It’s challenging being a woman with Parkinson’s for nearly two decades.
On Monday, I am focused on food and medications. It entails delaying my intake of food, shopping for food, preparing meals, eating meals, washing the dishes and cleaning up the kitchen, calling the pharmacy, ordering and getting renewals for medications, picking up medications, organizing medications in the pill container for the week, remembering which medications require food and which do not, and taking medication.
In addition, the medications prescribed for Parkinson’s (PD) can cause nutrition-related side effects, such as nausea and poor appetite. So there are meds for the symptoms of PD and other meds for the side effects of taking the meds for the symptoms of PD.
Eating high protein food can interfere with the effectiveness of the absorption of Sinemet (the gold standard medication for PD). Protein can be eaten as long as it’s timed at about a half hour to an hour before or after the protein-containing meal.
I find it nearly impossible to adhere to this regimen and also maintain a LIFE outside the world of PD.
8 AM-9 AM--Don't eat meal that includes protein
9 AM-Take PD Medication
10 AM-Eat meal including protein
11 AM- 12 noon-Don't eat meal that includes protein
12 noon-Take PD Medication
1 PM-Eat meal that includes protein
2 PM-3 PM--Don't eat meal that includes protein
3 PM-Take PD Medication
5 PM-6 PM--Don't eat meal that includes protein
6 PM-Take PD Medication
And then I have a different medication schedule before bed
Sometimes it's easier to not bother with eating and skip the meds and to sip a chilled glass of Chardonnay instead.
To learn more:
The following is a highly informative and comprehensive article about nutrition and PD. I highly recommend it.
Nutrition and Parkinson’s Disease: What Matters Most, published by the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, author KarolTraviss, MSc, RD
http://www.pdf.org/en/winter06_07_Nutrition_and_Parkinson
