Please take the time to watch this video. I think this might be one of the most effective ways to fight Parkinson’s..
I’ve slept walked basically my entire life. When I was 20 years old, I went through some severe stress that caused me to start sleepwalking eating. I wouldn’t realize that I was doing it. Fast-forward 18 years, 5 to 6 times a week on average, I would sleepwalk and eat. I get diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
For all those years, I never went long enough between eating to ever reach autophagy. Science did a study where they eliminated the ability of mice to reach autophagy. They basically all died of neural degenerative disease.
HIIT training is what are the most effective ways to reach autophagy. Fasting is probably the best way. Sauna is another proven way. These are all relatively inexpensive, crucial ways that you can fight Parkinson’s. I also believe in cold showers or call plunges that I do.
When I first got diagnosed, I thought what’s the point of fighting if I’m doomed. Doctors gave me no hope. I think the system is jacked up. Why don’t they promote these cheap ways to heal yourself? God is better than man at healing. I’m not saying I’m curing my Parkinson’s, but I believe soon I’ll be off meds.
Interesting....I have a sauna and I work out a lot. Fasting is something I haven't tried but I might try intermittent Fasting.
If we all took care of ourselves the Doctors and drug companies wouldn't be making any money. Medication is important and saves lives. On the other hand Doctors are handing meds out like candy. No one questions the 20/30 side effects listed.
I also find it kind of funny that people are scared of taking food based supplements and herbs with little to no side effects.
We all have to use our brains and do our research for everything we put in our body.
Atphogy doesn't cost anything and seems very beneficial . Sauna is safe, fasting can be done in moderation.
Alot of people might struggle with a HIIT workout but could work up to it.
I think we’re all aware of it Bass but I suspect many have embarked on this, only to notice some progression (even if mild) and then thought ‘well that doesn’t work’. Anybody who elects to go hungry for many times a week deserves some reward. I’m sure it will come at some point but it’s hard to imagine this progress amidst seeming disease progression? Good to hear from you btw.
Always good to hear from you as well! The trick to going hungry and fasting is to keep busy and stay away from eating situations. I know, easier said than done!
Fasting isn’t near as hard you think. Seriously, at first as your body adjusts it sucks. If you want to try make sure you don’t eat a bunch of carbs/sugar before you start. Most of the uncomfortable feelings you feel is your body adjusting to using fat instead of glucose for energy. If you start with a low carb diet, it’s much easier.
Autophagy actual can start at about 16 hrs for some. I believe as short as 12 hrs fasting for others. Brain is made primarily up of fat. Our brains hate sugar and simple carbs. Most hunger is actually cravings for sugar or carbs, not actual hunger. Cravings quickly fad if you ignore them.
One way you know autophagy has started is the hunger pain goes away. The clarity and sense of well being is amazing. As you fast more, the easier it becomes. I eat once a day. It’s nature. Our ancestors didn’t eat 3 meals. The ate at most once a day. The food you eat isn’t used for at least 12 hours for energy. Think of your body like a gas tank.
Every Parkinsons patient needs to learn this. Hell, it’s uncomfortable enough with PD symptoms. Keep busy and hunger will go away. If you got PD, you have the will.
Thank you for the very interesting post, can't wait to watch the video. Can I ask you about your meds situation? You say you believe you'll soon be off medication, but did you start on the prescribed dose and you're reducing it gradually? You say HIIT training, fasting and sauna are crucial ways to fight parkinson's, as well as cold water, can I ask you whether apart from cold water you do all or any of the others? If you do, may I ask you also for a breakdown of them, ie, which ones you do, how often, how long ago you started them and whether you've been feeling improvements in your health? Have you been reducing your prescribed meds because of it and how much have you reduced? Sorry for bombarding you with questions and thank you again!
Based on research I’ve done about autophagy, my HWP and I felt that 36 hour fasts were most beneficial. Several people here have mentioned being hungry. This truly is a mind over matter type situation. We will take in a little bit of quality salt to get electrolytes and that helps with hunger. Just staying out of the kitchen and being distracted helps. But once you get in a rhythm, your body gets used to it, we’ve found.
This article states something between 24 to 48 hours. Other sources state up to 4 days. I would suggest caution when engaging in this level of fasting.
Thank you. I don't have a big problem with hunger. I recently fasted for 44 hours without any problems. Do you also know with what frequency I should do that? Once a week, once a month?
I think ‘38 year old male’ used to do a 24 hour once a week and longer sessions 5/6 times a year. But he seems to be one meal a day judging from what he says above.
But I think I made a serious point above: being hungry most of the time is no joke. Does anybody know why our cells have become cluttered in the first place? Why do we need to do this when so many others don’t?!
I agree, I don't like the idea of fasting because I'm already thin. I love food. I think my exercise is keeping my weight down. However, I can definitely handle a fast from a 6pm to 7 or 8 am. I'll try that 😊
Intermittent fasting has been recommended exactly like this one , 7pm to 7am, to begin with for all . Then try to go for 13 -16 hrs, whatever you can handle, it will prove to be beneficial!
AHT is AutoImmunoTherapy. It's an old method of treating disease. Blood is taken from a vein and immediately injected into a muscle. The body treats the injected blood as if it's a foreign substance. Monocytes are white blood cells that circulate through the body. When they come across the foreign material they attack it, breaking it down. That's autophagy. That's what the human body does all day long.
Blood must move all the time. When it stops moving the body reacts to attack it. When you inject blood it isn't moving and starts autophagy. Atherosclerosis starts as blood not moving quickly enough through the veins and arteries. The snow-moving blood stimulates clotting cells to collect in the vein. A clot forms and might dislodge, moving unto it reaches the brain. That's a stroke. I had a DVT, a deep vein thrombosis, in my chest. I remember two nurses remarking that it's known as the widow-maker.
Monocytes are blood cells always looking for foreign tissues. Any foreign tissues. Cancers start as single cells, Toxins are small molecules similar in size to single cells. So are infections. Bacterial, fungal, toxic or neoplastic. Doesn't matter. The body attacks them all.
Atherosclerosis, the number-one killer in the world, can break off small bits of plaque that are then attacked by monocytes. Monocytes attack all abnormal cells in the blood. When they do it starts a chain-reaction and other white blood cells and platelets migrate to the tissue and instead of one monocyte you have thousands or millions of cells all attacking the foreign tissue. Monocytes make up 2% of blood. In response to a foreign body invasion monocytes are mobilized out of bone marrow. Within a week monocyte levels go from 2 to 22%. The levels stay high for as long as it takes to break down all of the foreign tissue.
Hormesis is the body reacting to minor stressors. In response to these stressors the body mobilizes white blood cells to leave bone marrow and attack. So donating blood is hormesis, The body responds to the blood loss by making more red cells to replenish the blood. Exercise is a hormesis. The stress of exercise mobilizes healing cells out of the bone marrow. Sitting in a sauna is a hormesis. Again, the body responds and reacts, improving its ability to deal with the heat.
Hunger is harder to explain in terms of autophagy. But hunger is a stressor. And the body responds to stressors. A bad guy in a science fiction movie made the point, "Whatever don't kill ya makes ya stronger." Or maybe it was Nietche.
Years ago I read a report that said chronic blood donators have less incidence of all forms of cardiac disease. And I became a chronic blood donator. When I developed the DVT I had no symptoms beyond mild gassiness. Was that because of the chronic blood donations?
It's been proven that many things can trigger autophagy. Autophagy is the body's response to any stressors.
Sorry for the long post. I admit I tend not to read long posts carefully.
Autophagy is something that I have been digging into of late. If you are interested in diving into cellular function, I suggest Molecular and Cell Biology for Dummies amazon.com/s?k=molecular+an...
It's also available from a number of used book sellers.
Autophagy is critical to cell health. Reduction in caloric intake and exercise will improve cellular function. Other therapies that improve autophagy (by improving mitochondrial function) are red light therapy and Pulsed ElectroMagnetic Field (PEMF) therapy.
If you have Parkinson's, you have fewer dopamine producing cells. Autophagy improving therapies may be able to improve the health of the remaining substantia nigra cells that you do have. Will this slow overall disease progression? We are currently focused on PEMF (in combination with healthy diet (not fasting) and exercise) to, hopefully, slow this disease down.
I absolutely agree with what video is saying..fasting is a powerful tool to clean our body..I do intermittent fasting every day..I eat dinner at 9pm and till 9am next day I do not eat anything, which gives my body time to digest and heal, I must say it has helped me to control my weight and mental health, hope going forward it will help me to stop progression of PD, in our hindu ancient manuscript call Rugved, this book clearly shows importance of fasting and yes I have stopped eating red meat and it has really helped me 😃 try fasting and see the difference
I've been looking into this for several years, and I've tried several things. The best thing that I've tried is the "Fasting Mimicking Diet", which tricks your body into 'thinking' that you're fasting even though you are eating! It's all in what, when, and how you eat that tricks it. I've posted about this before: healthunlocked.com/cure-par...
I'm pretty sure that this helps me quite a bit, but you might not want to buy their pre-made meals. Instead, you can use the meal outlines you find in his book (or by asking me). That way you can buy food you'll enjoy eating for less money. OTOH it's a little hard to get it just right, so you might want to buy their meals the first time you try this. You can easily do this over and over again. I've done it 4 times with varying success.
I did a lot of fasting the last few years and had great results. I have done 5 to 8 days. However, after about 25 fasts I am really tired of doing it and going to switch to fast mimicking diet from prolog. It is proven to cause autophogy and was developed to make the benefits of fasting more palatable.
Extended fasting will get you the most autophagy, but is not something everyone can (or is willing) to do. Restricted eating is tolerable to a lot more people and some may find that once they're used to going 12, 14, 16 hours without food, doing the occasional 24 or 36 hour fast isn't too difficult.
Here's what my better half and I do to try to eke out as much autophagy as possible without being miserably hungry. We eat nothing between dinner and bedtime. This initiates the daily fast and improves sleep. In the morning, we exercise in the fasted state. This may increase autophagy and improve the body's ability to burn fat for fuel. It has the added benefit of cutting down on hunger for a few hours (with a little help from coffee ) making it possible to make brunch or lunch our first meal of the day and extending our fast to 16 hours rather painlessly.
Weather permitting, we do the exercise outdoors. Exposure to bright early morning light entrains the circadian rhythm and improves sleep for most people. The importance of good sleep can't be over-emphasized, since that's when glymphatic function (the brain's gunk clearing mechanism) takes place. Early morning sunlight also delivers near-infrared, which improves mitochondrial function.
I think everybody has to figure out for themselves what they can tolerate. For instance, I've read that if one is restricting eating to an 8 hour window, making that window early in the day (8 to 4, for example) will give the most bang for the buck. But that just doesn't work for us, so we choose not to eat breakfast. Others might find skipping breakfast to be a miserable proposition.
Finding something you can live with long term is the trick I think.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
Milk and Parkinson’s 
Autophagy is the ultimate detox that doesn't yet live up to the hype
DBS surgery for Parkinson’s patient.
