What are the dietary taboos for Parkinson’s disease?

High-tyramine foods that conflict with commonly used medications, high-protein diets that affect the absorption of levodopa (note that this is a peak shift, not a complete ban), and high-oil and high-sugar processed foods that increase the burden on the nerves and metabolism.

Not long ago, I met a 62-year-old patient, Uncle Zhang, in the outpatient clinic. He had been taking Madoba plus Selegilan for almost two years, and his control had been stable. During that time, his hand tremors suddenly worsened, and he kept complaining of dizziness. His blood pressure soared to 160/95. After questioning for a long time, I found out that he had recently fallen in love with Jiangnan's stinky fermented bean curd, and drank porridge in the morning. As long as he can eat half a piece, fermented and pickled foods like fermented bean curd are typical high-tyramine foods. When exposed to monoamine oxidase inhibitors such as selegiline, tyramine cannot be metabolized normally, which can easily cause a sudden increase in blood pressure and offset the effect of the drug. Later, within a week of stopping fermented bean curd, his indicators and symptoms returned.

The problem that many family members are most likely to go to extremes is the issue of protein. Many people on the Internet say that Parkinson's patients cannot touch milk and eggs at all. This is really a misunderstanding. There was an aunt who did not give her husband any meat, eggs or milk for three months in order not to affect the efficacy of the medicine. Later, when he came for a follow-up examination, the old man had lost almost 12 pounds and caught a cold whenever the cold wind blew, which was not conducive to the maintenance of motor function. In fact, levodopa drugs are like couriers in a hurry. If you eat a lot of high-protein food just after taking the medicine, the protein will combine with the medicine in the intestines, which is equivalent to blocking the road. The medicine cannot be sent to the brain in time to take effect. Just stagger the two by 1 to 2 hours. For example, eat high-protein foods such as eggs, milk, and lean meat for dinner. Try to keep them as light as possible two hours before and after taking medicine during the day. There is no need to completely avoid food.

We usually eat processed foods that are high in oil and sugar, such as deep-fried crispy meat, fatty meats, and cream cakes, and try to eat as little as possible. This does not mean that eating one bite will cause any problems, but if you eat them for a long time, high fat will slow down the absorption rate of drugs, and high sugar will also aggravate the constipation problem that Parkinson's patients are prone to, increase the inflammatory response in the body, and have no benefit in neuroprotection.

There are two other things that are really recommended to be quitted as completely as possible, namely smoking and alcohol. There was an old man who thought that drinking white wine could relieve hand tremors, so he drank two ounces every day. As a result, his balance function declined very quickly in less than half a year, and he fell twice and broke a bone. Alcohol itself can damage dopaminergic neurons. It seems that the hand tremors are temporarily relieved after drinking, but in fact it is overdrawing the already small neuron reserves, which will accelerate the progression of the disease. The same goes for cigarettes, which will aggravate blood vessel damage and affect the absorption of medicine.

In fact, you really don’t have to think of adjusting your diet as a big burden. You don’t need to use a comparison chart every day to check whether you can eat it. As long as you pay attention to eating protein during off-peak periods, eat less pickled and fermented heavy food, and avoid tobacco and alcohol, you can eat most home-cooked meals normally and keep up with the nutrition, which will be more beneficial to disease control.