I ate a bowl full of some kind of sugar-saturated grain; not the best choice but it was good and temporarily satisfied my need for sweetness, which no doubt will return anon. Throughout the day, I will snack on, and eat, foods that taste good but are probably detrimental to my health, specifically, my PD. Now, it is not as if I just found out that such food is not good for you. It is my intention to make a change, tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest. But eventually I will have to change what I put into my stomach. Why? What is the connection, if any between PD and nutrition?
Well, let's start with what we know about PD. The brains of PWP contain buildups of a protein called alpha synuclein ("AS"). These buildups lead to AS plaques and they have an adverse effect on the manufacture of dopamine. They seem to be abundant in the substantia nigra where dopamine-producing neurons reside in abundance. The plaques apparently cause the death of the dopamine-producing neurons. Hence dopamine, which is essential to movement, gets depleted, leading to all the problems PWP experience.
You may ask where does the AS come from. It appears it is developed in the gut. The gut is chock-a-block with microbiota, most of which are friendly and essential to our well-being, but they can also break down nutrients into molecules of short chain fatty acids which seem to have a role in the onset of PD. The molecules travel to the brain and aid in the production of AS and as plaques develop, dopamine decreases, leading to you-know-what.
We can easily conclude there is a connection between the food we eat and PD.
The lesson is: Don't eat food that produces short-chain fatty acids. For me, it means avoiding dairy and eating lots of fruit, nuts, and vegetables. In other words, as Mark Twain remarked "The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like and do what you'd rather not".
Should be an interesting future, avoiding weapons of mass destruction cleverly disguised as fast food. I will start my new regime later but I ask myself today: What is happening in my gut right now? Can I control the production by gut microbiota of short-chain fatty acid or am I simply a host for bacteria? Will diet cure my PD or at least slow it down?
Who knows? I might be beyond caring and right now I hunger for a Big Mac.
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