This Canadian-Spanish team examines the hypothesis that the micro-fungus, Malassezzia which causes dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis (SD) xould get into the brain and damage cells.
The association between the two conditions may also be due to a common factor that helps promote both conditions. Not all people with SD have PD and vice versa.
"Beyond the strong association between PD and SD, and preliminary evidence of Malassezia's presence inside the CNS, three additional lines of evidence support a direct contribution of Malassezia in PD: [1] many PD risk alleles affect lipid metabolism (Malassezia are lipophilic), [2] Malassezia invasiveness and melanin production are both stimulated by L-DOPA (L-DOPA is naturally abundant in the substantia nigra), and [3] low CD4+ T cell counts observed in PD might contribute to the over proliferation of microbes such as Malassezia."
It would be interesting to know how many of us also have severe dandruff or SD ? I have always had dandruff.
Frontiers | Malassezia and Parkinson's Disease | Neurology
Hubby has dandruff. Also he has always treated it with harsh anti dandruff shampoos which can’t help. Not now. He uses organic shampoo instead. I think he has a systematic overgrowth of bacteria, fungi, etc due to poor metabolism of sugar and fats leading to a bountiful supply of food for all the little critters. I think getting digestion going properly is key.
"I have always had dandruff." Count my husband in, Albert!
He had the stenting procedure on July 24th, and there were near fatal complications! He developed edema on face and neck, a complication which the cardiologist never mentioned to us before the surgery. Fortunately, he lived through this complication, but we are furious with this cardiologist. As Vanderbilt MDS stated over and over, the cardiologist must be very experienced. He (MDS) recommended surgery rather than stenting as that is the appropriate procedure for my husband's age and condition. His face, neck and chest are purple from the edema which subsided considerably and there is no more swelling. It will take time to turn to normal color, but THANK GOD, he is recovering and will be discharged tomorrow. I lived my worst nightmare and shock of my life!
So very, very sorry to hear this Despe. What a dreadful shock for you both, and a horrible experience to have to live through.
Glad to hear your husband is recovering and will be discharged into your care tomorrow. Next few weeks will be tough I know (speaking from experience).....hang in there.
Albert and each one of you, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for your encouraging words, God knows how much I need your support.
My husband was discharged yesterday. He is doing a lot better although whatever energy PD had left in him is now almost completely gone. The complications affected his throat (was/is bruised) and can eat only soft foods as he hurts when he tries to swallow anything from water to solid food.
Guess, with all the trauma, one good thing came out of it: his tremors are almost gone and his thinking and memory appear to have improved tremendously.
He continues to be on blood thinners and cholesterol lowering meds, WHICH I HATE BOTH! From what I have read, Magnesium is doing everything these two meds do. I have read Dr. Dean's literature on Magnesium and am convinced that my husband can stop these two horrible meds and take just magnesium which he has been taking for a while. His cholesterol levels were perfect before his procedure and he never had to take meds. The meds he is on now have caused him extremely low blood pressure which was almost perfect before the procedure. I have every reason to mistrust allopathic medicine, don't I??
I would appreciate your thoughts on these two dreadful meds.
The blood thinners should be temporary, but I'm not sure about magnesium as a blood thinner. Fish oil and curcumin thin the blood as does, I believe, vinpocetine to name a few supplements. I am absolutely with you on cholesterol lowering drugs (some sort of station I assume). I believe-and it's just my opinion-that they are terrible and in many cases unnecessary. I'm glad your husband is doing better and wish him a continued, speedy and uneventful recovery.
Hi Julie! Thank you for your wishes and for your insight concerning statins and cholesterol lowering drugs. According to Dr. Dean, MD, ND, magnesium acts as statin as well as cholesterol lowering drug. There are supplements as you correctly mentioned that can/will do the same job as meds. Actually, the cardiologist asked my husband to stop taking Turmeric! I am wondering why the cardiologist didn't ask my husband to continue with Turmeric and skip the med??? Hypothetical question, of course.
Both meds have lowered his BP (70-90) and he feels really weak.
Despe, First glad to hear your husband is recovering from this scary, unforeseen, unwarned about complication. I am so sorry you and your husband had to go through this. Sending. warm wishes and healing energy your way. Not the first story I've heard from people I know about potential complications that are either not mentioned or down-played and risk factors not given.
Glen always used to have dandruff and skin fungus. He had many years of Drs prescribing Selsun Blue shampoo for both but it didn't cure either. He went through a stage several years ago where his head would leave a kind of 'greasy' mark on the headboard of the bed. Now all that has gone - I'm not entirely sure why as I have him on so many supplements so it may be one of them but I suspect it's mainly due to cinnamon bark essential oil.
A number of years before my husband's diagnosis his bed pillow/s (under the pillowcase) began slowly turning this dark brownish yellow. I couldn't figure it out. He washes his hair daily. My pillow/s were fine. I started using zipper under-cases - but even they turn dark brownish yellow. Doesn't wash or bleach out very well in my experience. It's the Parkinson's sebum. I see it as a big possible PD indicator (though I guess it also happens outside of PD & doesn't always happen within PD . I'll be very interested to see how the understanding of this evolves -
That's exactly my experience. I have to change the pillows from time to time. It seems unlikely that Malassezia is the root cause of PD, but I don't rule it out as one more aggravating factor. As a precaution, it does no harm to make sure that dandruff is kept well under control.
Ever since my undergraduate days in Psychology, I have always felt that surveys and statistics would obtain better answers and obtain them more quickly than any other means of discovery. If you ask enough questions to a large enough sample, you will discover the right links and "correlations" to solve our medical mysteries. There are a lot of college students in the behavioral and natural sciences that would be much better suited to objectively learn from actual discovery work in the lab and by this research rather than be corrupted by the profit motives of the drug companies.
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