Gluten & Parkinson's

[Thal]

youtu.be/JW0PiVlGeqI?si=oGX...(Not working as expected?)

If true then what?

[Bolt_Upright]

Great post! I have long thought PD was autoimmune and anybody with an autoimmune disease should avoid gluten (and lectins). Thanks for posting!

[queenlt in reply to Bolt_Upright]

I have PD and psoriasis. There are studies that link psoriasis and eczema to gluten along with more chatter regarding a gut-brain connection in PD. About a year+ago I decided to go gluten free and started to make my own bread and fermented yogurt (Dr Davis, you tube instructions). Gluten is in pasta, pie shells, breads, cookies, coatings on breaded cutlets etc. It is very hard to find success but I am still trying and getting better.Healing the gut is the key and first step to take by replacing good bacteria for overgrown misplaced bacteria from the colon (Dr Davis). Colonizing the upper G-I track with 3 main bacteria via homemade yogurt is easy to do and I am a believer in this approach. At the same time, eliminating gluten helps heal the leaky gut. I have more clarity and energy.

[Eryl in reply to queenlt]

I developed a small patch of psoriasis foolowing the stress of a stroke. I saw a video by Dr Berg who recomened blackcurrant seed oil. I've been taking it for a month now and the psoraiasis is almost undetectable

[Alphasyn]

OK that's it, I will get into this seriously now. Hearing this from a fellow Parkinsonian makes a big difference. I'll start today, despite my wife thinks I am nuts 🤠. Wondering what I'll eat at lunchtime now... maybe some fruit (?).

[alexafish in reply to Alphasyn]

If it’s a sandwich you’re going to be missing at lunch, google cottage cheese flatbread recipe. It is not a bad alternative. Good luck.

[Eryl in reply to Alphasyn]

I've avoided bread for thee or four year now. I Have a couple of rashers of bacon and a fried egg three times a week and home made butternut squash and sweet potato soup with coconut milk, celery and chili for added flavour three times a week. Once a week I have a small baked potato with tuna mayonaise. Every day I have a salad, half a dozen wallnut halves, a couple of brasil nuts and a square of very dark chocolate.

[Eryl]

As well as gluten it could be the carbohydrate plus the gluten which causes the carbohydrate to be absorbed quicker causing a large spike in blood sugar as Dr William Davis has described. I would not dream of eating a breakfast as he descibes which is very high in carbohydrate and will set off my RLS. youtu.be/gIBTkwV2qYQ?si=Rua...(Not working as expected?)

[MellowYellowcup]

Glad to add some hard evidence . Leading up to the April numbers my diet had slipped in glutten. So to get the spectacular June numbers I reverted to cruciferous veg , avocado , fatty & or lean meats , oily stinky fish, sweet potato , yoghurt, 2 egg omelatte, NO Grains eg any baked goods , NO sugar NO alchohol

Best blood levels in 30 years!

Before gluten free & after

[MellowYellowcup]

oh & Long no milk coffee

[Gymsack]

This post is about to get very busy

lets keep it to just Gluten so it does not get diluted and wonder off track

see link , there are hundreds of studies like this

mdpi.com/1422-0067/21/15/5407

I had no idea

Thank you

[LAJ12345]

Hubby has been gluten and sugar free (except sugar in dessert rarely like at Christmas) for about 4 years now. I have also been doing it in staunch support even though I don’t have PD because I can’t bear his sad eyes while I eat bread but also because it makes it easier to cook the same for both of us. You have to cut it out completely not just reduce it though so at first you have to hunt through labels until you find some trusted brands. It even in most sauces in eg vinegar.

I feel it made a big difference to our health. He lost 20 kg over 6 months 5 years ago then stabilised, and lost his big belly. I lost nearly 10 kg to regain my bikini body (🤣🤣🤣 in my head). My achy joints have gone away and my kids reckon I look younger than I did 5 years ago! And I think my brain might be a bit sharper and less spacey like it did when I ate sugar.

In NZ we have a nice gluten free bread - Bergen sunflower and chia. It’s a bit gummy when I toasted but makes nice toast. So we eat that. I replace flour with cornflour in some things like gravy and supermarket gluten free flour for other baking type functions. Also nut flours like almond and cashew to replace flours in some things.

I don’t really do baking now as I doubt the refined rice flours etc are great either to be honest and we don’t eat sugar.

Some other diet replacements we have made:

White rice we dilute with white quinoa, and some black rice

Wheat cereals we replace with whole grain oats as porridge or muesli home made

I cook extra root vege a few times a week with dinner and some black beans tossed with spices eg taco spice and keep containers in fridge and make bento bowls with salad, white quinoa, beans for lunches instead of bread things.

I cook enough for leftover most nights and often have that for lunch the next day.

Snacks we have natural nuts, fruit off our tree whatever is in season.

Potatoes we have substituted sweet potatoes mostly, or sometimes mashed potato I will replace 2/3 with sweet potato and a can of white beans like cannellini or butter beans to make a mash.

pizza we occasionally buy a seedy grain gf base which the kids even think is nicer than a normal one, but we don’t have it often as we have cut right back on cheese too.

It was very hard at the start but the world has moved on so there are lots of options now. Eating out is hard still to find many options at say a restaurant/pub, but often now they’ll have something even if it is hamburger with gf bun, or gf pizza.

It’s so worth it.

[Anniebateman]

Interesting....I am celiac diagnosed in 2007 and joy, diagnosed PD 2016. I have followed a gluten free diet since 2007 but didn't prevent the PD? Or does having celiac disease make one more likely to get Parkinson's...

[Gisel in reply to Anniebateman]

Hi Anniebateman, I just did a pubmed search and found a publication from 2023 about an elevanted PD risk in patients with celiac disease.

Ann Neurol. 2023 Nov;94(5):911-916.

Risk of Parkinson's Disease in Celiac Disease: A Swedish Population-Based Study

Xiaoying Kang 1 2 , Alexander Ploner 1 , Bjorn Roelstraete 1 , Jonas F Ludvigsson 1 3 , Karin Wirdefeldt 1 4

Abstract

Using a population-based matched cohort design, we assessed the association of celiac disease (CeD) with risk of PD by comparing patients with biopsy-confirmed CeD in Sweden to a biopsy-free population and their unaffected siblings, separately. No overall association was observed but CeD diagnosed before age 60 associated positively with incident diagnosis of PD (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.29; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.02-1.62), which was mainly attributed to the significantly elevated risk detected after 10-15 years since biopsy (HR = 1.68; 95% CI: 1.05-2.68). Our findings imply an increased vulnerability to long-term PD development among patients with CeD diagnosed before 60s. ANN NEUROL 2023;94:911-916.

......from the publication: The growing PD risk over the course of CeD seems to imply a cumulative effect of CeD exposure. Biologi-cally, it is not surprising that the autoimmune dysfunction initiated in the gastrointestinal tract takes years to evolve systemically to impair the nervous system......

My own experience:

I have no CeD but my Parkison symptoms get worse when I eat gluten. I ate "normal" during a 3 weeks holiday and I had to take 700 mg of L-Dopa instead of 300 mg. Now I am back and started my gluten free diet again and after 3 days I gradually get better being back to 300 mg L-Dopa (= 3 tablets 100 mg L-Dopa/25 mg Benserazid).

In addition I have to pay attention to protein in my diet, because I suffer when I eat fish or other protein rich food, because of the amino acids that interact with L-Dopa for absorption via the blood brain barrier.

Wish you all the best!!!!

Gisela, Parkinson diagnosis in 2018 (dat-scan).

[Orlandosgirl]

Fascinated to learn about this study. I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in June 2011 and with Coeliac Disease in March 2014. The Coeliac was picked up after iron deficiency showed up in a routine blood test. I had not been aware of any gut symptoms previously although I had been diagnosed as iron deficient a couple of times in my younger days. This study looked at people already diagnosed with Coeliac Disease and whether they later develop PD but my experience of “silent coeliac” makes me wonder how many older PD patients may have undetected CeD.