New Year, New Experiment

Happy New Year!

First, update on my Azilect. Have been taking it now for about 5 weeks. Full effect is suppose to be accomplished between 4 to 8 weeks. So I'm pretty much in the middle of that range. The last couple of weeks I've not noticed any signficant change in symptoms, so I think at least for symptoms, I'm at my maxium benefit.

The good news is that its effect upon symptoms has been very good. I'm currently feeling the most "normal" I've felt siince my PD began. Not that symptoms have gone totally away, but they've been siginficantly improved, including my typing speed is much better, though there are still times it doesn't work as well. But the stiffness in my left arm, the pain, is pretty much at a minimum, and my left hand tremor is slight. Additionally, during times of stress, like singing for 3 hours at church on Sunday mornings, is noticably easier, less stiffness and pain and tremors.

The only downside has been the dyskenesia side-effect never went away, if anything has increased slightly. Still not as bad as it was when my Sinemet was doubled, and still manageable, but has stayed there. Slight involunbtary movement in my head and left leg gets antsy and doesn't want to hold me up while standing for a prolonged period of time. The one good bit of news on that front is the involuntary multi-click on the mouse with my right hand that I attributed to my dyskenesia. I got a new mouse for Christmas from my son, Jeremy. So far, it has solved my multi-click issue. I guess my previous mouse was too sensitive.

So the improvement from using Azilect has been a good Christmas present. At the beginning of this new year, I'm going to try something new.

On a  Parkinson's forum I'm on, there has been a couple of people promoting the benefits of UDCA, a type of bile acid naturally produced in our bodies (around 5% of total) that is used primarily by doctors to dissolve a certain type of gall stones. Some studies on cells that have a cell death similar to what happens in Parkinson's brains has shown to have slowed, stopped cell death, even revived dying cells that were dying. So it has been postulated that the drug could potentially slow or halt the progression of PD and help in relieving symptoms. The two guys who have tried it noticed immediate improvement in symptoms the first day taking it, which seems hard to believe, but they swear by it.

While UCDA is a prescribed substance, another form of it that has taurine added to it can be bought over the counter, known as TUCDA. After determining that the risk it is unsafe for me to take was very small, I decided to give it a try and see what it does. So I ordered some from Amazon. It should have already arrived by this point, but should come in tomorrow. So in the next day or two, I'll be able to tell you whether it had a similar effect on me. Stay tuned!

And enjoy your New Year's day, and the 8th day of Christmas. Now, what did I do with those eight maids that are supposed to be milking these cows?