I participated in Laurie Mischley's PD Summer School this month, and I'm so glad I did. I learned a lot and came away with lots of good tweaks to my program (diet. exercise. supplements, etc.), new friends and much hope.
For those who don't know, Laurie is a naturopath who has dedicated the last 20 years or so to treating PD patients and to PD research. She does nothing else. Her CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) Care study has analyzed many lifestyle factors of 2000+ patients, to determine which help slow progression and which speed it up. Based on this along with individual labs and other indicators, she recommends diet, exercise, supplement and other lifestyle and medical interventions. She is NOT anti-pharmaceutical. She is just clear that while meds can help symptoms and thus quality of life, they will not slow or stop progression, much less reverse disease.
She believes that PD IS reversible, and her work is dedicated to figuring out how to do that, and in the meantime, providing the best quality of life and hope possible to PD patients.
Here's her website:
She sees patients both in person and through Skype. There is a wait of several months to get a first appointment with her, but after that it's easier to set up ongoing appointments.
The summer school is a yearly event, this was the third one. It's not cheap, around $4500 for the week plus housing ($75 per night for on campus housing), and transportation, but this includes around $2-2.5K of laboratory tests and all meals. It includes lectures on the science of PD, treatments,, diet, exercise, environmental toxins, and many more, as well as opportunities for daily exercise, and development of a personal plan based on each person's needs, abilities and labs.
The following article was written by another participant, and I think summarizes the experience well. As I go through my notes, if I come across any other tidbits that I think would be useful, I'll post them here.
parkinson.fit/parkinsons-di...
If you have any questions, I would be glad to answer them.