How do I time my Parkinson's medications with meals? The Living with Parkinson's Tip of the Day
Check out a great article in WSJ about Alarm Clocks and Stress
Though many nutrition books have touted the idea that high protein diets may disrupt Parkinson’s disease medication absorption— there is suprisingly little data on the subject.
One study from New York estimated that 10% of persons with Parkinson’s may have a clinically significant protein-Parkinson medication interaction.
So what should you do?
Here are the practical tips we follow in the clinic (until more studies are available).
1- Do not assume that you have a protein interaction that will affect the absorption of your Parkinson medications
2- If you are suspicious protein or food interact with your medication absorption, talk to your healthcare team about “timing your medications to be given a 1/2-1 hour head start before you eat.” If you find this trial successful— this may be a strategy you want to adopt. You may need to repeat the trial every few years to be sure things have not changed with disease progression!
3- In our experience it is uncommon to prescribe protein restricted diet in the setting of Parkinson’s. We do it, but only rarely!
4- If your medications do not “kick in” or you are not experiencing dyskinesia despite high medication dosages— consider having your doctor order a gastric emptying study. Diabetes, microbiome changes and other issues could also be responsible for medication absorption problems.
Read more in the new book by Drs Okun, Malaty and Deeb- Living with Parkinson’s (Robert Rose, 2020).
