WEIGHT LOSS - INEVITABLE OR MANAGE DIET BETTER

[MylovedhasPd]

MyBeloved has lost loads of kilos since this began 12 years ago. He's lighter than ever. Dietician says he gets 1200 calories per day, and needs 2000 to put on weight (he doesn't want to put on weight). He prefers to just not lose more. He doesn't eat high carbs ever. Any tips? At the moment I'm concentrating on spacing meds/mealtimes. He has good appetite for clean healthy fruit, veg, meat and cheese. Dairy is making him cough>choke.

[MylovedhasPd]

I should have said the dietician prescribed drinks - but he prefers puddings(!), so we have those now and I add fruits/cream.

[aspergerian13 in reply to MylovedhasPd]

Via Goldstein DS et al, this is relevant to many PwP.

The influence of low-, normal-, and high-carbohydrate meals on blood pressure in elderly patients with postprandial hypotension.

Randomized controlled trial.

Vloet LC, et al. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2001.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/1...

BACKGROUND: Postprandial hypotension (PPH) is a common and serious disorder of blood pressure (BP) regulation in elderly people. It has been suggested that primarily the carbohydrate (CH) content of a meal induces the BP decrease. Therefore, we examined the relationship between the CH content of meals and postprandial BP responses in elderly patients diagnosed with PPH.

METHODS: Twelve geriatric patients (aged 75 to 91 years; 6 men) who were previously diagnosed with PPH received standardized liquid meals with low- (25 g), normal- (65 g), and high- (125 g) CH content in random order on three separate days. Systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP, and heart rate were measured every 5 minutes from 20 minutes before until 75 minutes after each meal. Postprandial symptoms were recorded every 15 minutes.

RESULTS: The maximum decrease in SBP was significantly smaller after the low-CH meal (-28 +/- 5 mm Hg) than after the normal- (-39 +/- 7 mm Hg) and high-CH meals (-40 +/- 5 mm Hg) (p <.050 between groups). In addition, the duration of PPH was significantly shorter (p <.010), and postprandial symptoms were less frequent and less severe after the low-CH meal.

CONCLUSIONS: Reducing the CH amount in meals induces significantly smaller decreases in SBP, shorter duration of PPH, and reduction of PPH-related symptoms. Therefore, limiting the CH content of an elderly patient's meal can be a clinically effective nonpharmacological treatment for PPH in elderly patients and can reduce the risk of developing symptomatic PPH.

PMID 11723147.

[MylovedhasPd in reply to aspergerian13]

Wow, interesting! Thank you.

[park_bear]

Have his thyroid levels ever been checked?

[Juliegrace]

I'm confused. This post says your journey began 12 years ago, but your profile says 1996. I just want to clarify in order to make reasonable suggestions. How old is your beloved now?

[MylovedhasPd in reply to Juliegrace]

2006 - I must have been stressed out when I joined. Thanks for pointing this out. Age mid 80’s

[MBAnderson in reply to MylovedhasPd]

How tall is he and how much does he weigh?

[MBAnderson]

Admittedly, 1200 cal per day is not much, but that's about how much people on calorie restricted diets consume under the belief that it is actually healthy and prolongs life.

I believe that for some PWP, weight loss is inevitable. I lost 45 pounds or 25% of my body weight, but it has stabilized now and I, too, feel no need to gain weight. I used to be concerned about it, but I'm not anymore.

I have no idea what's best for your beloved, but I eat 1400 cal per day and the thought of eating 2000 is very unappealing.

[MylovedhasPd in reply to MBAnderson]

The conversation with dietician recently resulted in my offering myBeloved a banana (during he night if he wants it), a brioche roll wth peanut butter and jam in the morning (full of carbs he'd never have eaten before) and more supplemental Calogen into my great food, and once a day or two a forticreme with cream I agree the thought of him eating anymore just wouldn't be acceptable to him. The evening meal remains highlight of the day, with leftovers for lunch.

[MBAnderson in reply to MylovedhasPd]

Your beloved is pretty lucky with you being such a good cook and making nutrition tasty.

Parkinson's is also a muscle wasting disease, more so in some than others -- so, some of us are going to lose weight and there's not much can be done about it.

It's a conundrum. I understand that underweight PWP have poorer outcomes, although I don't know why that would be. My body mass index is 20.5. My wife is upset by it, but I'm okay with it.

If his body mass index gets below 20, I think your concern is justified. Here is an NIH automatic calculator of BMI.

nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educat...

[MylovedhasPd in reply to MBAnderson]

Thank you, the bmi is good, and I'd not have thought of it but for your input. ps mine is okay too

[SufferingSocks]

Did you answer Park_Bear when the question was asked "Have his thyroid levels ever been checked". I am interested because I thought my thyroid levels were normal, however I read an interesting book which told me that lab. reports could be wrong, saw another doctor who checked a different way and diagnosed me as hypothyroid. It can affect your health. Suffering Socks

[MylovedhasPd in reply to SufferingSocks]

Thanks for asking. Just normal blood tests recently. Everything normal.