Bastyr Researcher Leads Progressive Parkinson's Disease Summer School Program
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Kenmore, WA – Bastyr University researcher Laurie Mischley, ND, MPH, PhD, is about to lead the world’s only event of its kind for patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). This August, Dr. Mischley will facilitate a medical-educational retreat in collaboration with Bastyr University known as “PD Summer School.” The five-day itinerary is full of therapeutic strategies and tips designed to improve the lives of individuals with Parkinson's disease. The 2019 program takes place from from August 18 - 23.
I don't know yet. I just discovered it this morning. I'd go in a heartbeat if it was a little less expensive. I believe an analysis of the lab work and using it as guidance is perhaps the best thing any of us could do. If you look at the schedule there are several very interesting discussions. Right now I'm on the fence, it's 50-50.
I hate to say but this is emblematic of how we are preyed upon in this way. Much of the information can be gotten for free on the internet.
I would venture to say that cost of attendance, companion cost, lodging, travel etc, could easily cost over $10,000!
The chances of your own MDS coordinating and cooperating with this Naturopathic Doctor is slim to none. I have seen her videos and the lifestyle choices she advocates makes sense, but a five day seminar at $10,000? Makes no sense.
The fee is $4500, $2,000 of which is for lab work. Add housing and travel and your estimate is off by 100%. Clearly, you haven't read the website.
Personally, I wouldn't much care if my doctor ever communicated with her. I get pharmaceuticals from a doctor which does absolutely nothing to slow the progression. We get lab work to reveal deficiencies and guidance on how to slow the progression from Dr. Mischley.
There are 2 camps of people on this forum. Those who believe you should only do what your doctor says and those who believe your Dr. cannot do anything to slow the progression, so you might as well try something else and the only other thing to try is nutrition, lifestyle changes, and supplements. There is nothing else.
Since one has 0 possibility of slowing the progression and there's reason to believe the other might, it's a clear choice for me.
So where do I fit? I consult a doctor as a resource who has knowledge and expertise I dont have but in the end I do what works for me. I dont believe my doctor can do anything to slow progression but I dont believe anyone can slow my progression. I may be able to with exercise and good support but for me the jury is out. We are still in the learning phase of how to treat PD, we dont even know what type I have.
Confidence in skills of neuroscience is not a matter of faith, but results must be achieved. Otherwise it is faith on a par with the rest with various nuances of public relations, and marketing. After 50 years, we are still at a levodopa, whether we want to or not. Probably we are not at the point of knowledge to be able to intervene in the complex neurocellular mechanisms whose chemistry is quite complex, it took 30,000 years for man to generate discoveries that can lead us to explore the stars, but perhaps the “Terra Incognita” is inside our head and that is ourselves. IMHO It will take fundamental discoveries, perhaps, that transcend pure materialism.
There is, of course, no way to prove somebody has slowed their progression.
Would you agree that Parkinson's causes imbalances and deficiencies which lead to other illnesses? If so, then would you agree that as these illnesses accumulate and worsen, they can accelerate the progression?
If we took two 65-year-old identical twins both diagnosed with Parkinson's on the same day where one twin did nothing about his/her health and the other twin developed a robust program of testing for deficiencies and imbalances and then followed appropriate medically recognized protocols to address those, with all other things being equal, after 10 years, is 1 more likely to have progressed slower than the other?
I think it fundamental that, for example, a person diagnosed with young onset Parkinson's who continues to drink alcohol, live on McDonald's double whopper with cheese and pastry (and later develops diabetes) will progress faster.
For perspective, I had a cystoscopy done last year that cost $13,000. I had the option of doing it in office or in the OR under sedation - which would enable a biopsy if needed and also hydrodistension - a procedure wherein they overfill the bladder in an attempt to to alleviate nerve entrapment (they also seemed to ream the urethra a bit - quite painful afterwards but I was peeing like Niagra Falls). Since we had met our deductible for the year I decided to do it in the OR and get the nerve entrapment thingy done. I was expecting it to cost 'only' around $5k and pay ~$500; instead, I was out $1,300...
Unfortunately, it did not help my pain condition, but hey - nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I’m going. Around 2000 of the price are the labs. They only have a few spots left in case anyone is thinking of going. I know someone who went last year and said it was life changing. Laurie and her team have been doing an ongoing longitudinal study for the past (6-8?) years to identify which nutritional and lifestyle factors contribute to slow or fast progression. Around 2000 Parkinsons patients currently enrolled. She bases her orientation primarily on her own results. She is a naturopath who treats only PD patient, passionate and very committed. It’s true that much of what she suggests is on the internet but there is also a lot of contradictory information out there, I find her methodology and orientation compelling.
Forgot to mention, she has each participant do a battery of labs beforehand and then work during the week with clinicians to develop an individualized plan.
“If a person has no hope, he is truly blessed because that person has no fear of failure.”
So there is a hope that something will happen. That is why you do all this. Where there is hope, there is always fear attached to it about whether it is going to happen or not. When you hope and look forward to something happening, fear and frustration are waiting just behind. Another way of looking at hope is as an expectation. If a person has no hope, he is truly blessed because that person has no fear of failure. The fear of missing out on something is totally absent in such a person.
If PD has still not ventured much beyond being idiopathic then we really do not know that other health conditions will make it worse. I have had type two diabetes for 21 years and PD for 11 years. My PD symptoms are not affected by diet - in fact they have not worsened since diagnosis. I also have high blood pressure, high cholesterol and obstructive sleep apnoea. I have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and have had a kidney tumour. By your reckoning, my PD should have me virtually at the door of death but I am far from that. Generalisation or the application of logic that might work in other situations is not always possible for PD. My Father’s Sister and my Father both had PD. My Aunt died within 7 years of diagnosis of complications of PD and my Father died of an aortic aneurism nearly 39 years post diagnosis!!
Do you eat foods with sugar or drink fruit juices? Do you eat foods that turn into sugar in your body, i.e. potatoes, rice, wheat, corn, (grains) ? Do you get enough exercise? Do you take vitamin D? Are you obese?
As a diabetic I do not drink riot juice but do eat fruit. I eat nothing that has a direct sugar content of more than 5%. I also take the max daily dose of metformin - partly for my diabetes but partly because of the good research reports on the repurposing of that drug. I generally eat complex carbs but also granary bread and some below ground veg. I probably do not get sufficient exercise although I do manage about 10,000 steps per day. I have medically tested and was Vit D deficient. I take a prescribed supplement from my GP. My BMI is in the obese category - just. I hope this helps you.
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