The Patient Researcher with Parkinson’s Disease

Learning the truth about Parkinson’s Disease

I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2018, but had many of its invisible but debilitating non-motor symptoms for years before that. These included acute fatigue, daytime sleepiness, poor sleep with vivid dreams, confusion, balance problems and severe urinary urgency.

I was told that the causes of Parkinson’s disease were “unknown”. “Unknown to whom?” I thought. Certainly not to the most advanced researchers who I was able to contact. They shared the growing consensus that a combination of oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in neurons, were the most likely causes of the progression of Parkinson’s disease. Mitochondria are the organs that supply energy to all cells including neurons. When mitochondria in neurons do not function properly, the more distant axons of neurons suffer from energy starvation and slowly die back. This leads to a reduction of the density of the dopamine neuron network and dopamine deficiency in the regions concerned, particularly the striatum.

In healthy people, a signalling protein called Nrf2 (nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2), controls oxidative stress and mitochondrial function by activating the expression of hundreds of genes which release antioxidant molecules and enzymes to rapidly neutralise oxidizing molecules and free radicals (also called Reactive Oxygen Species or ROS). With increasing age, the activity of Nrf2 declines which increases oxidative stress. This leaves some types of neurons, especially those that produce dopamine, particularly susceptible to damage. Fortunately, astrocytes control Nrf2 activity, mitochondrial quality control and general housekeeping for neurons. The problem therefore comes down to making sure that Nrf2 in astrocytes is fully activated.

One of the best and most easily available activators of Nrf2 is sulforaphane, a molecule that can be made from broccoli seeds. Sulforaphane increases the activity of Nrf2 which in turn reduces oxidative stress and improves mitochondrial function in neurons. However, sulforaphane is unstable and must be consumed within a few hours of being made. The choice of broccoli seeds and particularly the preparation method are both critical to getting a good yield of sulforaphane. In 2022, after 3 years of research, I was able to finalise the method of preparation of a highly-reproducible, standardized Broccoli Seed Tea (BST).

Over this period of development, I was able to manage severity of my non-motor symptoms the point of total remission by consuming Broccoli Seed Tea. Consequently, despite having Parkinson’s for more than 5 years, I still enjoy excellent quality of life and have retained my full capacity to continue with my research.

Several other People with Parkinson’s with whom I shared the method have also observed rapid and concomitant attenuation of a wide range of non-motor symptoms. From a theoretical standpoint, this observation supports the hypothesis that non-motor symptoms are directly caused by oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction in dopaminergic neurons.

Broccoli Seed Tea does not have the same impact on motor symptoms. The most widely accepted hypothesis is that motor symptoms occur after a long period of dopamine depletion in specific regions of the brain reduces their capacity to function properly. To work around this, neurons make new connections and form clusters of neurons which operate in a synchronized manner rather than individually. At rest, they all fire together at their own natural frequency, for example, at 3 – 8 Hz for clusters that cause tremor. Other clusters have higher frequency ranges and are associated with slowness and stiffness. Treating this aspect of Parkinson’s disease is discussed in a separate section called “Vibrotactile stimulation to reduce motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease”.

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Dr Albert F Wright