[faustus]

Hi All,

Does anybody here has an effective and proven herbal alternative to Parkinson/Alzhemier?

It's for my mum. I have checked out Memantine, seems promising, but alot more expensive!

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Faustus

[bioman]

Herb-wise I am not too sure but research Ashwagandha, Rhodiola rosea, Gingko biloba and the ginsengs for starters.

Mega doses of folic acid have been shown to help prevent the onset and/or slow the progression of Alz. Various nuerotropics like ALCAR and KR-ALA might help a little.

Good luck on your search. Alz is a terrible disease..my grandmother is in the last stages of it right now. There are some new drugs on the horizon that look very promising. Never give up hope.

[bioman]

http://anabolicminds.com/forum/news-...top-alzheimers

[Mass_69]

Hey Bio, the link doesn't seem to be working.

Macuna Pruriens standardized for L-Dopa. L-Dopa is something I have read about in treating Parkinson's. It's tough to find an OTC that yeilds a high standardization, though.

I'm not sure about herbal alts for Alzhemier's.

[faustus]

Thanks guys

Yeah, rite now just trying to nip it at the bud. some slight dementia. definitely the signs are there

Was looking at the latest drug used to battle with Alzhemier/Parkinson -- Memantine. About USD2.50/pill!

As for what Mass_69 suggested, saw some time ago, Pinnacle has been selling that for a while. But I would believe it's more for the bodybuilders' scene, not for elderlys, yeah?

Yeah, it's tough, bioman. But life still goes on... the earth will still spin... Thanks for the encouragement.

Faustus

[Mass_69]

L-Dopa caught bodybuilder's attention due to it's GH-Boosting effects. I dont know, but I would think the two are related as GH elevation correlates with lower prolactin, and prolactin's main antagonist is dopamine (a neurotransmitter, important for mental health & motor control).

As Bio mentioned, a high-grade Ginko Biloba and other neurotropics are a good route to pursue. Ginko has shown positive benefits in studies on dementia.

[Rogue Drone]

---

[the Cardinal]

Originally Posted by Rogue Drone

Both?

I'm adverse to saying that anything "natural" is beyond preventative, and I would suggest looking at the Alz and/or Park treatment protocols at lef.org as a place to start.

I agree with this 100%. From personal experience with my mother and grandmother, once the onset of dementia has begun, just getting the afflicted person to eat half-way adequately, let alone take anything extra, even prescribed medication, often becomes a monumental task. Unfortunately, the progression of the disease can usually be correlated with an increased rate of overall weight loss due to an increasing loss of appetite and/or an inability to taste anything except extremely sweet ( or extremely bitter or sour) foods.

Having said that, there is a U.K. journalist, Oliver Gillie, who suggests a correlation between low levels of Vitamin D as a major contributor to the onset of dementia, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, and a host of other neurological disorders. He has interviewed a number of prominent European doctors who have reviewed various epidemiological data as well as conducted their own research on the matter. Keeping an open mind on the subject, his treatise certainly is thought provoking:
http://www.direct-ms.org/pdf/VitDPop...itDArticle.pdf

Good luck. As for natural approaches, my only advice is to find things that she will eat and drink, regardless of their nutritional content or lack thereof, and try to keep her appetite stimulated. In the last couple of months before the death of my mother, I would melt ice cream and blend it with the high protein/high carb version of Ensure, and let her sip it through a straw while I held it. At the end, this was the only thing that she would willingly ingest.

[faustus]

This piece of news bring brand new hope or at least closer to treating Alzhemier's completely:

BBC NEWS | Health | Pill raises Alzheimer's cure hope

It says the drug PBT2 is derived from Clioquinol.

Should I go rushing to get it now? Over at where I am putting up, they only have it in external application.

Wonder if you guys out there have seen it in oral form?

Let me know.

Seems very promising to me, the more I read.

Faustus

[yeahright]

Sorry about your mom, best of luck. You might contact those Aussie researchers about becoming part of a clinical trial when they move to humans.

[tsc]

You should look into getting her on a curcuminoid product (extract from turmeric rhizomes). It has many, many benefits one of which seems to help with alzheimer's. You can google curcumin (and/or curcuminoid(s) ) w/ alzheimer's and find many articles on this. I've included one such link:

ScienCentral Video News: Alzheimer’s Curry

Curcumin is the &^%! on many levels, I believe the first synthetic (ie patentable and produced by a pharmaceutical company) curcuminoid is in trials right now. The natural stuff has a huge amount of research on it, and you can easily by 95% curcumin extracts and most drug stores, health stores etc. anti-alzeimer's, anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, etc. etc. etc.

word to the wise, turmeric/curcumin is a very effective dye. ie, if your caps are powdery, you'll end up with yellow hands etc. :-) .

TSC

[bioman]

Cucurmin is indeed the shiz. This stuff has so many benefits, with few to no sides, it's amazing. The clinical data coming out of India is amazing to say the least.

[Catshmat]

huperzine and galantamine
cdp-choline, alpha-gpc, centrophenoxine
pi- ani- oxi- prami- racetam (piracetam...etc)

Resveratrol, curcumin, ibuprofen,

brain excercises, physical excercise, frequent human interaction.

[faustus]

Heard and read about it.

Someone was recommending this co Sabinsa, which claimed to sell high purity curcumin, and it argued that it must be formulated with bioperine, to increase effectiveness.

Will try to get some from them.

But I believe herbs like curcumin, whereby it is used almost daily in a typical Indian diet, has to take awhile to sit in.

Any herbs that is used daily, will lose its effectiveness over time.

Looking at India population, they still have a subtantial number of Alzheimer's sufferers. no?

Faustus

[yeahright]

Originally Posted by faustus

Looking at India population, they still have a subtantial number of Alzheimer's sufferers. no?

Faustus

No. Alzheimers rates among Indians in their 70s are only 25% that of the comparable age group in the USA.

Life Extension What's Hot

[tsc]

Indians eat lots of turmeric yes, but turmeric rhizomes in the unprocessed form are only about 3-5% curcuminoids if I remember correctly. The extracts are obviously much more potent, and more than anyone would normally consume in their diet (yet still safe in these larger amounts). Still, a little in your diet might go a very long way as far as prevention... not to mention that this plant has been a fixture in ayurvedic medicine.

Sabinsa does not sell direct to individuals as far as I know. They aren't the only ones producing 95% curcumin ppwder, but any company buying from them will most likely have 'C3' listed as the curcumin product/blend and if it has there form of piperine it will be labeled 'bioperine'. Studies do show piperine/bioperine dramatically improves the absorption/half life of curcumin, but even without it curcumin is still useful. You can find several products with about 500mg of curcuminoids and 3 to 5mg of piperine/bioperine. Vitacost.com sells one labeled one as 1100mg and 120 caps, which seemed like the best deal... but they forget to mention on the site that its 1100mg for a TWO cap dose. still a decent deal. Walmart carries the Rexall brand, which is deceivingly labeled as 95% curcuminoids, when it reality its mostly just ground turmeric rhizomes with an additional 50mg of the 95% material... bastards.

As for your other arguments, fruits and vegetables that provide fiber and antioxidants and much more that help prevent numerous diseases do not lose their effectiveness over time. Again, the 95% extract is so much more potent that trying to get curcumin from regular turmeric powder. In this case you aren't just trying to prevent damage, but reserve years of damage while still preventing new damage. The dose that would be fine for prevention may not be near enough to deal with years of damage.... of course, this is so true with just about everything in life :-) .


TSC

[joeyg]

Look into ALCAR. Do a seach on pubmed.com. There are many studies showing ALCAR can be beneficial.

J.