eat less protein than a run-of-the-mill "meat eater". And likely less sugar.
I take no stock in epidemiological studies--associating what people ate (sometimes even "remembering" 10 years ago) with whatever disease process or blood levels. I need to see prospective, hopefully controlled studies: where you randomize people and feed them measured such and so and THEN look at their levels of whatever.
The reason is, often folks who mark: "Ate Lots of Meat" probably also "Ate Lots of Crap" and "Ate Lots of Sugar". Because for most people, marking that is code for "I-Don't-Watch-My-Diet-At All." How many true Keto eaters do you think they queried? Most vegans care about what they eat, or they wouldn't be vegans (for the most part. How many vegans smoke and eat Snickers bars?)
IMHO, macronutrients are macronutrients. A branched chain amino acid behaves the same in your body (triggering mTOR/IGF) whether it comes from a lentil or a chicken or an egg. If the chicken has been treated with some horrible toxic antibiotic that's something else...(bleccch) but of course, it the lentil has been grown with pesticide, well... I suspect you're not eating those either!
Short answer: several of us on another forum (longecity.com) got it from a trustworthy individual in India. Sirolimus is manufactured there for large pharmaceutical companies, so it's cheap. We had it tested. His contact info is no longer valid, so I'd either have to find him or start over.
However, there was (is?) a doctor in NY who was giving valid prescriptions to those who would come to him for a physical. His interest is in longevity but I also got him interested in PD. With a script, many online pharms will fill it.
This: "most vegans eat less protein " is true. Humans need far less protein than almost everyone thinks. But I suspect you know that.
"How many vegans smoke and eat Snickers bars?"
Well, there's never been a prospective, controlled study where you randomize people and make them smoke cigarettes. So how many hundreds of epidemiological studies did it take to convince the Surgeon General to require warning labels? Should we ignore them?
"macronutrients are macronutrients" Yes, but some nutrients aren't quite the same depending on their source. Animal proteins contain much more sulfur (which is bad for about a billion reasons). Does the sulfur-containing amino acid methionine sound familiar? Animal sources of protein simply have more of these problematic amino acids.
HA, true, yes--millions in the case of cigarettes. I believe that one. I happen to suspect sugar, too, and the industry is in the process of trying to hide it, just like the tobacco industry did, IMHO. But to make the epidemiological studies SHOW it, you have to have millions of people over oodles of years with one variable. That's hard with fuzzy diet stuff. And recall. Smoking is more black and white...do you? Or don't you?
Methionine is an essential amino acid. And just because someone eats meat does NOT mean they get too much...unless they are shoveling nothing but free range elk/wild caught halibut into their mouths. I could say the same for vegans--"all they do is eat carbs!" You know that's not true...and I do too.
Excerpt: "A substance like methionine has what’s called a biphasic response. "If you get too little or too much, it’ll cause a lot of problems. You need to get a balanced amount, and that level will be different for everyone"
BTW: there's some evidence that methionine helps with PD tremors! Not convinced. But not everyone thinks it's bad for you.
Over the last couple of months, I have been slowly moving over to Vegan.Taking a slow approach is what works for me, jumping in would stress me out, so I am doing lots of research. There are so many good books and Youtubers, its easy to get info.Its just the beginning for me, but I feel happy about choosing this way.....
Hi, unsinkable! I'm very happy to hear that you're moving towards a vegan diet! There are a few of us here, and I'm convinced that the benefits it brings are very helpful for PwP. I've been at it for over a year, and I still feel better than I did before I switched.
You're right about there being a lot of information out there. Just try to avoid all of the negativity that comes up on Youtube and you'll be fine. For me, the best thing I've done, which has kept me from backsliding, has been to find vegans on Youtube that I trust, both vegan doctors and regular people who are vegan.
Although you'll probably figure everything out yourself, let me know if you have questions, especially about PD and being Vegan.
I agree JAS9 there is lots of evidence out there that benefits can be gained from eating Vegan.Its work searching through Youtube and finding people I can trust, but well worth it. I realize there is negativity on both sides,and I am not one to argue or try and convince people, its better to lead by example...lol
Thank-you for any help and I am sure I will have questions for you.........
Right now I am reading Living Vegan For Dummies........Pretty good
JAS9 & DaveRochester...in retrospect, maybe I did benefit from my healthy vegetarian plus fish diet. I am in my 12/13th yr of PD, held in balance till a yr ago with addition of cucumin to my usual supplements , then PD in full appeared. Last March added a few more supplements, including HDT, Mannitol, Mucuna & Tru Niagen. NO MEDS KNOCK WOOD !
It sounds like you might have seen some benefits. My dx was a little over 10 years ago. I started my WFPB diet over a year ago, and I immediately felt more energetic. Not like Olympic energetic, but enough to get me back into walking again. I've seen other benefits too, but it's hard to tell which of the many supplements or exercises (or WFPB) to attribute them to, which is why I started this topic.
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