Today is day three of The Great Nicotine Trial. I’m using store brand patches that are labelled as having 21 mg of nicotine, and store brand gum labelled as 4 mg of nicotine. Here are my thoughts so far: The patch instructions say to put … Continue reading Nicotine Follow-Up
A couple weeks ago, I mentioned the possibility of using nicotine to treat Parkinson’s Disease (PD), but I wasn’t sure at the time whether I wanted to try it for myself. Well, I’ve talked myself into it. I will be starting nicotine therapy within a week. And to make sure I don’t get confused as to what changes (if any) are being caused by which therapy, I will temporarily cease taking the lion’s mane mushroom supplements. As I said when I started on the shrooms, I’ll let you know if I experience any major changes in my PD symptoms. If I don’t notice any changes after a year, I’ll take stock of my condition and report back to you at that time.
It seems like every time I read a news article about Parkinson’s Disease (PD), somewhere in the article they mention there’s no cure for PD. If you ask any neurologist, they’ll say the same. There are treatments that may slow the progression of PD but nothing that will fully halt, much less reverse, the worsening of the disease. But I’m starting to wonder…
A friend recently informed me that a PD sufferer at his church had been taking a product called Restore Gold (TM) and reported that his tremors had stopped about two months after he started taking it. I have not yet researched this product, but a quick web search found some people claiming it had worked well against their PD, and others claiming it was a flat-out scam.
A couple weeks later, another friend sent me this link. This video asserts nicotine (yes, THAT nicotine) is in reality neither addictive nor harmful, and that it is an excellent fighter against PD and many other maladies. To be clear, the video is NOT pro-tobacco. Indeed, it blames the tobacco industry for falsely claiming nicotine is addictive, while they were secretly adding the truly addictive chemicals that are found in cigarettes. Ultimately, the video attempts to steer the user towards the nicotine patch (specifically the Rugby(R) brand of nicotine patch) as a way to reverse PD. I have not yet fully researched the use of nicotine in the fight against PD, but a quick web search found what appear to be several legitimate studies supporting this claim, including this study funded by the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
I am tempted to add both Restore Gold and nicotine patches to my daily medication / supplement regimen. However, adding multiple approaches at once would make it difficult to know which one is doing what, assuming I actually do see some changes. And I am already seeing some changes. Changes that I can only attribute to ‘shrooms. And I don’t mean “Magic Mushrooms”, though there are studies underway trying to determine whether psilocybin has any effect on PD.
No, my friends, I’m typing about “lion’s mane” mushrooms. As you may and/or mayn’t recall, this friendly fungus was featured five months ago. For a few months, I seemed to be getting some positive results, but it was kinda hard to tell. Over the last month, I have definitely seen improvements in the following:
Better Sleep:
Prior to starting the lion’s mane regimen, I would often wake up multiple times during the night. Sometimes I could get back to sleep, sometimes not. In any case, I almost always got out of bed between 4:00 and 7:00. Over the last month, I have been experiencing solid sleep. Once in a while, my dog will wake me up, or I’ll get up to urinate, but I almost always get back to sleep quickly. And I’m sleeping until somewhere between 7:00 and 9:00 (some days, even later).
Awakening Alive:
Before the shrooms, whenever I got up in the morning, I would take my first dose of Levodopa (Levo) then just crash on the couch for half an hour (which is about how long it takes for the Levo to kick in). Until the Levo took effect, I felt incapable of doing ANYthing. Over the last month, I have usually felt capable of doing things the instant I get out of bed. On a couple of occasions, I even forgot to take my first dose of Levo!
Off Periods Improved:
I take Levo every 3 hours (except overnight). Prior to shroomin’ it up, I could always feel when time was approaching for the next dose. About 2.5 hours after taking a dose of Levo, I would start having anxiety, or sometimes depression. Over the last month, I have hardly experienced anxiety or depression at all. I’ve even been seriously late (up to nearly two hours late) taking a dose, and STILL didn’t have any anxiety / depression (though I did feel the ol’ physical fatigue on those occasions).
Reduced Medication:
Now, I would expect improvements such as those described above if I had added a new medication or increased the dosage of one I’m already on. But there have been no such additions / increases. In fact, a little more than a month ago, I actually decreased one of my meds. I get Pramipexole (Prami) in tiny 0.125 mg pills. I had been taking eleven of these each day for the last few years, but reduced it to nine each day. With the encouragement of my medical provider, I reduced it even further last week, to eight each day. So far, that’s working well.
One final note:
The news articles that led me to start taking lion’s mane supplement concluded that 1,000 to 1,500 mg per day was the appropriate dosage. But the brand of supplement I settled on comes in 7,500 mg capsules – and they recommend taking two of these each day. So far, I have only taken one of these each day because for crap’s sake, that’s already 5 times the amount recommended by studies. But I am ever pondering as to whether I should try bumping at up to two-a-days. If I do, I’ll let you know in a new post.
I recently bought a huge white minivan, an “upgrade” from my usual 4-door sedan. There were two main reasons for this. One was that Parkinson’s was sometimes making it difficult to get in and out of my last sedan. The other was that I never … Continue reading Prequel to Traveling with a Great Pyrenees
If you are seeing this message, I am dead. Or maybe just lazy. Whichever you would consider to be an appropriate excuse for going nearly a week without posting when there is active travel to tell you about. Day 9: At the end of my … Continue reading Nevada 2024 Trip Report (Days 9 and 10)
I got up early this morning and took these pics of the sunrise from my hotel room window in Ely, Nevada:
From the first time I spotted the town of Ely, Nevada on a map, I have always figured it would be pronounced like E. Lie (as in: ‘e not tell truth, ‘e lie!). I was wrong. The locals pronounce it as E. Lee, as if they’re describing something that tastes too much like an eel. Then there’s the Lehman Caves. I thought the name would be pronounced “Layman” or maybe “Lemon”. (Come to think of it, “The Lemon Caves” sounds like a good name for a children’s book.) But again, I was wrong. The locals pronounce it “Leeman”. So, if you’re ever traveling in eastern Nevada, keep this simple rule in mind: “Whatever the Hell the vowels may be, you should pronounce it like it’s Lee.” My apologies to the Tootsie Roll marketing department. Wait, why am I talking about Tootsie Rolls in a Parkinson’s travel blog? I’m not; I’m talking about caves.
What, you may ask, is my level of experience with cave tours? Well, I’ve never been to any of the REALLY big caves (Carlsbad, Mammoth), but I’ve been to at least 20 caves scattered around the U.S., and the Lehman Caves tour is definitely one of the best of them. This is largely because it’s so “intimate”. In most caves, the really cool formations are seen from a respectable distance. In Lehman, you’re standing right next to many of them. And there are LOADS of formations. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen so many formations packed so closely together. Perhaps even more impressive is the density of formations that are no longer there. Y’see, this is one of those cave systems where, in the olden days, tourists were encouraged to break off a piece to take home as a souvenir. As a result, there are incredibly dense concentrations of little nubboes, which are all that’s left of a virtual forest of stalactites. Still, there’s more than enough left to make it worthwhile. But the aforementioned intimacy includes multiple, relatively long passages where you must contort yourself to get through – more than I’ve seen on any other walking tour. (I’ve never gone on any of the more advanced caving / exploration tours.) So, while I’d certainly recommend Lehman Caves to most folks (make sure you buy your tickets in advance), I probably would not recommend this tour to many of the Parkinson’s patients I know.
I had selected the first cave tour of the day to allow myself plenty of time to hike and otherwise explore Great Basin National Park (which the caves are part of). But there was one thing I wasn’t counting on: snow. When I left Las Vegas, I knew I’d end up about 200 miles farther north. I did not know that I would also be gaining a mile in elevation. To make matters worse, it was an exceptionally windy day. With all the trails (and most of the scenic loop road) snowbound, there really wasn’t anything else to do. I tried walking the scenic loop road but didn’t get very far before the wind and cold were just too much. I did at least capture these images along the way:
At that point, I headed back to Ely, snapping these last couple of pics, looking back at the mountains of Great Basin National Park:
On my return to Ely, I pretty much just watched basketball for the rest of the day. And I’m not fully sure what I’ll be doing tomorrow…
Today begins much like yesterday. Once again, I am planning to spend the day at a Nevada state park that I know virtually nothing about. This time, it’s Cathedral Gorge. I know I read a description of the place, and that it was a late … Continue reading Nevada 2024 Trip Report (Day 7)
Day 6: Leaving Las Vegas Now I’ll have to watch that movie again when I get home. But yes, on this day I am leaving the big city for the smaller towns and more remote desert parks and such. I am beginning with Valley o’ … Continue reading Nevada 2024 Trip Report (Day 6)
Another night of very little sleep. This was largely due to a lack of soundproofing in the Strat Hotel tower, mixed with the fact that people are comin’ and goin’ at all hours in Las Vegas. So, I tried to get a few winks in … Continue reading Nevada 2024 Trip Report (Day 2)
Today was a long day. First, I couldn’t sleep last night; this appears to be happening every time I travel now. At a little after 5:00 AM, I left home and headed to the Charlotte airport. Here, I found the line just to drop off a checked bag for an American Airlines flight was nearly as long as the TSA line. And both were HUGE! It was cold this morning in Charlotte, and there are some cold days in the forecast for this trip, so I was wearing my winter coat. In this mass of humanity. By the time I had to take off my coat at the security checkpoint, I almost couldn’t get the thing off, as I had been sweating so much that the inside of the coat sleeves were soaked to the point of sticking to my arms! Ultimately, I was reminded yet again that I need to get TSA Pre-Check.
Then there was The Flight. I was flying to Las Vegas, Nevada, but had a stop in Los Angeles, California. From Charlotte to L.A. is a 5.5-hour flight, and for a flight that long, I did NOT want to be stuck in “Basic Economy” (read “no leg- or even foot-room”). So, I threw down an extra ninety bucks for an exit row seat. I also took a dose of Lorazepam, hoping this would keep any anxiety at bay AND cause me to sleep through the flight. I did sleep off and on, and the leg room was marvelous!
It took a LONG walk to switch planes in L.A. I have to say, there are large portions of LAX that look more like a high school basement than a major city’s international airport. But never mind that. I made it to the second flight, and on into Las Vegas with no trouble. Since my flight was an early one and I was flying west across three time zones, it wasn’t much past lunch time when I got my rental car. So, I headed to Naked City Pizza, which was recommended on the “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” web site, which specifically endorsed (among other things) the “Steak and Cheese Fries”. So that’s what I ordered. I was a little disappointed. They were good, but not the taste explosion I was hoping I would get.
After lunch, it was still a little too early to check into my hotel room at The Strat (formerly The Stratosphere). So, I hit up the “Pinball Hall of Fame” (PHOF). Please note that this place is not so much a “Hall of Fame” as it is a HUGE arcade with an amazing selection of pinball machines of all ages. There are a fair number of arcade video games as well, and a couple other coin-operated machines of yesteryear. For my purposes, I’ll divide the pinball machines into three categories, like so:
Much to my dismay, my arms started cramping after a couple of hours here, so I checked into the hotel and just rested until bed time. I am hoping to go back to PHOF before I leave Las Vegas. If I do, I’ll try to get some pics while I’m there.
Stay tuned, this is planned to be a long and varied trip, so there’s MUCH more to come!
Voyages with Parkinson's 