Insulin for Parkinson's

[kz59]

Hello All, A friend in my local Parkinson's group is seeing a movement specialist who is giving his patients insulin. The doctor says that his patients are having remarkable results. Has anyone heard anything about this?

[RS313]

Interested to hear about this!

[Bongobyron in reply to RS313]

My wife is a doctor for for the last 30 years and says that it’s very dangerous to take insulin if you don’t need it

[1953bullard]

Intranasal? I just pulled this up parkinsonsnewstoday.com/201...

[kz59 in reply to 1953bullard]

At this point, I only know that it is a small injection in the stomach, once a day.

[1953bullard in reply to kz59]

Interesting!

[Xenos]

Not that surprising since many sources want to label neurodegenerative diseases as a "type 3 diabetes"...

[ddmagee1 in reply to Xenos]

I had never heard of neurodegenerative diseases referred to as a "type 3 diabetes". What would be the scientific, investigative, basis for this hypothesis, I wonder?

[M1tz1 in reply to Xenos]

I do know that Alzheimer's is referred to as Type 3 Diabetes. My husband had it.

[Astra7]

Very interesting. Perhaps diet could fix Pd? I can’t stop shoveling in the sugar.

[kz59 in reply to Astra7]

Unfortunately, me too.,

[RS313 in reply to kz59]

me 3

[M1tz1 in reply to Astra7]

Sugar is very bad for the brain, according to US neurologist, Dr David Perlmutter; and his views are supported by other experts.

[JAS9 in reply to M1tz1]

I agree that refined sugar is very bad, but Perlmutter goes too far when he suggests that apples, pears, mangos, and bananas are bad for you: "If you’re going for fruit, trying grabbing a handful of berries, or similar low-sugar fruit."

[M1tz1 in reply to JAS9]

I gather it's the quantity of sugar in some fruit. My late husband had Type 2 diabetes from carbo-loading for Marathon running. He then developed Alzheimer's (regarded as Type 3 diabetes) and had lost some cognitive function. Using Dr Perlmutter's protocol he was able to stop his diabetes medication and regained his lost cognitive function. Sadly, we couldn't do anything about his PD. 🙂

[Hikoi in reply to M1tz1]

The other experts being????

[M1tz1 in reply to Hikoi]

Hi Hikoi, the first and most significant name that comes to mind is Dr Dale Bredesen, US board-certified neurologist, who, with a team of neurologists has brought many people back from Alzheimer's disease and has written a book on reversing the condition. (Not sure how to put in a picture of the book mid-text. Will try later. Busy finalizing my house move now!) I first encountered him and Dr Perlmutter in an online course, Awakening from Alzheimer's, in which a dozen or so speakers discussed this topic. Dr Mary Metcalfe, whose husband was badly stricken with Alzheimer's, brought him back using coconut oil rather than sugar as brain fuel. Will that do for now? If you need more, Hikoi, I'll try to get back to you later. 🙂

[Hikoi in reply to M1tz1]

Thanks M1tz1

Never heard of Dr Bredesen so not able to comment but will read some. I think you might mean Dr Mary Newport whose husband after a few good months took a turn for the worse and died maybe 2 or more years ago.

[M1tz1 in reply to Hikoi]

My reply to this seems to have disappeared. Sorry. I have to do everything in such a hurry. You're right about Dr Mary Newport. I should have checked. I didn't know about her husband's relapse. She still gives that same talk when the series 'Awakening from Alzheimer's' is updated.

[francis6 in reply to Astra7]

As my earlier post (below) I had an unusual craving for sugary foods prior to diagnosis but have moved to a very low carb (and no sugar) diet since and have seen multiple health benefits and am taking less meds. It may just work for me but cutting down/out sugar doesn't seem to have any downsides.

[Maltipom in reply to Astra7]

It's an addiction that I suffer with as well🙄

[ion_ion]

PD is considered diabetes 3 type. I read that somewhere.

[kz59]

I've never heard that before. Maybe there is hope.

[Bridielena]

Yes Ive been on an injection of Exenatide for 2 years on and off .

It’s a Diabetic Injection given once a week. A nurse visits me in my home.

The needle is big and confronting.

I don’t know what I’ll be like in the coming months as I’m taking myself off it in a week.

I live in Qld Australia where this is not on PBS list (very cheap prescriptions)for Parkinsons,

so I have to buy it at a high price even though my Pharmacist gives it to me at Cost plus $20.

I’m not giving up

I’m always

[Millbrook]

I saw a documentary when I was in japan a few years ago. PD patients were given insulin via nose spray and symptoms improved

[Stazina]

As an RN this doesn't sound right to me, there is short and long acting Insulin; even if given long acting it wouldn't last any longer than about 12 hours. The abdomen is a normal injection site for Diabetics and aside from lowering someone's blood sugar temporarily, which could be dangerous; I just don't know what the benefit would be. If there's evidence that those with PD have chronic elevated blood sugars, then it would seem injections would be much more frequent. I'm going to research this a bit more.

[francis6]

Prior to my diagnosis with PD two and a half years ago I developed an unusual craving for sugary foods. Since my diagnosis and discovering that there were a number of trials of drugs (such as exanatide) used to treat Type 2 diabetes on patients with PD I cut out all foods with added sugar and, eventually, moved to a very low carb (ketogenic) diet that has been shown to control blood sugar. I now take less than half the amount of Sinimet than I had been prescribed previously. Apart from that I lost around 50 lbs and 4 inches off my waist,

lowered my blood pressure and many other health benefits. For me, changing to a diet that has been shown to work for diabetes is preferable to taking more drugs.

[CaseyInsights in reply to francis6]

Just loved how you moved from ‘trials of drugs...used to treat Type 2 diabetes on patients with PD’ to what in effect is an anti-diabetic diet.

And with excellent results too.Way to go. No need to wait on the drugs.

Brilliant 👍🏾🏋️‍♀️👍🏾

[mariecoppola]

Follow Dr Mark Hyman"s "broken brain" docuseries. It explains the healing and nourishing of the brain-body connection. He teaches functional medicine and connects all disease with food, There is one segment directly connecting Parkinson's and food, (sugar) and does explain why this disease is considered type 3 diabetes. The brain is craving sugar, and feeding it interferes with weakened brain cells. My husband craves sugar all the time and I try to be on top of this as his caregiver.

[francis6 in reply to mariecoppola]

Sugar is not only bad for you it is also quite addictive. Once you have cut it out of your diet completely, you will notice the difference.

[mariecoppola in reply to francis6]

I agree... but difficult for some.

[beccainnyc]

If people would do research before commenting you would understand more.. this drug is one of the biggest breakthroughs coming to treat pd...

[LevoFan]

I am a 64 year old veterinarian, retired about a year ago due to PD symptoms, which for me began about 12 years ago. I have found these PD groups very interesting. We all end up having very similar experiences. I know you can’t believe everything you see in an open forum like this, but I think the majority of posts are honest and well intentioned. I would normally be rather skeptical of this thread of posts about sugar/diabetes and PD, but reading them triggered a memory I hadn’t thought of in a while. Some of these symptoms seem to come and go in the course of the disease, but for several years I was totally convinced that sugar consumption would exacerbate my PD symptoms which were tremors and fatigue. It was especially noticeable in the morning - wake up feeling fairly good, have my typical sugary breakfast, and then crash, right when the sugar should have been making me feel good and energized. I mentioned this to my family doctor and my MDS, but neither knew what it meant. I had some blood sugar testing done (fasting and postprandial) and nothing abnormal was found. Over time I have not noticed it as much. Maybe just got used to it or maybe that aspect has changed for real. Like any other human, I do like sugar and know I use too much of it. This post has inspired me to look into this again and try eliminating as much sugar from my diet as I can. Hope this helps to inspire others too.

[alexask in reply to LevoFan]

There is a substantial number of Parkinson's sufferers who believe a low/carb keto diet is beneficial. Myself I definitely suffer if I eat too many carbs - especially in the morning. Rather than Insulin though I think PD sufferers may benefit more from Metformin. If you do suffer from lack of sleep then your are likely to become insulin resistant.

[RS313]

This is very interesting! I will be following this..praying it may be the answer some day

[Mezzomom1]

I’ve had PD for about 16 years and am now on Rytary. I was diagnosed with late onset type 1 diabetes last December and am now on an insulin pump. I can tell you that insulin doesn’t make any difference in my symptoms at all. I still need the carbidopa/levodopa to stop my tremors and walk well. I don’t eat sugar now at all and feel good otherwise.

[Jandeb]

Excess sugar affects cells in a variety of ways resulting in inflammation in various forms. It forms products in the body known as AGEs (advanced glycation endproducts) which in addition to inflammation can disrupt proper cellular function. Also insulin resistance which results from chronic excess sugar wreaks havoc in many ways.

Sugar is addictive and humans never consumed much of it until the last few generations. There is a fair amount of politics involved re the food industry that protects sugar as well.

Check out RObert Lustig or Gary Taubs for understandable detailed insights. They both have good youtubes.

[MWLE]

Insulin is 1 of 2 known energy sources for the brain. Ketone is the 2nd one. Some people's syndromes improve when they are on a keto diet (very low carb. diet).

I would be very careful with taking insulin in general given what I know. Part of insulin's job is to move carb. into the fat cells for storage. If insulin is helping, this means that you have too much carb. in your system. This to me means that that person need to cut down A LOT on the carb. intake.

[Getz]

There is a good article about intra-nasal insulin on this site. Had FDA approval for a number of things and was used by some for Parkinson's but here in Australia my doctor wouldn't have a bar of it and we can't get it over the counter like you can in the US.