[Thomas Casten]

Hi Beth:

My wife Judy was diagnosed at age 69 in November of 2012, and we soon learned that medicine did not yet have any drugs to slow or reverse Parkinson’s — had only drugs for symptoms like leva-dopa.  We also saw that exercise slows progressions.  All in, Judy has trained for and run 7 marathons, one per year, and remains independent 8 years after diagnoses.

Okay, marathons are a bit extreme, but recent research found that people that do extended exercise produce natural dopamine, and that after 30 to 45 minutes of exercise, our livers send out signals — ketone bodies — that tell our cells to digest fat.  These ketone bodies pass the blood-brain barrier and tell brain cells to digest fat. Our neuroscientist friend who specializes in Alzheimer’s disease, says that the brain could be digesting some of the lipids that seem to slow brain cell functions.

I am not qualified to claim this is scientific, but our experience suggests that you could try to walk every day and try to increase your time to an hour.

Hope this helps.

Tom Casten

[Thomas Casten]

I worry about how to help my wife keep dealing with bills, conversations, and problem solving in a way that does not constantly remind her of the cognitive difficulty problems she faces.  It would often be faster to do the task myself, or tell the story myself than helping her complete the task, but at what cost to her self-esteem.

Tom