In the DIGest I received 31 August, David Ambuel writes
<<My father, Philip, a retired pediatrician with PD has
a problem I could
use advise on. He has difficulty with frequent periods
of low blood
pressure. The episodes are frequent and severe enough
that he feels
washed-out and unable to move even though he is not
rigid. Has anyone
else encountered this problem? Are there any
medications or herbal
remedies that may raise blood pressure and not
adversely affect the PD?>>
I replied by e-mail, and was encouraged to send
here my reply, which follows.
Maybe I can help. I am a retired general practitioner,
51, with Parkinsons for 5 years. Your father's problem
is actually quite common. The only side effect caused
more frequently by anti-Parkinson meds is constipation.
Almost all of the meds can lower the resting blood
pressure, with the worst of the lot probably being the
dopamine agonists, Parlodel and Permax. You don't say
what your father is taking, but there are some
considerations that are independent of meds. Probably
the simplest thing to do is to increase salt intake.
That of course implies that he could do that consistent
with other medical needs. Often, support hose can help
the "pooling" phenomenon in the lower extremities.
Post-surgical knee-highs will often do the trick, but
don't rule out just buying him a pair of women's panty
hose with support. Leggs have two support models, one
gentle, the other a little more squeeze. Licorice
raises blood pressure, and has been used in this regard
successfully by many folks. I am not aware whether
there are herbal means to raise blood pressure, but
there may be. General considerations are topped, of
course, by safety concerns. Specifically, I refer to
getting up from either a seated or recumbent position
too fast. Most say that takinga few minutes to
accomodate the blood pressure change. One little trick
is to raise up to upright position from the bottom up,
that is to straighten legs first, then allow upper body
to gradually curl upwards to full upright. I should
not fail to mention that all of this should be run past
your father's physician. As docs, we are usually a
little reluctant to have our own doc, to use him/her
appropriately, and we tend to think that things like
support groups for ourselves (and family members) are
fiction. Good luck. e-mail at [log in to unmask]
Don Penny
