Parkinson’s patients urged to avoid protein- medication mix
TORONTO — Parkinson’s medication and protein don’t get along.
Most Parkinson’s patients take the medication levadopamine. But if they take it too soon before or after eating protein- rich foods, the drug and the protein fight each other to get taken up into the blood stream.
The protein always wins, leaving patients with far less bang for the medication buck than they need. So at many stages of Parkinson’s, patients may be urged to follow what is called a protein redistribution diet, with daytime meals light on protein and a protein- heavy evening meal to compensate.
The idea is to time the medication and meals in such a way as to maximize the impact of the drug, which helps Parkinson’s patients control tremors and stay in an “on” state physically and mentally during the day.
Dopamine is a chemical that permits parts of the body to communicate with each other — allows the brain to send a message to the hand. With Parkinson’s disease, the brain cells that make dopamine start to die.
Synthetic dopamine can top up brain levels. But because of vagaries like how the medication interacts with a person’s diet, it is hard to keep consistent levels of dopamine in the system, explains Dr. Galit Kleiner- Fisman, a neurologist who specializes in movement disorders.
“We never get it quite right. So we kind of overshoot and undershoot. And as time passes, people have this kind of roller- coaster- like day where they take their pills, they kick in, 20 minutes later they’re mobile,” she says. “But then they might be hypermobile and they’re moving around too much. Then when the medication wears off they become frozen, they can’t move. Then they have to take medication and wait for it to kick in again. And it’s really debilitating.”