For those of you that may be interested in a different slant for treatment for our Parkinson’s diagnosis, my former neurologist (Dr. Ilene Ruhoy), is a contributing writer/editor to a new integrative medical neurology textbook entitled:
Integrative Neurology (Weil Integrative Medicine Library). You can find it on Amazon at a cost of $75 as of today.
No, I am not making any money off of this and no one asked me to write this blog post. I’m just trying to broaden our information base. Please, no negative comments. If this isn’t your cup of tea, it’s OK just move on to the next post.
I know, I’m a nerd! I reading a textbook about Parkinson’s, right? I figure I can gather as much information as possible whether I actually use it or not. Can’t hurt! Some of it is over my head, but I just glean what I can.
For those of you that don’t know what integrative medical neurology is, it is a way of looking at neurology where are you combine all kinds of different practices to get the best outcomes. You use nutrition, exercise, meditation, medication, etc. Dr. Ruhoy put it to me this way. “I use all the tools in my tool belt to provide the best treatment to my Parkinson’s patients.” My new neurologist who is not an integrative medical sort said to me at my first appointment that she was interested in this type of work because it is cutting edge in the future for neurology. I am thankful she’s open minded.
The thing that surprised me most out of my reading so far? Tango is good for Parkinson’s! Who knew? Somehow, I can’t imagine bending over backwards with a rose in my teeth, however, I can see it could help with cognitive/movement issues. Plus, it could be fun!! I have a friend who teaches ballroom dance and I have already had my first tango lesson. Woo hoo!
My hope is that this will be helpful to somebody else.
All the best to each of you!!
Written by
justhavefun2
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Love it! There are a lot of folks on this forum who take an integrative approach. The text sounds interesting, not sure I personally have the time or inclination for such dense reading but I would be very interested in whatever insights you take from your reading.
This makes so much sense to me. Getting the vitamins our body need from food instead of pills is now my goal. Vitamin from the sun, yahoo. Exercise immediately has a positive effect on my mind spirit and body. An integrative approach to all health needs is the future of medicine, I believe.
This is great!!! My husband was diagnosed last January; the doctor gave him a scrip and told him there is no cure, it's only going to get worse and come back when this pill doesn't work on the symptoms anymore and we'll up the dose. I couldn't accept this as the only answer. So I paged "Dr. Google" and discovered integrative and functional medicine. I highly recommend the two Broken Brain series podcasts by Dr. Mark Hyman with a ton of interviews of doctors, scientists, therapists; "The End of Alzhiemer's" by Dale E. Bredesen; "The Wahl's Protocol" by Terri Wahls; "The Brain's Way of Healing" by Norman Doidge, "Eat to Beat Disease" by William Li, to name a few. PD doesn't "just happen" and it isn't just a body breaking down with old age thing. With all of this reading and listening and so much more, I believe that PD is a one set of symptoms that are a response to stress overload. And I'm not talking about the rude cashier or the annoying driver on the road kind of stress. I'm talking about the years of bad food choices and broken digestive systems, toxins and poisons, lack of exercise, poor sleep or lack of sleep, emotional and physical stressors and drains... things that degrade and finally overwhelm your body's systems to where it just can't fight off the constant barrage anymore. And then, based on your genetics, your particular chink in your body's defensive armor, your body goes to a last line of defense and responds by going overboard shutting down and killing off parts to, in some misguided vain effort, save itself. For us to think that we can't outsmart Mother Nature with her wisdom and eons of design and re-design is plain vanity. For us to think we can magically solve this with a pill created in a lab is foolish. So much of modern medicine seems to be fixing a hole in the dike by applying a chemical patch. Some of it helps and perhaps some heals, but we are not looking at what we are missing by just focusing on that one hole or why the hole was created. We have to work with our body's natural wisdom, not against it. We need to address symptoms AND resolve root causes. We have to stop the "insults" and the attack on our systems and instead support them and perhaps, if we remove enough of the overload, the switch can be turned back from self-sacrificing to self-healing. This will take work and time and diligence. Please forgive this soapbox speech! I speak from a place where I am surrounded by bodies gone awry - a husband with Parkinson's, a mother-in-law with MS, a mother with Alzheimer's, a sister with a TBI, children with ADHD and autism and myself with a thyroid condition. This is a dry-run of a speech for my dear and gallant husband who refers to all of my "study" as hippie-dippie woo-woo stuff and who speaks of focusing only on functioning well enough to provide for his family for the next ten years. We all need hope that there is something better and a path to get there. So keep the "nerd" info coming justhavefun2!
I think we have all ran into Doc’s that have said, “Here’s a pill go home and call me in a couple of years”. Not helpful! I am so sad for your husband’s diagnosis. As some have said, it’s the club that none of us signed up for.
At this stage of the game, I don’t think integrative neurology is going to totally heal us. I think it will keep us more functional for a longer period of time. Plus, it gives us a ray of hope while we wait for a cure which may or may not come in our lifetime. Sidebar: it amazes me they can find a vaccine for Covid in 10 months, but for all the years and all the money spent on research there is not a definitive cause or a fix for PD. Like you said, it could be any number of things or a combination thereof.
The information out there is overwhelming on different things people think work. If we tried to do them all we wouldn’t do anything else in life and we would be bankrupt. So, I just pick the ones that appeal to me and seem to get the most bang for the buck as far as the time/money I have to invest in it. Exercise seems to be the number one answer for a slowing things down, plus I think exercise is fun!! It’s my playtime!
Thank you for your thoughts and all the best to you and your husband as you walk this road together. Please take excellent care of yourself so all of that stress doesn’t start you down a similar path. ❤️
I finished the textbook and it was excellent on a number of levels!
I just started acupuncture for back pain and the acupuncturist recommended, “The Wahls Protocol“ that you had also mentioned. I have just started the book, so that is my next deep dive! Thanks for the recommendation!
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