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Announcing the Cure for Parkinson’s Disease Looking for doctors to try a new treatment and send observations (Pardon the length of this document. You cannot describe a useful brain theory in a sound bite.) The Treatment (Part 4) This comes in 7 parts. Do not apply any of this information without reading all 7 parts. Each part will have words at the end saying "continued in Parkinson’s Disease Cure’ Part [#]" for those whose servers might truncate these documents. Table of Contents Introduction................................................................ ...........................Part 1 Some of my theory helpful to understanding this treatment....................Part 2 Some of my theory helpful to understanding this treatment (cont.).........Part 3 The Treatment................................................................... ....................Part 4 The Treatment (cont.)..................................................................... .......Part 5 Why announce it this way on the Internet?.............................................Part 6 Why approach Parkinson’s disease first?................................................Part 7 The Treatment Candidates The first candidates for testing this treatment should be screened for problems that might become critical during a period of withdrawal. When we know more about this treatment these things may not matter so much, but at this time we have to act as safely as possible. Some doctors might choose to try an unknown procedure first on those patients that are no longer responding to conventional treatment. This is usually a moral choice. This treatment might be a little bit different in that you should understand that the greater the problem with the disorder and the greater the progression of the disease, then the greater the discomfort during a period of withdrawal. The first people to try this should not be diabetic, epileptic, or suffering from heart disease. It is best that candidates be able to function without taking any other medication during a period of two months. Age matters. The older you are the greater the withdrawal to be experienced. As nervous function returns, old forgotten pains can return too. These will diminish eventually in most cases but there might be exceptions. For instance, the pain of a severed limb or an old operation might return for some time with increased sensation. (The neurological damage from a severed body part can never be totally repaired through healing. Sometimes it is best when functioning diminishes in a small part of the nervous system.) I will send updates as I learn more about problems with various candidates. Preparation Several different factors need to be controlled during this treatment for success. (Of those who have done this so far, it was not always possible to provide these controls but every treatment was still successful to a great extent.) This may be very important for some people: remove all allergens from the patient’s diet and atmosphere. This alone might be enough for some people to start getting better (and/or to send that person into withdrawal). Stay away from common diet items. Test for allergies if possible. Have the patient spend time in comfortable places during the treatment if possible. Spend time with enjoyable people during the treatment. (Some patients may have developed an allergy to their doctors and to the hospital.) (The hospital might be the worst place for making this treatment work. Something needs to be done to create the most healing atmosphere. But these people will need supervision and support, at least during the worst few days of the withdrawal. They need to be protected in case they become suicidal or have a heart attack during a stressful period of withdrawal. New techniques will probably eliminate these risks if most of the withdrawal can be facilitated during sleep.) The patient should stop taking all medications prior to starting on the methylphenidate. No drugs or alcohol or cigarettes or caffeine (skip the chocolate) or allergens during the treatment and for at least a month after the treatment. (You want to be cured, don’t you?!?) (If you worry about trying to kick your cigarette habit, for instance, along with enduring the stress of this treatment, you should realize that this treatment is an accelerated withdrawal so that the experience of giving up a substance during this treatment will actually be easier than without the treatment. The results will be more permanent as well. This is the time to give up smoking for good.) Each patient needs to be well-prepared for all possible withdrawal symptoms. Knowing that these states might come is very helpful in getting through them. Every change in functioning that has ever come to any person during any kind of withdrawal from drugs could occur during this withdrawal as well. This will all be minimized if the right dosage is found, but nobody has enough experience with this treatment to know the optimal dosage. (Everybody who does this will have some kind of withdrawal. This same treatment will cause supposedly healthy people to go into withdrawal. Everybody after a certain age has some part of their brain that is slower than the rest and will benefit from such a withdrawal. The only thing that would keep a person from having some kind of withdrawal with this treatment would be a recent treatment or a very unusual state of health.) Tremor, panic attacks, seizures, suicidal depression, delusions, hallucinations, physical illness, anger... all is possible. But none of these may occur if the parts of the brain responsible for such states go through their withdrawals during sleep. With the right dosage this will be a very speedy withdrawal and most swings in mood and functioning will change quickly. For instance a delusional or suicidal state will most likely be changed in a few hours. The patient needs to know ahead of time that if this treatment is working right they will go through a period of no-confidence during the worst day or two of a particular dosage (especially the first dosage). The brain is doing the thinking and the brain is going through the withdrawal. Even if this treatment works on a million people with no failures and everyone thinks it to be successful, the person going through the worst of the withdrawal will think (feel) that this is the biggest mistake in the world and they may demand to stop. Being told ahead of time that they will act this way is helpful in getting them through the treatment. (Everyone needs support to get through this treatment.) Having some part of their brain taught that this is to be expected makes it easier for those helping them through the process to convince them to stick with it. The support staff will need to remind the patient that they were told ahead of time that they were going to want to stop the treatment. (This is the problem with most people’s thinking: logic versus emotion.) The patient needs to set aside two months without much responsibility or stress. The patient is, in effect, sleeping off the illness with this treatment and needs to be able to sleep whenever possible. Women who are still experiencing menstrual periods should consider timing the treatment so that it doesn’t end during or just before their pre-menstrual cycle. The first couple of weeks after the treatment are when the brain is relearning a new set of sensitivities and making it possible for this cure to become permanent. During the early weeks following the treatment each patient will be more susceptible to change under stress. Some milder symptoms will return at the end of the day when tired, or when pre-menstrual, or under other stresses (don’t drink or do drugs and caffeine!). As long as the patient sleeps as much as possible during this post-treatment phase, the returning symptoms will be less likely to return. (The brain is growing, exercising during this period when it is now able to turn chemical changes into permanent long-term memory changes. Having symptoms come back at the end of the day is like having shaky muscles after a day of weight-lifting. The body-builder needs to rest the muscles to give them a chance to grow, just as much as needing to exercise them.) The patient must be prepared for the possibility that this will not work for them. If it doesn’t remove their symptoms (probably because of too much atrophy in the brain), it will probably change the nature of their problem. This treatment is a chemical reset of the brain and creates an enormous amount of change. Why methylphenidate (Ritalin)? It is possible that this kind of technique might work using L-Dopa which affects only one neurotransmitter but it is not as likely. The best version of this technique for the future will probably involve drugs that affect a wider array of excitatory brain messengers (and/or neurochemicals that serve as an eventual catalyst to more reactivity to excitation). CNS stimulants will work because they affect the switchboard of the brain, the part of the brain with the most direct connections to other parts of the brain. Changes in this part of the brain will be communicated electrically to other parts of the brain that use different messengers and the balances of those other messengers will change as a result. Other CNS stimulants will work on most people but methylphenidate is the best choice I can see. (The treatment worked for one person who used Dexedrine instead of Ritalin.) Methylphenidate (Ritalin) has a very safe history at much higher dosages than are used in this treatment. (I know of somebody who was all right after taking a dose that was 500 times greater than the dose I’ll suggest as the maximum for this treatment.) There have been no significant problems from long-term use of methylphenidate. It is easy to divide and is water soluble. In order to get the dosages right, we have taken a 10mg tablet (do not use the slow release SR version) and crushed it and stirred it into water. Dividing the water makes it easy to get an accurate division of the pill. Always stir when dealing with Ritalin in solution because it doesn’t take long for it to settle to the bottom. Dexedrine is more of a controlled substance, has a more problematic history, and is difficult to divide into smaller dosages. I’m also bothered by it containing (small) talc and dairy components as both are allergens to many people. Getting a consistent dosage during sleep is problematic. It will be best if a delivery system is developed that ensures an even dosage for a long enough time. This may not be possible taking the drug orally. I’ve heard of a patch that is being developed for L-Dopa and I’m aware that attempts to put Ritalin into a patch have failed because of problems with absorbing that drug through the skin. (Apparently the molecule is too large.) An intravenous delivery during sleep might be best although I’m bothered by the idea of decreasing the comfort of sleep with the needle in the arm and also bothered by the hospital environment that this requires. (The sense of touch improves during the course of treatment so that the needle is going to hurt more and more each day it is put into the arm.) Dosage Sleep is 24 hours a day. The medication should not be enough to increase the firings in the brain very much. It works on the nerves when they are dormant for a long enough period of time. While they are asleep. Most cells are not firing at any one time so many are "asleep" during the day as well. Sites that are firing the most during the day will need the treatment during the night as well. The medication must be taken continuously whenever nerves are not firing so it must be 24 hours a day. If the dosage is too high with these stimulants the firings will increase too much and create a paradoxically opposite effect. There is a wide range of sensitivities to any particular level of any chemical in the brain among various nerve sites. Some receptors will be so sensitive that extremely small amounts of medication will create this paradoxical response so the treatment needs to be repeated at successively smaller dosages. This medication has to be administered much more like the body administers its own medications to itself. Very small changes in the chemical balance of the nervous system rather than massive influxes of chemical rising and falling because of the vagaries of digestion and elimination while taking these medications a few times a day. For the first week or so the patient will take a dosage that doesn’t create too much immediate change in functioning. This dosage will enhance sleep. Within a day or two the patient will be sleeping more deeply and the sleeping disorder patterns will improve fairly quickly. If the medication is keeping the person from sleeping at night for more than two nights it then should be lowered. This starting dosage taken during the first wave of withdrawal will be the largest dose. I suggest starting with 2mg (two milligrams) of methylphenidate per hour. If this is getting in the way of sleeping after three nights, take the dose down to 1mg (one milligram) per hour. Most people will become drowsy and sleep more taking the medication this way. Some with Parkinson’s Disease will be able to sleep on much higher dosages but it is best to not get carried away. I really don’t know if it is best to start on 1mg per hour or 2mg or 3mg. These things will be learned in time. It will probably work with any of these three dosages but there is a trick here. You want to accelerate the withdrawal as much as possible without interrupting sleep. One dosage might make things move quickly but cause too much of the brain to go into withdrawal at the same time and make the experience more unpleasant. Another starting dosage might not involve enough of the brain. Starting at a higher dosage might mean going through the process more times as the treatment is repeated with smaller dosages. This is important: the dosage should be taken every hour as promptly as possible. This medication tends to stay in the system for more than a couple of hours in most people and taking it hourly keeps the medication level in the system from having too many peaks and valleys. Taking half as much every half hour might be even better for getting the best results, but there is a limit to how much hassle is acceptable. During the night it would be best if there was a consistent delivery system that didn’t require waking the person for the next dose. So far, everyone who has done this has taken the same medication at bedtime and was aroused to take the next doses every 2½ or 3 hours later. (Everyone tended to wake up without prompting or alarms about the time the dose would be wearing off... the body seems to crave this medication during sleep.) It might work better if the dose an hour before bedtime is skipped and a double dose is taken at bedtime and in the middle of the night. As long as this dosage does not interrupt the sleep it basically keeps the same level of medication in the system during sleep as during the day (but with more peaks and valleys). The whole trick here is in striking a balance between doing the best job possible keeping the medication at the right level and interrupting the sleep as little as possible. (Avoiding sleep interruption is another thing that hospitals have been poor at providing. If the person going through this therapy is medicated and is sleeping, never wake that person for any reason. Hospital staffs might have to be retrained in this regard. This entire treatment is based on sleeping off many layers of withdrawal.) [CONTINUED in ‘ Parkinson’s Disease Cure’ Part 5]