[Music] 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 uh it could be the animal fat maybe the animal protein so why not use 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 are 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 lopa was discovered for the first first time in fabba beans also known as fava beans or broad beans as a natural source of L Doopa to consider the amount varies considerably based on 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 quantity since fava beans are an actual food instead of a powdered supplement the important thing
is that the amount of elop in fava beans is enough to be pharmacologically active in Parkinson's disease in fact there's some reports indicating that Parkinson's patients might respond better to the beans than to standard elopa preparations in pill form but anecdotal reports that patients May gain benefit from a broadbean 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 A3 cups of cooked fava beans and during the next 4 hours a substantial clinical Improvement was noted in fact similar to the Improvement seen
after receiving the standard pharmacological combination of lopa plus Carbidopa the decarboxylase inhibitor drug I talked about in the last video that boosts lopa levels in the brain no surprise that there was a similar effect since they had very similar lopa 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 elopa lacked the Carbidopa booster drug because fava beans may not only be a natural source of elopa but a natural source of the Carbidopa boost too so the consumption
of fava beans has the potential to increase the levels of vopa and Carbidopa in the blood with a market Improvement and muscle movement performance of the patients with Parkinson's 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 AB rupt withdrawal of the lopa 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 stop them 10 days before hospital admission this poor guy's Garden ran out of beans leading to a severe crippling rigidity this case demonstrates that 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 could be drug interactions and then
there's the risk of a condition known as favism there's a genetic mutation that occurs in about 120 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 so it seemed 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 elopa than dried so much so that dried FAA beans may not provide any clinical benefits roasting and boiling removes some or even all the Elba though other Studies have found about a half cup of cooked favas contain approximately 250 milligrams sprouted favas may have the most increasing up until day nine by which time the indigestible flatulent 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 lopa though at lower amounts soybeans have a bonus compound that may act as an lopa boosting Carbidopa compound what if you fed people's soybeans on top of their regular Parkinson's meds giving people just one and a half spoonfuls 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 cinnam should remain the first line therapy but adding beans to one's diet may only [Music] help for
