Hi to all -
I've been receiving the Parkinson's digest for a few months
now for my aunt Fran and her husband Harold who has Parkinson's. They
just LOVE this list. Thank you so much for all the support and
information. It has given them much more confidence in how to handle
the symptoms of Parkinson's. Also, it has helped them make decisions
on treatments such as the Pallidotomy.
My aunt wanted me to share some info with you concerning
restless legs. It has been common knowledge in our family that
Vitamin E is generally the "cure" for restless legs. I know I needed
extra when I was pregnant, and apparently it has been very helpful to
Harold as well. We also give it to my nephew Jess when he's been
"bad" and it really has helped him get it together when he's out of
control (he's 11 now).
Here is some miscellaneous info I can tell you about vitamin
E. Vitamin E is necessary to muscle formation. When a person is
deficient in Vitamin E, they get creatin-urea (or however its
spelled). That implies that their muscles are breaking down and the
result is creatin in the urine. Taking supplements appears to reverse
that process. It also appears to strengthen blood vessel walls and
can keep the blood from clotting unnecessarily. (It can help
plebitis, thrombo plebitis and phlebo thrombosis as I remember).
(Please excuse the spelling, I'm remembering most of this stuff from a
paper I did in college which was some time ago). It has been used as
protection against blood clots related to heart attacks as well, which
I expect we'll see more of in the future.
It is also an antioxidant, which we all have been hearing
about as a good fighter of free radicals (along with vitamin C,
selenium and another one, I think it was zinc).
Please be careful of one thing though. The strengthening
effect on the blood vessels sometimes has the side effect of raising
the blood pressure. Usually this is temporary (I think we're talking
days or weeks) but in the infirm it could be dangerous. If you never
take vitamin E, please introduce it slowly and keep and eye on your
blood pressure. Most people will have no reaction, but an occasional
person will. I personally take about 400 IU a day, but I would
recommend anywhere from 100 to 800 IU a day. See if youre restless
legs calm down and gauge it based on that.
Vitamin E formulations: You have a lot of choices.
There are the mixed tocopherols vs the specific (alpha beta
and other tocopherol's). The alpha is known to be the most
biologically active which is the one I take. Less is known about the
other ones. You may wish to take the mixed, but you may want to
increase the dosage if you do.
There is the d-alpha verses the dl-alpha. This difference is
important. The d-alpha is the natural form, the dl-alpha is a
synthetic form which is actually a different molecule (l is for left
handed I think). It is known to be much less biologically active
(something like by a factor of 3 to 10). It's also much cheaper than
the d- form so you will usually find the dl- form available. Although
I've heard more recently that the international unit system is
supposed to account for the difference in biological activity (100 IU
of dl-alpha is much more than 100 IU of d-alpha) I never confirmed
that (I read that in American Health magazine, so who knows). Since
it's a different molecule anyway, I don't trust it at all and wouldn't
recommend that anyone buy that. I've even seen some supplements that
are mixed up with some d- and some dl- mixed together. Please read
labels carefully. You'll have much better luck in a health food store
than in a small drug store finding the natural form.
One other less important note. There is also a "tocopheryl"
form verses a "tocopherol" form. I think supplements are normally
tocopherol. The only time this seems to matter is when you want to
put some on your skin. The tocopheryl form is very soothing on your
skin. Its helpful for burns and sunburn, and can be good for
complexions too since its very lubricating and healing. The
tocopherol form is irritating to the skin. The only time I look for
this is when I'm looking for a topical form.
Well that's my brain dump on this topic. I hope this is
helpful to you. Thanks so much for all the wonderful information.
Wendy Swanbeck
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