My Parkinson's Experience with a Gluten-Free Diet - part 2

My Low/No-Gluten Diet for PD

Two weeks ago I started a low/no-gluten diet with the intention of testing it for at least 3 months to provide enough time to see if it helped relieve Parkinson's symptoms or not. Already I'm seeing changes. And I'm not the only one who has noticed some improvement, both my wife and my massage therapist have also seen changes.

Even though it hasn't been very long, I am happy to report that I've noticed a decrease in urinary frequency. Although it was being partly controlled by the saw palmetto and pumpkin seed oil blend and nettles I was taking, I still had issues and felt limited in places I could visit and things I could do. Now I take less when I get up in the mornings and get better results. I also think I can feel when I need to go better.

Sexually there has been a slight improvement in my response. I can feel more. There's a lot to be said for being in contact with those nerve endings.

My body is not as stiff and rigid which means that I can get in and out of the tub shower more easily, since my leg has relaxed a bit. The massage therapist noticed a greater range of motion, less overall rigidity and the ability to get muscles to release, . something which has been a real problem in my neck, shoulders and leg.

I've been sleeping better since I started the low/no-gluten diet. Last night I went to bed at midnight, slept till 5:30 am, back to sleep easily until 7:30 am when I got up for the day. That was better than I have done for a long time. My wife insists that I need to take an occasional nap which is something that I used to do when I first was diagnosed.

Staying on the low-no-gluten diet has been easier than I thought it would be. I've eaten rice, ground chicken as hamburger, buckwheat pancakes, no-gluten pretzels, waffles. I've had plain ground turkey as sausage which my wife seasons and potato chips, cheese, yogurt and ice cream. So there are lots of things to eat. Of course I'm very lucky that my wife likes to cook and is very good at getting me to take my pills and eat the right things. She's just switching out ingredients to try to make the changes feel normal.

We shopped at Whole Foods Market where they have a very big selection of Gluten Free foods. They have shelf tags which identify all the gluten-free products they carry. Saves a lot of time for gluten free customers. Just follow the green tags up and down the aisles. We'll be adding brown rice noodles and pasta which we haven't had in a long time.

I've notice one problem with the diet thus far. We hadn't considered that the primary use of white rice flour could contribute to constipation. As soon as I noticed the issue - not hard to overlook - I explained to my wife who reconsidered what I was eating and realized that it was an easy fix. White rice is low in fiber and white rice flour has almost none. So within an hour we added fruits with high fiber content, brown rice, beans - I especially like refried beans - sweet potatoes, natural applesauce and plenty of drinking water all help to ease the problem.

Understand that I appreciate fruit but never cared to eat it that often. Change of plans and now I do.

We're calling this a low/no-gluten diet because I don't have celiac's disease but I may have some gluten intolerance. Because of that we are being careful but we know that on occasion something will accidentally slip past us and occasionally I might backslide...not yet but we're trying to be realistic.

So I feel this was a positive start for my diet although it will be a few months before I see the results. I'll post again next weekend...by then I will have had the chocolate chip cookies and the bread.

Addendum:
The cookies and bread turned out to be delicious, tasted even better than full-gluten bakery.