I am interested to know how many people with PSP were alcoholics. My husband drank for 20-25 years really bad. I always wonder if the disease came sooner because of the drinking? He just truned 62.
Drinking alcohol and PSP : I am interested... - PSP Association
Drinking alcohol and PSP
Written by
mthteach
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50 Replies
•
My husband was not a drinker. A very moderate smoker never got more than 1/2 pack a day
My father drank 1 or 2 bottles of wine every night before going to sleep for aprox 30 years. He developed alcohol induced encephalopathy and immediately after that PSP. All that started at 64. He had been also a heavy smoker (3 packs a day) but quit when he was 40. He also consumed headache pills (tonopan) 10-12 pills per day.
My Mum was an alcoholic and gave up drinking about 35 years ago.Mum also took Prozac for 15 years.
Dudley Moore the Actor drank heavily; he died from PSP. Also like him Mum developed symtoms very quickly after a traumatic experience.
Sorry to ask: Traumatic experience had anything to do with alcohol?
Not sure as i was very young and never spoke about that with Mum. Traumatic experience before psp was traffic accident. Mum collapsed at seeing a motorcyclist on the floor that had hit my parents car. Mum was not injured. Within 5 months symtoms were showing. I think with Dudley Moore, his close friend and working partner Peter Cook died, in the same year Dudley Moore was diagnosed.
• in reply tobusylizzy2
It is a very complicated and incurable disease but I have found some decent treatment. It is unquestionably congenital so keep away from anything upsetting. Love, Tim
• in reply to
I would like to see the data behind your "unquestionably congenital" comment please.
• in reply toCGC1
Always - it is killing me
• in reply tobusylizzy2
I am in the same place. God bless you
My husband rarely drank alcohol and never smoked. If we went out he drove so would always order half a pint of lager and lime. He would sometimes have a glass of wine Sunday lunchtime. In 43 years of marriage I only saw him worse for wear once and he just fell asleep. Unfortunately it was at our son's wedding 12 years ago. He hadn't drank much but was on 3 different types of medication, all of which recommended that alcohol wasn't drank whilst taking them. He didn't show himself up, just slept throughout the whole of the evening party. He was up walking along the sea front at 6 pm the next day when the rest of us were nursing very sore heads.
I've known / know several alcoholics who have had alcoholic related problems but not PSP.
X
No .. D has always been a very moderate drinker. He did smoke in his teens and twenties I think but not many and gave up more than forty years ago.
V
My husband drank very little alcohol and never smoked.
My mum never drank or smoked, had her breast off 10 years ago which I think may of brought it on. X
Hi do not think alcohol has any adverse affect leading to PSP, Margaret never smoked and had a half pint of lager occaisionally. There is some studies that indicate nicotine can help delay Parkinson type disorders but it is in long term users no use starting smoking to try and delay PSP progress. But I have not read any studies suggesting alcohol has effects.
Best wishes Tim
I am an alcoholic with PSP. Alcohol is entirely responsible. I would recommend the vitamin supplement from RHP to deal with the symptoms - very effective. Unfortunately PSP is fatal and I won't see Christmas this year
mthteach• in reply to
He has not drank in about 5 years. He drank heavy for 30 years. Are u saying the RHP will help him now, or if help him if he was still drinking.
mthteach• in reply to
My husband will admit he was an alcoholic. He will say the same thing your saying, alcohol is responsible for his symptoms. With the people on here 50% are saying their loved ones did not really drink a lot. I second guess that it is responsible for PSP. I do believe that it brought it on sooner in life.
Joeglad• in reply to
I am struggling to see how a vitamin supplement could restore eye movement, swallowing reflex, balance, cognition and all other symptoms. Which vitamins are involved? Has there been a clinical trial?
• in reply toJoeglad
I really don't know but I certainly am functioning rather better after a year confined to bed. I suppose you would need to contact the manufacturer. All I know is that I am walking again, can swallow and am no longer horribly incontinent. My very best wishes, Tim
• in reply toJoeglad
It is effectively a clever B and D supplement and, yes, I can sit up again and walk unaided to the bathroom without my brother's help so I think it is probably the reason. PSP is a nasty and evil disease - I am going to Switzerland before it gets much worse but meanwhile I am going to carry on this supplement which has helped more than Gabapentinin etc
Joeglad• in reply to
As you probably know alcohol destroys the vitamin B complex some of which is needed for good neurological function. One is specifically needed for neurotransmission. So I can see how supplements would help in the case where cells had been deprived by alcohol but not the cells affected by PSP which is a totally different thing caused by tangles of the TAU protein. Interesting
• in reply toJoeglad
You are clearly much smarter than I - I'm just or was a lawyer - but after horrific and lengthy stays in hospital I am a bit better. Very uninterested in the science
mthteach• in reply to
I agree about science being bad/slow. It takes us going out on our own to try things. However, my husband was is in a research study to cure PSP.
He was a nuclear operator and I a math teacher.
abirke• in reply to
Good for you keep on keepin on..have you been diagnosed with psp? sorry if you already told us that. I am very interested in the supplement Just B and D? how many mgs?any antioxidants etc?
AVB
mthteach• in reply to
Where do you get the RHP. From a doctor???? How much???
Hi my husband might off had a glass of wine sometimes, and he did smoke years ago but only about 2 a day but stopped smoking nearly 44 years ago. Yvonne x
I'm the main carer for my soul mate Elizabeth & we are both recovering alcoholics. Elizabeth took her last drink on 29th Dec. 1990. PSP symptoms started to kick in 2005 - 2006 when her handwriting slowly became unreadable over approx. 18 months. Having read the other replies you've had, it looks like a hung jury on this one so it's take your pick I think.
I spotted an article in the press Last week that Amilazy has mentioned - ie: nicotine may slow the onset of Parkinsons and it's been 8 years since Elizabeth stopped smoking. I don't believe in coincidence so I'm gonna carry on with my 20 fags a day for the time being. Best wishes and regards to you then
Chris F
Not much drinking here, but had five surgeries in two years before diagnosis. Always wondered about effects of anesthesia. Although we have other suspects, early years spent working with cars and motors and chemicals in close quarters, and a grandmother that I just learned had Parkinson's. Maybe that was PSP seventy five years ago. We won't know til researchers can tell us, so I just call it fate.
My father had 4 surgeries with anesthesia 6 months before strong PSP symptoms began.
When I first started noticing symptoms in my husband it was the , was after my house was sprayed for bugs. It was late spring early summer and Ants were EVERYWHERE! They sprayed; the ants stayed! so I 'bugged' the exterminator every two weeks to spray again. Finally , the owner came out and said this is "whatever chemical" and its really strong".....The ants were gone.....and then B started showing symptoms that Fall/Autumn . I did not think about it until several years(?) later and had dropped the exterminators after the contract and got new ones....I must say I have not had a case oft the ants like I did lead ing up to that time since....and I cannot accuse someone so many years later.......But if we had a 'traumatic' experience it may have been that.
AVB
Hi,
Keith was a heavy beer drinker for probably 52 years, I know it's not funny but he was drunk when I first met him! What has worried me though is the fact that he had his first bad fall, down the stairs from top to bottom backwards, when he had been drinking. I blamed it on the drink at first until other symptoms started showing, I'm unsure if the fall caused PSP to rear its ugly head or it would have happened anyway! He has never smoked however, he hates it....
Love....Pat xx
Thank you all very much for your kind replies. Best regards, Tim
I am certain this is the case. I can only wish you all the best
Hi my husband was a heavy drinker for years. his symptoms started about 6 years ago he felt like he had stones in his shoes when he walked plus he feet felt like they were burning,he was diagnosed with Peripheral Neuropathy then he had uncontrolled foot tapping in his right foot and a tremor in his right hand and frequent falls he was given IVIG treatment and Plasma Exchange but neither treatments worked he has had several diagnosis. he was admitted into neuro rehab where he was eventually diagnosed in may this year with CBD. He hasnt been able to walk for two years and he keeps leaning to the right and has to be propped up.I did ask if his condition could have been caused by his heavy drinking but i was told they are not sure.
My husband is 57, has had symptoms for about 4 or 5 years. Never drank and doesn't drink now.
LynnO
My husband just passed away with PSP. He was never a large drinker. Maybe a glass of wine every couple months and then he didn't drink more than one. I have often wondered if depression is linked to PSP because he was on anti depressants for over 15 years. This is a dreadful illness and I do not regret being his caretaker for over 7 years. I wish someone could tell us what causes it other than the part of the brain that fails to function properly. Why does a certain part of the brain fail to function?
That is so much the question,Bettykins, isn't it? I have conjectured (THIS IS ONLY A CONJECTURE, and I'm no scientist) that maybe that it's where the brain fails that makes the disease psp, rather than that psp makes a certain part of the brain fail; that is, tau proteins may go haywire in other parts of the brain, but only when it happens in that one area does it cause the cluster of symptoms that define psp. Tau proteins may get knotted up in places where not much is going on, so the symptoms aren't so obvious, or or maybe they are more generally distributed so the problems are generalized across the function of the brain.
They say that the initial cause of the tau protein disorder may be a virus, brain inflammation, depression or genetics, or a combination, and it surely varies. Maybe it does, for some people, have to do with alcohol, although I have never seen any research that supports that. Still, you can't discount a patient's perceptions. I'm inclined to believe that a virus my guy had 30 years ago may have been the initial trigger. It caused temporary paralysis of his right leg that seemed to recur as his initial symptom of psp those three decades later.
I miss Strelley. He would give us the scientific answer!
I am so sorry for your loss. I have been a caregiver for 4 years, and I only hope I can do it well enough so that I can say, as you do, that I don't regret it. I do want to do what is right for my dear man.
I hope you can take care of yourself now. How are you doing?
Love, Easterncedar
My husband had brainstem encephalitis 10 years ago, affected his co ordination and eye movement, whilst he recovered, I feel like he was never the same person again, but put it down to other things like redundancy and depression, but I am beginning to believe it was the onset of this PSP, xx
That is suggestive, Debbieann, certainly. For his kids' sake, I hope that the virus my guy had was the cause of his psp. I doubt we will eve know for sure.
Just a thought.... It may be the sugar, not the alcohol. There is research that indicates that insulin dysfunction induces in vivo tau Hyperphosphorylation. jneurosci.org/content/27/50... Could there be relation between insulin resistance and neurodegenerative disease ? uctv.tv/shows/Sugar-The-Bit.... My husband (dx 2013) does not drink nor smoke, but was a chocoholic. We are still trying a low carb-low sugar-gluten free diet. Fingers crossed.
i am suffring from very high GGT what can i do can it be control from medicieans
That's a fair question. I was only a social drinker at best and have never smoked at all. I was however, exposed to some potentially dangerous fumes/exhaust... although "environmentally controlled" in the work place. I had my doctor check into these "fumes" as I did myself, but because the manufacturing process is relatively new, there wasn't any current data to explore.
Just an occasional drink and organic garden vegetables most of my husbands life. A bad fall down the steps knocked him unconscious for a short time but I’m thinking PSP caused the fall but symptoms increased after that accident. nancyxxx
Is there a connection between Alcoholics and PSP:
There is a theory behind a person's biochemistry which which may attribute to alcoholism. It is theorized that in the biochemistry of someone who suffers from alcoholism that the production of a certain enzyme needed during metabolism to beak down alcohol into the sugars needed for energy is hampered. While not being able to break down the alcohol in the body the alcohol then stays in the system unprocessed for a longer period of time, becoming toxic, causing a chemical reaction which creates the phenomenon of craving. Enzymes also play an important role in the protection of the body against the harmful effects of free radicals. Free radicals are electrons that break from molecules then bounce around trying to find another molecule to attache themselves to causing damage to surrounding molecules. This causes oxidative stress to the affected area. Oxidative stress plays a major role in neurodegenerative diseases like PSP.
So could there be a connection between people who suffer from alcoholism and PSP??? Is there something in the biochemistry of a person who suffers from alcoholism that also makes them more susceptible to PSP and other neurodegenerative diseases??
My mother died from PSP in 2011. She was a heavy drinker all her life. I have always wanted to know if there was a correlation here.
I would like to know the answer to this as well. For my parent, it may have been a chicken-egg situation in which the drinking helped to cope with the PSP.
My dad was a drinker- in the way he would have beers everyday and more of a weekend / when he went to the pub, oh and a heavy smoker- 2 or 3 packs a day.
Mum would drink only a glass of wine a few times a year with a special meal, never smoked, didn't have a significant viral illness or traumatic event. Ate a lot of home grown organic vegetables and fruit when retired. Never went to the doctor and didn't take any medicines even in her 80s. Never even had a headache. However I have wondered whether there was some sort of environmental toxin at some point as my father developed MSA in his 70s and my mother started showing visible symptoms of CBS in her 80s shortly after my father died. MSA has different type of brain damage to CBS/PSP but a lot of overlap in symptoms and effect.
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