Hello. My Dad is eating fresh fava beans now for 4 days ( beans and pods). Zero help for PD tremors. Next experiment is fermented papaya. Apparently a lady by the name of "Aunt Bean" keeping her symptoms at bay by making tincture of fava beans and eating fermented papaya. I wander why all this works for some people, and does not work for others.
It is a no to fava beans: Hello. My Dad is... - Cure Parkinson's
It is a no to fava beans
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texasL
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22 Replies
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Because there is a thing called placebo effect if you believe something will work you will think it does. Don't believe every thing that some one post on the internet.
All post like eating fava beans is based on anecdotal evidence and should not be taken as gospel. My advice go to a DR. and take his or hers advice .
even what i post about exercise is anecdotal.
Good luck
Ps
4 days is not very long of a test even C/L can take longer
Thanks, Bailey. My Dad went to see a neurologist and she told him not to take any meds for now and to come back in 6 months. It is probably works like a placebo effect. How about this guy, Parkinson's free in less than a year. Sounds like a fairy tail. fightingparkinsonsdrugfree....
in reply to texasL
interesting: "My Dad went to see a neurologist and she told him not to take any meds for now and to come back in 6 months."
"Parkinson's free..." as long as it is free and this makes you feel good. Otherwise, if you pay, do not feel bad when you realize you have been taken by a quack. It is a learning experience. If it were true, the internet and healthunlocked would be swarming with confirmation.
in reply to texasL
"How about this guy,..."
Doctors and experts are baffled by an Indian man who claims not to have eaten or drunk anything for 70 years - but is still in perfect health.
He claims to have been blessed by a goddess when he was 8-years-old, which has enabled him to survive without sustenance and that he derives energy through meditation.
Most people can live without food for several weeks, with the body drawing on its fat and protein stores. But the average human can survive for only three to four days without water.
texasL in reply to
Maybe he is an alien.
Selling book if it was cure they would give it away or charge a lot. selling not allowed here.
Reads like a scam.
Hi texasL,
Contrary to some skeptics herein, your idea is NOT wacko. But according to Andrew Weil MD, who is very well respected, you would have to eat pounds of Fava beans to get an adequate daily dose of L-Dopa. (Reference: drweil.com/drw/u/QAA400744/... ):
"Mucuna (Mucuna pruriens) has long been used as a treatment for Parkinson's disease in Ayurvedic medicine, but few studies of its effects or effectiveness have been done in the West. The most notable was a very small clinical trial (only eight patients) carried out by British researchers who published their findings in 2004. The rationale for the use of mucuna is that it is a natural source of L-dopa (Levodopa), a compound which is converted to dopamine in the brain and has been used for many years to help relieve symptoms of Parkinson's. The British study compared the standard dose of L-dopa to a powdered preparation made from the seed of mucuna. It showed that the mucuna had a more rapid onset of action against Parkinson's symptoms and that its positive effects were longer lasting than those of Ldopa. Based on their findings, the investigators concluded that further and larger studies of the mucuna seed powder preparation are warranted, but to my knowledge, no human studies have been done since or are underway. The British research was published in the December, 2004, issue of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.
"Incidentally, fava beans are also a natural source of L-dopa, but you would have to eat a rather large amount - the equivalent of a 16-ounce can - to get an effective dose. I would not recommend adding either fava beans or mucuna to your diet if you're taking L-dopa for Parkinson's without discussing it with your doctor."
Dr. Weil does not mention it, but to greatly reduce the required dose of L-dopa (about 4-fold, I believe), and hence of fava beans, you should include a natural supplement that plays the role of Carbidopa, i.e., what is called a "dopa decarboxylase inhibitor" (DDCI). This is a chemical that prevents the L-dopa from converting into dopamine outside the Central Nervous System, thereby enabling more of it to get into the brain. (Unlike L-dopa, dopamine molecules are too big to cross the blood-brain barrier.) Standard L-Dopa meds always contain carbidopa or another DDCI. ( Seems unlikely that fava beans come equipped with enough DDCI of their own.)
Silvestrov on this site has just posted clear instructions on how to take the supplement EGCG (an extract from green tea) to substitute for Carbidopa: please scroll down to see his posts at:
healthunlocked.com/parkinso...
Dumpelkin, I doubt that any large scale studies will ever be done on Mucuna Pruriens the West, since there wouldn't be much money in it for the pharmaceutical companies because they can't get a patent on a plant (thankfully).
I've been trying to find information on the long term use of Mucuna for PD (10-20 or more years), but I haven't had any success. It reportedly has been used by Indian doctors as a medicine for thousands of years, and, even though they may not have used modern scientific methods, surely some of those good Indian doctors made patient notes about the long term effects of Mucuna. Do you have any information on this? Thanks.
Yes, I don't know what quantity of fava beans your dad has been eating, but I've heard that eating the amount that would have any effect on Parkinson's probably wouldn't be great for your stomach!
Aunt Bean posts on the Neurotalk Parkinson's forum
I have a lot of respect for her methods. Fava beans contain therapeutic levels of levodopa, and I think carbidopa. Her fermentation ideas seem interesting.
Most of us will continue to use pharmacy levodopa, etc.. But her work and that of other PwP researching PD may find something that big-Science has missed. And, even if no great breakthroughs are made, the feeling of being in control has great benefit.
John
Hello texasL, have your dad try Mucuna Pruriens which is also a bean. Order the extract; it is powerful L Dopa and has been used in India for centuries to control the tremors of PD. There are studies on line about Mucuna. I use it nightly to stop the RLS symptoms. Experiment with dosage to find what works best. I order my EXTRACT from Powdercity.com, and get the 98% (it's very inexpensive). I have NO financial interest in this website; I just use their extract, and it works for me. Here is the link if you are interested. powdercity.com/search?type=...
Hello. My Dad tried mucuna capsules that I got for him. After taking them for 3 days, he said that his hand tremor increased, so he stopped. Not sure why he had such a reaction to mucuna.
Hi SuperMNew, I can't find the mucuna extract on the powdercity website. Has it dissappeared, or perhaps I'm typing in the wrong name?
Yes, Powder City has stopped carrying Mucuna. I was in despair until I found another site, this one has a superior mucuna, even better than PowderCity. Here it is: nutrivitashop.com/products/...
It is the purest mucuna I have found, and it's 100% mucuna with no fillers; therefore, it has no taste. You can mix it with water and it's just like drinking a glass of water. I mix mine with grape juice but nothing heavier than juice. And I always take mine on an empty stomach so that it is all absorbed.
Blessings to you!
My husband has been experimenting with Mucuna off and on for a few years now (diagnosed with PD in 2004). More recently, when his Stalevo (a mix of levodopa, carbidopa and entacapone) became ineffective - leaving him immobile for hours every day - he started swapping out doses of Stalevo for 1 Tablespoon of Mucuna powder dissolved in half a cup of water.
We had read a study of rats and rabbits with Parkinson's being treated with high and low doses of Mucuna over a year. There were clear benefits and no side effects even for those given high doses. So we felt more sure of our own gut feeling that because Mucuna comes from a natural bean it is less likely to cause harm than a synthetic drug, mainly because the body would recognise it as food.
Sure enough, my husband's experience (like the small study mentioned above) is that Mucuna acts more quickly and it keeps him 'on' as long or longer than Stalevo does (when Stalevo works properly), and more reliably. We gradually swapped out all but one or two doses of Stalevo a day with Mucuna (he was previously on 5 doses of Stalevo a day). We have found that he still needs at least one dose of Stalevo (in the morning), probably because he needs the carbidopa that Stalevo provides. We will read Silvestrov's instructions on how to take the supplement EGCG (an extract from green tea) to substitute for Carbidopa. Thank you for the link dumpelkin. However, he often requires extra doses of Mucuna - up to 7 a day - to stay mostly on all day. It doesn't appear to cause him any harm though.
He has been taking 1 to 2 doses of Stalevo with 5 to 7 doses of Mucuna daily for more than two months now. We have been charting his doses, and on and off times looking for anything significant. It has become clear that the Mucuna almost always takes around 15 minutes to 'kick in' (become effective) when he is 'off'. The Stalevo he takes as a second dose in the morning (on an empty stomach) kicks in before the first dose of Mucuna wears off. But if he takes a 2nd dose of Stalevo in the afternoon it usually takes from 30 to 90 minutes to kick in. And then he is only 'on' for another 90 minutes.
I must say that my husband has been feeling and looking better on the Mucuna now that he isn't suffering the side effects of Stalevo, which includes long 'off' periods and uncomfortable or painful RLS. It seems his body is getting the chance to repair some of the damage caused by the drug.
If the Mucuna remains effective fairly consistently, my husband will continue taking it in place of Stalevo, even though this will mean us paying for Mucuna instead of the NHS giving him Stalevo. The most important thing is my husband's health. I do wish alternative natural medicines were available on the NHS and weren't written off as quackery.
Thank you for your reply. My Dad tried mucuna in capsules that I've send him, but he said his tremor got worse. Not sure why it happened, maybe powder is better then capsules.
what strength of mucuna are you using?
15 %
If a decarboxylase inhibitor is not used with levodopa only 5% of the levodopa will reach the central nervous system to be converted into dopamine. Also if any protein is consumed with the fava beans none of the levodopa will reach the central nervous system. Fava beans were the original source of levodopa extraction done in 1913.
Fava beans and their leaves have levodopa and carbidopa (L/C). It's not a cure. Just a source of medicine, but dried fava beans have much less L/C. You need green fava beans and their leaves to get much L/C, even better if not cooked or frozen. People have actually ODed on fava beans. A problem is the amount of L/C varies and you don't know the dose.
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