"And those who were seen dancing,
were considered mad by those who
who could not hear the music."
Friedrich Nietzsche
1. Learn about the revolution we are living through, but which will not reach the sick for a long time if we don't do something about it.
If you are tired of looking for information among tons of fake news, advertisements, smoke columns, like on a merry-go-round, you can find here reasons for hope. But real hope based on Science: on the writings of neurologists, on hundreds or thousands of scientific studies of the last 50 years, and on testimonies and experiences of patients and family caregivers.
What works is what we are interested in, whether it is levodopa-carbidopa with coenzyme Q10 or green tea polyphenols, with 10-25 mg of vitamin B6 or milk thistle, or the amazing 1200 IU vitamin D3 supplementation of the 2013 Suzuki study able to stop Parkinson's for one year (UPDRS scale) or the wonderful riboflavin or vitamin B2 from the often forgotten and condemned 2003 Coimbra study.
The high-dose intramuscular and oral vitamin B1 (thiamine) therapy of neurologist Costantini with more than 5,000 patients treated and dozens of videos showing patients BEFORE and AFTER.
The current "protocol" of the same Dr. Coimbra, neurologist and professor of Neurology in Sao Paulo, Brazil (very high doses of vitamin D3 and 400 mg of B2).
You see what a curious "heterodoxy". They are all neurologists...
The revolution we are living in the world of Parkinson's, difficult to see because almost everything is only on paper and has to be put into daily life.
Always with courage to search and prudence to try, consulting everything with your doctor and your pharmacist.
2. The simplicity that clarifies Parkinson's the most: a scale.
"If you seek the truth, be prepared for the unexpected,
for it is hard to find and surprising when you do find it".
Heraclitus of Ephesus
Parkinson's is very much like a balance where the protective pan is not heavy enough to compensate for the weight of the negative pan.
After the age of 30, pineal melatonin production plummets decade by decade to about 10 % by the age of 60 compared to youthful production. The same is true for glutathione (an antioxidant and detoxifier in the body), coenzyme Q10 (key to the functioning of mitochondria and energy production), and so on. Vitamin C concentration decreases with age. The amount needed to achieve a blood concentration of 50 umol/L is almost twice as high in the elderly. Fifty percent of the general population needs a daily intake of 83.4 mg. The elderly would need a higher one, 150.2 mg to achieve the same level (Brubacher 2000).
It seems no coincidence that Parkinson's disease shows its clear symptoms in most sufferers in the fifth-sixth decade of life, when the brain's protective defences are at their lowest. The process has happened year after year, as Parkinson's developed in parallel year after year.
The Mediterranean diet, coffee, green tea, tobacco, anti-inflammatory drugs, delay the onset of the first symptoms by 7.7 to 17.4 years. This is not insignificant.
Chronic stress is very conducive to Parkinson's disease. Magnesium is the anti-stress mineral. It regulates cortisol (the stress hormone) and the locus coruleus (the region that controls fear and stress, more damaged than the famous "sustantia nigra" of dopamine at the onset of Parkinson's).
Norepinephrine is synthesised from dopamine and vitamin C. Could an excess production of norepinephrine due to chronic stress have something to do with the dopamine deficit in Parkinson's and increased oxidation of dopamine remnants?
I don't think I know of any Parkinson's sufferer who does not identify a period of intense stress in their life as a possible main cause of their Parkinson's disease. Relationships, work environment, etc.
Magnesium-rich foods prevent Parkinson's disease. They protect the locus coruleus, regulate cortisol, protect the sustantia nigra, prevent alpha-nuclein aberration, eliminate aluminium, help dopamine synthesis, etc.
It has taken me almost 30 years to see the Parkinsonian maze in this way.
3. Controversial considerations.
1. Is levodopa-carbidopa the best option?
2. Should Parkinson's be treated by a neurologist alone, or could it also be an internist or gastroenterologist?
3. Does the pharmaceutical industry influence or decide the way the world of Parkinson's goes: research, funding, treatments, etc.?
4. Is a Parkinson's sufferer living better today than 20 or 30 years ago?
5. Why is elevated homocysteine not treated from the beginning and even more so when starting levodopa?
6. We now know that cholesterol is neuroprotective and does not damage the heart or arteries (Huang 2011, 2019; PURE study 2017). It is the raw material for vitamin D and many precious substances for the brain. Does it make sense to continue taking cholesterol-lowering medication (except in specific cases)?
7. We have been on levodopa for 50 years. We are in a loop, in a dead end. Can we defeat Parkinson's if we continue to turn our backs on Nature?
8. Natural levodopa from Mucuna is infinitely superior to synthetic levodopa. Is there any reason other than money and patents not to generalise the use of Mucuna?