No gastroparesis.

[kaypeeoh]

It seems like months since I underwent diagnostics for long-term constipation. I had to swallow a smart pill and track its path through my GI tract. Then had colon manometry. Today the bottom line is there's no problem with digestive movements. No gastroparesis. I have massive problems with gastric reflux but once it leaves the stomach it moves normally. The constipation is caused by spasming of the anal sphincter. This keeps material inside where it gets dryer and harder and becomes more and more difficult to have a BM. So starting tomorrow I take Linzess and Gaviscon and a proton pump inhibitor to reduce stomach acid.

Hopefully I'll see improvement within a week or two. If not there are other meds to try. No mention of surgery but I recall cases in dogs and cats where I had to cut the sphincter muscle to get relief of constipation. I've been referred to a medical group where they retrain the body to make easier BMs possible.

[LAJ12345]

hubby only got constipated when his levodopa dose was too high. It caused spasms at the peak of the dose in other parts of the body so possibly also in the bowel. As soon as he reduced it the constipation went away. Have you tried reducing yours?

[kaypeeoh in reply to LAJ12345]

My constipation problem predates PD by a decade or so. But I'm always interested in stopping meds now and then just to see the effect.

[LAJ12345 in reply to kaypeeoh]

Ah. Were you on other meds back then? Antidepressants, sleeping pills etc also can do it.

Do you eat meat and dairy every day? The other thing we do is alternate days with beans and lentils / meat, fish

I think it acts as a bit of a bottle brush pushing it all through.

[kaypeeoh in reply to LAJ12345]

Years ago I was on meds for MS. Then later meds for Lupus and lastly meds for BD.

[LAJ12345 in reply to kaypeeoh]

I would write a timeline of all the drugs you have taken if you remember and look at side effects of each. You might have replaced one constipation causing drug for another with levodopa.

Then try and match the time period with your symptoms and development of your PD progression. Maybe a good deal of your symptoms have been drug reactions including the constipation.

Personally I think my hubby developed his PD symptoms after taking SSRI and mirtazapine . He probably had pre diabetes and metabolic syndrome and possibly fatty liver. These weren’t diagnosed but he was obese and were a likely outcome.

He had low levels of folate, b12 which probably caused his depression, and he did not exercise at all.

Our strict diet removing additives, gluten, sugar and most oils, and exercise and supplementation with Hardys has corrected all his deficiencies, his bloods are excellent for his age, and he has reversed his anxiety and depression completely. He only takes a tiny dose of clonazapam now 0.5 mg per day for mood cut into quarters.

This works in the GABA pathway, not the dopamine or seratonin pathway which for him don’t work well without massive side effects.

It has taken 4 years of a strict regime but he is laughing and smiling all the time now and has regained his face use and interest in everything. He has finally started doing his own PD research, has asked to go into our spa pool for the very first time ever the other day. He is lining up social events, movies to see etc. he has not been like this for 8 years! I used to struggle to even want to get out of bed. He is not taking any more of the madopar than he was when he started on it. This is a sign to me that we are at the moment holding the progression off and reversing at least the digestive damage at least as he feels well in himself. He used to feel fluey regularly, almost cyclically every 4-5 weeks, long before diagnosis or any medication.

However his hand use and slowness and stiffness in his upper body remain the same so probably permanent damage. Although I’m working on that next with physio and weight training. We’ll see if we can reverse any of that, at least now he is motivated he might do the exercises.