There are a number of studies that indicate the antioxidant N-acetyl-cysteine slows the progression of Parkinson's. I gave this to my father who has the symptoms of early Parkinson's such as hand shaking, and within a few months, taking 600 mg once daily reduced the shaking to the point where it was no longer noticeable. Twice daily dosing would be better, but it's hard to get my father to take meds.
Another excellent supplement for Parkinson's may be the spin trap antioxidant called tempol, which is one of the very few antioxidants easily able to get into mitochondria. It's very hard to obtain, and has to be kept cold during transport and storage, but is available here. I know one person who used tempol for Parkinson's and it had great effects.
Recently it has been shown that Parkinson's patients have a enterovirus infection in the neurons of their brainstem. This enterovirus is probably coxsackievirus B. I would wager that in the near future, we will prove that Parkinson's actually is caused by chronic coxsackievirus B infection of the brainstem. In other words, I think in the future Parkinson's will be considered a disease caused by chronic low-level brain infection.
There are no effective antivirals at present for coxsackievirus B, but two new antivirals that target this virus are due to hit the market within a two years. These antiviral drugs were developed by the Rega Institute, but are now being brought to market by a Swiss pharmaceutical company, and are called Rega Compound A and Rega Compound 17.
Thus is possible that when these new antiviral drugs become available, Parkinson's will become a very treatable and possibly curable condition. That's not a generally accepted view in the medical profession, but I personally subscribe to Prof Paul Ewald's hypothesis that most chronic diseases of currently unknown etiology will turn out to be caused by infections pathogens in common circulation.
My own chronic illness, myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), is also linked to coxsackievirus B (as well as other viruses), and in my case it was coxsackievirus B4 which started my ME/CFS. So I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of these new coxsackievirus B drugs, which I think will greatly improve or even cure my ME/CFS.
When this Coxsackie B4 virus hit our household, I developed ME/CFS, my father developed suspected Parkinson's, and my mother developed Sjogren's — all are diseases linked to coxsackievirus B.
If you had any flu-like illnesses, gastrointestinal illnesses or viral sore throats in recent years just before your Parkinson's symptoms appeared, that's when you may have caught coxsackievirus B (as these are the normal acute symptoms CVB causes).
Most enteroviruses are not able to cause chronic persistent infections, but certain enteroviruses like coxsackievirus B and echovirus can form long-term intracellular infections in cells (called non-cytolytic enterovirus infections). The immune system is often not able to clear these low-level intracellular CVB infections, and the infection may then lead to various diseases.
Edited by Hip, 01 May 2019 - 11:40 PM.
