MAXIMIZE YOUR FIGHT AGAINST PARKINSON’S DISEASE SAFELY, EFFECTIVELY AND NATURALLY

MAXIMIZE YOUR FIGHT AGAINST PARKINSON’S DISEASE SAFELY, EFFECTIVELY AND NATURALLY

Nearly one million people in the United States and six million people worldwide live with Parkinson’s disease (PD).(4) If you’re one of them, or if you think you may be suffering from symptoms related to PD, the future can seem scary.

If you have recently been diagnosed with PD, you might feel confused or even angry, asking, “Why me?” or “What will happen to me down the line?” You might also be concerned for how your diagnosis will affect your loved ones, including your partner and children.

If you have been living with PD for a while, perhaps you are frustrated at the shortage of treatment options or the limitations of your current therapies. Perhaps your medications aren’t working as well as they used to, or you are finding that their side effects greatly hamper your enjoyment of life.

Maybe you can even relate to one or more of the following:

  • You’re taking your Parkinson’s medications as prescribed, but you’re still experiencing a lot of “off” times.
  • You’ve been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, but you’re hesitant to begin medication therapy due to the side effects.
  • You’re Parkinson’s Disease symptoms are progressing faster than you had hoped, even though you’re taking your prescribed medications.
  • You’re frustrated by the lack of conventional treatment options available.
  • You’d like to explore natural, effective treatments you can use alone or to safely complement and enhance your current conventional protocol, but you don’t know where to turn.
  • You’re ready to look at your Parkinson’s Disease holistically and explore potential underlying causes that can be addressed to bring your body back in balance.

The Dunetz Wellness Center offers a wide range of cutting-edge laboratory testing and integrative treatment protocols that empower you to fight your Parkinson’s disease at its root cause—your cells.

Contact our patient coordinator to review the Integrative Functional Medicine Parkinson’s Disease treatment protocols the Dunetz Wellness Center has for you. We serve patients in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Palm Beach and all over the United States with Telemedicine (Remote Consultations). CALL TODAY! Tel: (561) 789-9558

Natural Parkinson's Disease Treatments
Natural Parkinson’s Disease Treatments

Some background on Parkinson’s disease, so that you can better understand the efficacy of our treatment protocols.

What is Parkinson’s Disease?

Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that results

from the death of dopamine-producing neurons in the brain. Dopamine is a chemical that functions as a neurotransmitter, sending messages between neurons. Dopamine affects a wide variety of motor (movement) and non-motor functions in the body, ranging from control of the body’s muscular contractions to attention and mood. Dopamine is known as the “feel good” neurotransmitter because it is released by the brain during positive emotional responses.

Parkinson’s Disease also involves a decrease in the neurotransmitter norepinephrine, which controls many of the body’s automatic functions in the sympathetic nervous system, including heart rate, blood pressure, the release of glucose for energy and the body’s response to pain.(1)(2)

Researchers are also studying the role of alpha-synuclein, a protein found in the brain and other parts of the body such as the heart, muscles and gut, in Parkinson’s disease. In many patients with PD, the alpha-synuclein protein in the brain cells misfolds and forms abnormal clumps called Lewy bodies, which are associated with brain cell death and a type of dementia called Lewy body dementia.(2)(3)

What are the Symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease?

Parkinson’s is very much an individual disease, in that every person follows his or her own journey of symptoms and progression. Often, the symptoms begin as mild and increase as the disease process progresses. Symptoms might also initially affect just one side of the body or one limb and progress to both sides or additional limbs.(2)

Not everyone gets all of the symptoms. In fact, most people will not. Additionally, even people who do express similar symptoms will get them in varying degrees. For some people, tremors might be the dominant symptom, while others do not get tremors and instead have trouble with balance and stiffness or non-motor related issues. The possible manifestation of symptoms in people with Parkinson’s is unique as the individual.

That being said, there are primary symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease. These are:

Motor Symptoms

  • Abnormal movement of one or more arms and/or legs
  • Tremor (trembling) in hands, arms, legs, jaw, or head
  • Stiffness of the limbs and trunk
  • Slowness of movement
  • Impaired balance and coordination, sometimes leading to falls
  • Restless legs
  • Difficulty writing
  • Reduced swinging of the arms when walking
  • Trouble rising from a seated position
  • Trouble initiating or continuing movement (2)

Non-Motor Symptoms

  • Depression
  • Other changes in mood and emotion
  • Difficulty swallowing, chewing, and speaking
  • Urinary problems
  • Constipation
  • Decreased ability to smell
  • Skin problems
  • Sleep issues
  • Small, cramped-looking handwriting
  • Speaking softly
  • Lack of facial expressions and/or animation (“Parkinson’s Mask”) (2)

Why did I Get Parkinson’s Disease?

It’s still unclear why some people get Parkinson’s disease and others do not. Most cases are currently deemed “idiopathic”, meaning the cause is unknown. The fact that Parkinson’s seems to occur randomly (2) can be frustrating for people who are looking for ways to treat the underlying causes of the disease, rather than just the symptoms.

In most cases, it’s likely that multiple risk factors have combined to make the body vulnerable to the disease. These risk factors include a combination of genetic, environmental, aging and other factors. (4)

  • Genetics: There are genetic mutations that increase a person’s risk of getting Parkinson’s disease, but having a genetic mutation does not mean that a person will get PD. Other factors must also occur in combination with genetics. Researchers have identified a few genes known to have a causal link to PD (GBA, LRRK2, PRKN, SNCA) and they expect to discover more Parkinson’s-related genes in the future.(4)
  • Environmental Factors: The degree to which environmental and lifestyle factors contribute to a person’s risk of getting Parkinson’s disease is still largely unknown, however a causal relationship has been established. Environmental factors include head injury and exposure to toxins such as pesticides.(4)
  • Aging: The risk of Parkinson’s disease increases with age. About 90% – 95% of people begin to experience symptoms at or above 60 years old. A small minority of about 5% – 10% of people develop symptoms younger, such as Michael J. Fox. Parkinson’s that occurs before age 50 is referred to as “early onset” Parkinson’s disease.(2)(5) Parkinson’s that manifests early in life is often inherited or linked to genetic mutations.(2)

A better understanding of how these factors combine to determine whether or not a person will develop Parkinson’s is key to uncovering treatments that can reverse or even prevent the disease.(4)

How is Parkinson’s Disease Diagnosed?

There is currently no test or scan that can make a definitive diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. Diagnosing PD is done “clinically”, meaning that your doctor will look for certain symptoms during the office visit, review your medical history, ask questions and perform a neurological evaluation in order to determine a diagnosis.(2)(6)

Since diagnosis of Parkinson’s relies on your doctor’s expertise, it is essential to seek out a neurologist who specializes in Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. This type of doctor is known as a “movement disorder specialist.”(6)

Failing to visit a movement disorder specialist can result in an improper or missed diagnosis, which can delay your ability to address your condition and can result in emotional and physical distress.

We know of many patients who have been told by their initial doctor that they did not have Parkinson’s, only to find out later—sometimes years later—that they indeed do. Getting the proper diagnosis quickly from a properly trained movement disorder physician is essential to beginning a treatment and lifestyle protocol that will remain an important part of your journey with Parkinson’s disease.

DaT scan

In some cases, your doctor might recommend a test called a DaT scan, which images the brain to determine its levels of dopamine transporters. (Remember that Parkinson’s disease involves the death of dopamine-producing neurons in the brain).(7)

A DaT scan involves injecting a radioactive agent into the bloodstream. The radioactive agent is taken up by the dopamine transporting cells in the brain, which then become bright and can be viewed by the non-invasive scanner. The brighter the images, the higher the number of healthy dopamine-transporting cells.(7)

While a DaT scan cannot diagnose Parkinson’s disease, it can help distinguish Parkinson’s from other conditions with similar symptoms, such as essential tremor or drug-induced parkinsonism.(7)

Organizations such as the Michael J. Fox Foundation are working toward identifying biomarkers associated with Parkinson’s disease, just as cholesterol serves as a biomarker for heart disease. Identifying Parkinson’s-related biomarkers will help doctors make quicker and earlier diagnosis possible.(6)

What are the Conventional Therapies for Parkinson’s Disease?

The current treatments for Parkinson’s disease focus on slowing the symptoms. They do not, however, address the underlying causes and therefore cannot prevent or reverse the disease itself.

The main conventional therapies include:

Medications

The most common and effective drug therapy used to treat the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease is the drug Levodopa-carbidopa (l-dopa). Since it is able to cross the blood-brain barrier, l-dopa is used to increase the level of dopamine in the brain. It is often given in combination with carbidopa to ease side-effects associated with levodopa, including nausea, vomiting, low blood pressure, dizziness, dry mouth and restlessness.(2)(8)

While levodopa is considered a substantial breakthrough in the treatment of PD symptoms, patients taking it also risk experiencing hallucinations and dyskinesia, which are involuntary muscle movements that can cause incoordination, instability and the tendency to drop things.(8) Levodopa must be dosed very carefully to provide optimum results while reducing the negative effects.

Other issues related to levodopa include the possible loss of efficacy the longer the drug is taken, as well as “off” periods in which the medication does not work. Proper dosing is vital to helping reduce these issues.

Other prescription medications for Parkinson’s disease include:

  • Dopamine agonists: These are drugs that mimic dopamine in the brain by attaching to certain dopamine receptors on neurons. In this way, the dopamine receptors are activated and “tricked” into thinking they are receiving dopamine. Dopamine agonists can be used to activate neurons related to motor symptoms and provide relief of symptoms such as tremor, rigidity and impaired balance.(9)(10) Dopamine agonists also carry the risk of side effects, including hallucinations, illusions, sleepiness, dizziness, lightheadedness, dyskinesia and compulsive behavior.(8)(9)
  • Monamine oxidase B (MAO-B) inhibitors are drugs used to inhibit the breakdown of dopamine in the brain by interfering with the activation of an enzyme that metabolizes dopamine.(2)(8) MAO-B inhibitors also carry potential side effects, including headaches and nausea and increase the potential for hallucinations and illusions when taken in conjunction with levodopa.(8)
  • COMT inhibitors: This class of drugs interferes with the COMT enzyme, which metabolizes dopamine in the brain. Side effects of COMT inhibitors include dyskinesia, diarrhea and orange urine. These drugs can also increase the side effects related to levodopa.(8)
  • Amantadine is an old antiviral drug that is used to help reduce symptoms related to involuntary movements.(2) It is used for people in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease who exhibit mild symptoms and can be used to help people in the later stages who suffer from dyskinesias related to levodopa.(8) Side effects can include hallucinations, illusions, dry mouth, drowsiness, constipation, urinary retention and discoloration of the legs.(8)

Deep Brain Stimulation 

DBS is most often used to alleviate movement-related Parkinson’s symptoms. However, like any surgical procedure, it is not for everyone and does carry risks, such as bleeding in the brain, breathing problems, heart problems, infection, misplacement of the lead, nausea, seizures and stroke. Other side effects can include confusion, difficulty concentrating, hardware issues, headache, infection, pain, seizure and stroke.(11)

Other Therapies

Other therapies that may be recommended to help treat the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease include:

  • Acupuncture
  • Cardiovascular exercise
  • Dietary changes
  • Occupational therapy
  • Physical therapy
  • Rock Steady Boxing (non-contact boxing)
  • Singing
  • Speech therapy
  • Stress management
  • Yoga

How can the Dunetz Wellness Center Help Me?

If you are ready to address more than just your symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, but the root causes, we can help.

Simply call and speak to our office manager or complete the form below and we will contact you within 24 hours.

References

  1. Hussain L, Maani C. National Center For Biotechnology Information. Physiology, noradrenergic synapse. Updated April 2019.
  2. National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute on Aging. Parkinson’s Disease, Retrieved from https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/parkinsons-disease.
  3. The Cure Parkinson’s Trust. Alpha-synuclein and Parkinson’s, Retrieved from https://www.cureparkinsons.org.uk/why-alpha-synuclein.
  4. The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. About Parkinson’s: Causes, Retrieved from https://www.michaeljfox.org/causes.
  5. Medical News Today. Parkinson’s disease and its causes, Retrieved from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323396.
  6. The Michael J. Fox Foundations for Parkinson’s Reasearch. How is Parkinson’s diagnosed, Retrieved from https://www.michaeljfox.org/parkinsons-101.
  7. Lyer, V. DaTscan, Parkinson’s News Today, Retrieved from https://parkinsonsnewstoday.com/parkinsons-disease-tests-diagnosis/datscan/.
  8. Vine JM (2017). A Parkinson’s Primer. Paul Dry Books, Inc. Philadelphia, PA, US.
  9. Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.pdf.org/.
  10. Downard E (2019). Parkinsonsdisease.net. What are dopamine agonists? Retrieved from https://parkinsonsdisease.net/medications/dopamine-agonists/.
  11. Mayo Clinic Staff. Deep brain stimulation, Mayo Clinic, Retrieved from  https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/deep-brain-stimulation/about/pac-20384562.

Contact our patient coordinator to review the Integrative Functional Medicine Parkinson’s Disease treatment protocols the Dunetz Wellness Center has for you. We serve patients in Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Palm Beach and all over the United States with Telemedicine (Remote Consultations). CALL TODAY! Tel: (561) 789-9558