You know the feeling you get
when you learn something new about a health problem
you’ve been trying to reverse? Maybe high blood pressure,
diabetes, or heart disease. Well, there’s nothing I like better
than bringing you the information that will help you do just that. Welcome to the
Nutrition Facts Podcast. I’m your host,
Dr. Michael Greger. Today we begin a
fascinating new series on treating Parkinson's
with diet. And we begin with a question: since Parkinson’s is caused by a
dopamine deficiency in the brain, what if you ate foods rich in the
dopamine precursor—levodopa? Two centuries have passed
since James Parkinson’s Essay on the Shaking Palsy described
a disease characterized by tremor and problems
with movement. Today, treatment options
include surgically implanting electrodes
into the brain. There has to be a better way. We’ve known since the 1950’s
that Parkinson’s disease is manifested by a dopamine
deficiency in the brain. Well then why not
eat a dopamine diet? A variety of fruits
and vegetables contain the same dopamine
made by our brain.
Unfortunately, dopamine can’t
cross the blood-brain barrier and hence is ineffective as therapy,
however the dopamine precursor, known as l-dopa or levodopa can
get from the blood up into the brain where it can then be converted
to dopamine within the brain by an enzyme called
decarboxylase. We don’t want the levodopa
to be converted to dopamine outside the brain because
then it can’t get in, so we give people a decarboxylase
inhibitor which itself can’t get into the brain, so that
keeps levodopa from prematurely turning into dopamine before it
gets into the brain where we need it. So eating dopamine-
rich foods doesn’t help, but what if we ate
levodopa-rich foods? More than 1500 years before
Dr.
Parkinson came on the scene, an Indian physician
seems to have nailed it and even suggested a
treatment, velvet beans, the plant with the
highest amount of L-DOPA. Hmm, so might
there be a way to forestall the epidemic
of Parkinson’s Disease through plant-based
remedies after all? Levodopa is the gold standard
therapy for Parkinson’s patients, but most Parkinson’s
patients in low-income areas cannot afford long-term
daily Levodopa therapy. In rural Africa, for example,
it is estimated that only 15% of patients are
treated with levodopa, because the daily cost of Levodopa
treatment is about a dollar day, which may be half of
what people make in a day. Same with other regions
in the Global South. L-DOPA is mostly
unavailable or unaffordable. So patients frequently
use powdered velvet beans as a replacement or
supplement to the drug. But does it work?
You never know… until you put it to the test. Velvet beans in Parkinson’s
Disease a randomized, double blind, clinical study,
and, a dose of 30g, which is about three tablespoons
led to a reliable and sustained antiparkinsonian effect
in all patients, working significantly
quicker than the drug, working significantly
longer than the drug, and working significantly
better than the drug, in another double-blind, randomized,
head-to-head crossover study.
The levodopa in velvet beans
appears to be 2–3 times more potent as compared to the
same dose of pill-form Levodopa, suspected to be because
there may be some intrinsic decarboxylase inhibitor
compound in the plant as well. OK, but those were
single dose studies. What about the chronic use of
velvet beans for Parkinson’s. Fourteen patients with
advanced Parkinson’s received roasted velvet bean powder
or the standard drug, switching back and forth for
months, looking at changes in quality of life,
activities of daily living, movement and
non-movement symptoms, and time with good mobility without troublesome involuntary
writhing movements and the velvet beans seemed
to work as well as the drug in all measures of efficacy,
including quality of life.
Despite the efficacy, the chances
of this cheap herbal remedy ever being licensed seems
unlikely—and for good reason. First of all, the stuff
evidently tastes nasty. And we don’t really
have good data going out more
than a few months. While velvet beans may
potentially be part of the answer to Parkinson's
disease management in low-income countries,
in high-income countries, one may be tempted
to prefer them to drugs just because it's a
"more natural therapy," but researchers discourage
patients and physicians to consider its use when
the drugs are available. So levodopa in pill
form should remain the first-line treatment
for Parkinson’s. However, velvet bean powder
may be better tolerated in certain patients. Psychologically, some patients
just have a thing against taking pills and so if they refuse, then certainly the
beans can step in. But otherwise, velvet bean
supplements suffer from the issues common to all
supplements, specifically lack of sufficient regulation
and quality control.
There’s all sorts of brands
out there, but there's no head-to-head comparisons
as to which is best, and the quality of the
products likely vary, but you don’t know… until you put it to the test. Six brands of velvet
bean product were ordered through the
internet and most of them four out of six showed a
large discrepancy between the claim on their label and
the actual L-Dopa content, and only two even came close. The remaining products
contained considerably less, less than 10% in two cases. Too bad there isn’t a food source
of L-dopa that you could just eat instead of taking in a supplement. Well, wait a second. L-dopa was originally discovered,
more than a century ago, in faba beans. Might eating faba beans
help with Parkinson’s? I’ll explore just that question, next.
Increased risk of Parkinson’s
disease has been associated with exposure to pesticides,
consumption of dairy products, a history of melanoma,
and traumatic brain injury. Why is the risk of Parkinson’s
disease increased among individuals with high milk
and dairy consumption? It could be the animal fat.
Maybe the animal protein. So why not a plant-food
diet for the risk and management of
Parkinson’s Disease? There are phytochemicals that
may target the underlying cause, but in terms of treatment,
ancient sacred texts from thousands of years ago refer to
trembling individuals who were prescribed a plant from the
bean family to treat the condition.
In my last video I talked
about the use of velvet beans, but in 1913 the miracle drug L-dopa
was discovered for the first time, in faba beans, also known
as fava beans or broad beans, as a natural source of
L-dopa to consider. The amount varies considerably
based on a number of factors, but typically it looks like
they have about 10 times less than velvet beans, but that’s okay
since you can eat larger quantities since fava beans are an actual food
instead of a powdered supplement. The important thing is that
amount of L-dopa in fava beans is enough to be pharmacologically
active in Parkinson’s disease. In fact, there are some reports
indicating that Parkinson’s patients might respond better to the beans than to standard L-dopa
preparations in pill form. But anecdotal reports that
patients may gain benefit from a broad bean rich
diet don’t cut it.
What you have to do… is put it to the test. Parkinson’s patients were
fed about one and a third cups of cooked fava beans, and
during the next four hours a substantial clinical
improvement was noted. In fact similar to the
improvement seen after receiving the standard pharmacological
combination of L-dopa plus carbidopa, the decarboxylase inhibitor drug
I talked about in the last video that boosts L-dopa
levels in the brain. No surprise that there
was a similar effect since they had very similar
L-dopa levels in the blood. In fact, half the time you could
hardly tell the beans from the drugs. How could there be the same levels if the bean L-dopa lacked
the carbidopa booster drug. Because fava beans may not
only be a natural source of L-dopa, but a natural source of
the carbidopa booster too. So the consumption of fava
beans has the potential to increase the levels of L-dopa
and carbidopa in the blood, with a marked improvement in
the muscle movement performance of the patients with Parkinson
disease, without any side effects.
In fact they work so well
you have to be careful about abruptly stopping them. There’s a condition called
neuroleptic malignant-like syndrome characterized by fever, rigidity,
all sorts of neurological problems, muscle breakdown, altered
levels of consciousness, which is usually precipitated
by an abrupt withdrawal of the L-dopa drug, caused by
an acute dopamine-deficient state. Well, you can see the same
thing if you’re treating your Parkinson’s with fava beans and then all of a
sudden you stop them. Alternative therapies carry
similar risks to traditional agents, because in this case they really
are the ultimate traditional agent. There are some downsides you
don’t see with the drug, though. Like fava-induced flatulence. You also have to be careful with
fava consumption if you’re on MAO inhibitor drugs often
used as anti-depressants, since there can be
drug interactions. And then there's the risk of a
condition known as favism.
There's a genetic mutation that
occurs in about 1 in 20 people, and at even higher rates
in those of African, Asian, and Mediterranean descent, in which people lack an enzyme
that’s necessary to detoxify certain compounds
found in fava beans, and without the enzyme
fava bean consumption can cause your red
blood cells to rupture. Thankfully, genetic testing for
this mutation is widely available and affordable, and so it seems
prudent to screen patients with Parkinson’s for this favism, what's called G6PD
deficiency mutation, prior to putting them on
daily fava bean consumption.
If you want to give
fava beans a try. fresh green fava beans have
significantly more L-dopa than dried, so much so that dried fava beans may not provide any
clinical benefits. Roasting and boiling removes
some or even all of the L-dopa, though other studies have
found that about a half cup of cooked favas contain
approximately 250 mg. Sprouted favas may have the
most, increasing up until day 9, by which time the indigestible
flatulence sugars may be eliminated, offering another advantage
of fava bean sprouting. But you don’t know if
fava bean sprouts help… until you put them to the test. Researchers fed Parkinson’s
patients a salad with about a half cup of freshly
chopped fava sprouts and observed substantial
clinical improvement. Other beans, just like
regular beans also naturally have L-DOPA, though
at lower amounts. Soybeans have a bonus
compound that may act as an L-dopa boosting
carbidopa compound.
What if you fed
people soybeans on top of their regular
Parkinson’s meds? Given people just one and a half
spoonful’s worth of roasted soybeans led to a significant improvement
over the drugs alone with significantly fewer involuntary
movements hours later. Until more information is available,
Parkinson’s combo drugs like Sinemet should remain
the first-line therapy, but adding beans to one’s
diet may only help. We would love it if you could
share with us your stories about reinventing your health
through evidence-based nutrition. Go to nutritionfacts.org/testimonials. We may share it on our social
media to help inspire others.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics,
images, or studies mentioned here, please go to the Nutrition Facts
Podcast landing page. There you’ll find all the
detailed information you need – plus, links to all of the sources
we cite for each of these topics. My last two books are
“How to Survive a Pandemic” and the “How Not to Diet Cookbook”. Stay tuned for December 5, 2023 for the launch of my new one,
How Not to Age. And, of course, all the proceeds
I receive from the sales of all my books goes
directly to charity.
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my grandmother, whose own life was saved
with evidence-based nutrition..
Video Transcript – As found on YouTube
| The China Study | The Power - Rhonda Byrne |
| The Starch Solution | The Magic - Rhonda Byrne |
| Crazy Sexy Diet | Yoga Girl - Rachel Brathen |
| The Oh She Glows Cookbook |
Some Vegan Food Looks Way Too “real” 😅 #vegan
Had My First Vegan Steak In A Non-vegan Steakhouse #vegan #theonlyvegan
Vegan Daughter 🤝🏾 Vegetarian Mother #vegan #theonlyvegan
Indonesian Typical Supermarket: Fresh Market Lombok
