Parkinson’s Disease is a common neurologic disease believed to be caused by deterioration of the brain cells that produce dopamine. The link between DHA deficiency and Parkinson’s is not established in the scientific literature, but I have observed a disproportionate number of very healthy-eating vegans and near vegans (and Natural Hygienists) who have developed Parkinson’s. This suspicion that DHA deficiency may increases one’s risk of Parkinson’s is supported by animal models which show that a deficiency of DHA increases sensitivity to the chemical toxins linked to Parkinson’s Disease. Mice fed a Parkinson-inducing toxin (MPTP) became resistant to the chemical when DHA adequacy was established, while control mice (the mice with no DHA given) lost their dopamine-producing cells. DHA protects neurons against the cytotoxicity of chemicals shown to damage dopaminergic cells. The DHA derivative neuroprotectin D1 protects the brain against oxidized proteins.44
This is particularly relevant as well-known Natural Hygiene leaders and leaders of healthy eating communities such as Keki Sidhwa and Herbert Shelton died from Parkinson’s Disease. These were my mentors and close friends and I thought they would live healthfully to 100, but instead they suffered with Parkinson’s. I have also seen this happen with some of my otherwise super-healthy eating vegan and near-vegan patients. These people were shocked to have this problem when eating so healthfully for most of their lives and certainly, this was alarming to me. When I checked the blood level of DHA in some of them I found shockingly low levels.
This fear of mine and precaution I take so my followers do not get Parkinson’s Disease may be an important discovery. Certainly, I am not going to risk this happening again in myself, my friends, family and clients following my advice.
Personally I ate plenty of animal protein before I got PD. Nowadays however I have to eat mostly vegetarian foods or else I suffer from the bad off periods. I still eat a small steak, piece of fish or a slice of pizza.
Thank you for sharing article on nutrition and Pd, there are some interesting facts to learn. I think all of us should be tested for serum DHA to determine if we should supplement or not.
Dr. Mischley tests her patients for serum DHA and EPA levels and if they fall out of range she recommends supplementation. So, if DHA deficiency can have such an impact on PD then in my opinion all PwPs should be tested.
I like Fuhrman, and I think he's often right. In this case, his evidence isn't a formal study that links DHA deficiency to PD. He's just saying that some of his mentors had PD and many of his patients have low DHA. That's not a scientific study, but I'll agree with him anyway because it makes sense and it's better to be safe. I don't like how he's always selling his supplements as if his are the only good ones:
"The DHA/EPA supplement and the other supplements I designed are an important part of my teachings and lifespan-enhancing advice, enabling people to optimize those nutrients of marginal or low presence in their diet and just as importantly avoid unfavorable supplement ingredients and excesses that can cause harm."
Tranlsation: buy my stuff or else.
I eat 2 tablespoons of ground flax seeds daily and take Doctor's Best "VeganDHA from Algae" which I can get for much less than Fuhrman's supplements. I'm happy with it and I'm sure there are others equally good.
The other thing I don't like about Fuhrman is how he pretends to be the only vegan doctor who's telling his clients to take DHA supplements. A lot if not all of them do. Again, I'm not disagreeing with him, but he's selling his own line of supplements, which to me is always suspect.
Thank you so much for sharing this information! Last year I consulted with Dr. Mischley who ran some lab tests and my DHA level turned out to be low so I was advised to start "chugging" fish oil which I did. Now I realize that it may have been a waste of money and mostly important advancing PD progression.
Makes me wonder if she is familiar with this information which seems to be in conflict with the early study pointed out in one of the previous replies by felixned ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...
For now fish is in and oil is out! Please keep me posted if you find more information on this topic.
I don't know what to make of it, frankly. I think there need to be more studies. Dr Mischley reported an inverse association between progression and fish oil supplementation as well as for fish consumption: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/283...
I like epidemiological and observational studies - I think a lot can be gleaned from them, especially when the results are viewed in light of what is known about mechanisms. However, there is always the 'correlation is not causation' thing and it could be the case that people who take the supplements are more likely to be doing a variety of health-promoting things (like exercise, eating vegetables, etc.).
Of course, flax oil is not DHA, it contains mostly alpha linolenic acid (ALA). ALA can be converted to DHA, but not very efficiently except for in reproductive age women - who are not as likely to get PD. The review article [PMC6099649] discussed the possibility that DHA may be protective against developing PD, but once there is a lot of a-syn accumulating then it could become harmful. It's possible that in the experimental models the mice just over-produce a-syn to a point where the harms outweigh the benefits.
Eating fish may have other benefits and there are a lot of examples of whole foods being more than the sum of their parts.
Did you feel better when you were taking fish oil supplements?
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An aside - the Mischley study shows no statistically significant benefit from inosine (n=13 only). An RCT found it slowed progression in women, but not men. To prevent kidney stones, urine pH must be monitored when taking inosine:
Agree, "correlation is not causation" and therefore in many cases it is difficult to draw conclusions. I didn't notice any difference while taking fish oil, however I've been taking many other supplements and it's hard to tell what's working and what's not because most of them are to prevent progression at least to some degree. Never tried inosine though - feeling overwhelmed already with so many things I am taking, but thanks for mentioning it - something to keep in mind.
I'm really perplexed by this. The Mischley study found a rather strong signal, and not for CoQ10 or other supplements - so that seems to negate the idea that the association is really just a reflection of a tendency to healthy behaviors.
One of these days I'm going to get some turquoise killifish and run some experiments. Someday ...
I think it also may depend on the oil quality, individual digestion (one of my family members can't digest fish oil), metabolic profile and may be million of other factors. So, it's hard to make any conclusions looking just at one case.
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