Shakin' Street — A Parkinson's Blog

There are dozens of Parkinson’s-related clinical studies happening at any given time. Occasionally, a study’s results will get me to take action. Here are a couple that recently caught my attention:

Covid-19 and Parkinson’s

In 2020, 2021 and most of 2022, the People’s Republic Of China conducted a heavy-handed “Zero Covid” policy in an effort to keep the disease out of the general population. The policy included mass testing, travel restrictions, and frequent lockdowns. In late 2022, following widespread protests, the government ended many of these restrictions.

This quickly caused a huge spike in Covid cases. Hit particularly hard were people with Parkinson’s Disease. In addition to the “usual” Covid symptoms, PWP’s often found that their Parkinson’s symptoms got significantly worse. Sometimes those symptoms returned to baseline when patients recovered from Covid, but not always.

Chinese researchers studied 207 PWP’s between December 2022 and March 2023. Of those, 136 (65.7%) had Covid at the time.

You can find the full study report here (warning: there are a lot of big words). Among the conclusions:

The rate of Covid hospitalization and death among PWP’s was not much different from the general population, but people with Parkinson’s were more likely to get infected.

Variables that appeared to increase susceptibility to Covid include:

• Length of time with Parkinson’s: people who’d had Parkinson’s for more than 10 years were more likely to get Covid than the general population
  
• Length of time without a Covid vaccination: those who had gone at least 12 months without a Covid vaccination were more likely to get infected than the general population.
  

In addition, the researchers had this to say about the vaccine:

Notably, individuals who received their COVID-19 vaccine within three months exhibited a lower infection rate compared to those vaccinated after three months (50% vs. 67.3%). These results suggest that the COVID-19 vaccine provides short-term protection for patients with PD.

What I did with this information: I don’t want my PD symptoms to get worse, even temporarily, so I took action to address factors under my control.

Obviously, there was no way to change the length of time I’ve had Parkinson’s, but it had been three months since my last jab. As I write this, the new vaccine formulation has just arrived in Oregon. Over Labor Day Weekend I drove to a pharmacy in Gresham, Oregon and had a nice man inject me with the new Pfizer recipe.

The new version of the vaccination is now widely available. For those with health insurance, there shouldn’t be any out of pocket charge.

If you don’t have health insurance, free options may require a little searching — the Federal government’s Bridge Access program, which previously paid for virtually universal access to Covid vaccination, has run out of money. But there are options.

There is another stream of funding going to state and local health departments. Many of them — such as Multnomah County’s Health Department in my hometown of Portland, Oregon — are offering free vaccination clinics for the uninsured.

Note: I recognize there are differences of opinion concerning the vaccine. I’m just telling you what I did — you do you.

Parkinson’s and Lifestyle

Dr. Laurie Mischley is a naturopathic practitioner and researcher in Seattle who focuses on Parkinson’s Disease. For several years, she has been running a study intended to “to collect as much data as possible over a ten-year period with the hope of finding dietary and lifestyle factors associated with a slower disease progression.”

Over 2600 people have enrolled so far. Every six months they are asked to fill out a survey describing their symptoms (if any), and answering questions about what they’re eating and drinking, what medications and other therapies they’re taking, and what physical activities they participate in.

The data begins to correlate things like diet and exercise with the rate of progression of Parkinson’s. A few months ago, Dr. Mischley gave a presentation to the Santa Barbara Parkinsons Association. The full talk is on Youtube — see below.

Most interesting to me was the list of foods correlating with slower — and faster –progression of Parkinson’s.

The “good list” is mostly what you’d expect — Dr. Mischley has described it elsewhere as “the MIND Diet without the poultry.”

Correlated with Better Parkinson’s Outcomes

Coconut Oil
Coffee
Eggs
Fresh Fruit
Fresh Vegetables
Green Tea
Nuts & Seeds
Oatmeal
Olive Oil
Red Wine
Soy
Spices

The “bad list,” unfortunately, contains many of my favorite foods.

Correlated with Poorer Parkinson’s Outcomes

Beef
Butter
Canned fruit
Chicken. Interestingly, the most recent data indicates that chicken is bad, but turkey may be okay. Go figure.
Fried Food
Frozen Vegetables
Ice Cream
Milk
Pork
Soda – Diet or Regular
Yogurt

What I’m doing with this information: I’m still struggling with this. Correlation is not causation, and Dr. Mischley freely admits that we don’t know exactly what these associations mean.

Some adjustments will be relatively easy – I have been “pescatarian during the week” for a couple of years, so I don’t eat much meat. But I may have to forgo the burgers I enjoy on the weekends.

I also consume a lot of dairy – I love cheese and ice cream, plain Greek yogurt is a staple of my diet, and pizza has been my favorite food forever. Cutting down on that category is going to be a challenge.

My current plan:

• Eliminate yogurt and cut back on cheese.
• Replace the protein from yogurt/cheese with beans and nuts. Maybe I can learn to make something with tofu?
• I will not eliminate pizza – you will have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.
• No more Diet Coke, In my younger days I drank four or five of them a day; more recently it’s been two or three per week. I’m sorry, but they have to go.
• Replace white wine with red wine. This will be difficult – I don’t particularly care for warm wine. Can I have it on the rocks?

I Have Questions

There’s an old joke in which the parents of a teenage boy are trying to get the child to stop engaging in an activity that is very popular with teenage boys. They tell him, “If you don’t stop that, you’ll go blind!” The boy replies, “Can I do it until I need glasses?”

This principle can be applied to my current situation:

If I don’t follow the recommended diet exactly… if cut back on the bad stuff without eliminating it entirely… if I have some cheese, the occasional burger, and an ice cream cone on my birthday… will I still get some of the benefits?

I am a sample size of one. How will I know if this is working… or if it’s not?

Stay tuned for further developments.

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Bonus for Those Who Read to the Bottom

The Johnny Cash/June Carter classic, performed norteno-style by the most deadpan musicians I’ve ever seen. They aren’t smiling, but I am.

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This is the polar opposite of The Mexican Standoff. Calloway and his orchestra swing hard. 90 seconds in, the Nicholas Brothers arrive and deliver one of the most spectacular dance performances you’ll ever see. YouTube commenters speculated about the hip and knee replacements that may have followed. Four minutes and 47 seconds of pure joy.