Parkinson’s Patients Must Take These Two Nutrients

Parkinson’s disease comes with a lot of problems. One of them is that it’s often difficult to diagnose in its early stages accurately.

Doctors usually diagnose Parkinson’s by examining the patient for the classical findings. But, depending on what study you look at, they can be wrong anywhere from 6% to 25% of the time.

That’s because other conditions, such as a stroke, multiple system atrophy, progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal degeneration, essential tremor, and dementia, can look like Parkinson’s in the early stages.

There is another way to determine if you have Parkinson’s, but it’s not accurate enough to rely on completely. Here’s how to use it and what you should do to stop the disease in the early stages.

Parkinson’s disease, unlike the other conditions that can mimic it, is characterized by a failure of the dopamine cells in a part of the brain called the Substantia Nigra. About 15 years ago, scientists developed a way to assess the function of these dopamine cells in a scanning process called the DaTSCAN. The idea is that if the dopamine cells are not properly functioning, then the diagnosis of Parkinson’s is correct. But how accurate is the DaTSCAN in doing this in the early stages of Parkinson’s?

To answer this question, one reviewer looked at 174 relevant articles about DaTSCAN. He found four systematic studies that looked specifically at DaTSCAN's diagnostic accuracy. Three of the four studies were meta-analyses, which are papers that analyze all available information on DaTSCAN accuracy. Doctors usually consider a meta-analysis the most reliable way to investigate what works and what doesn’t. Here’s what he found.

The studies showed that in the early stages of Parkinson’s, the DaTSCAN was only able to detect the disease in 38% of the patients. In the author's words, “Most of those with early Parkinson’s had a normal DaTSCAN. There was no clear evidence that DaTSCAN is accurate in diagnosing early Parkinson’s.” Now, why is this so important?

It’s because Parkinson’s is a progressive disease – the longer you have it, the worse you are going to get. As I’ve reported to you before, I find that the progression of the disease can be stopped using a combination of the amino acid l-cysteine (500 mg, 2x/day) and high-dose melatonin (180 mg at bedtime). Both of these nutrients are available online. It’s essential to identify Parkinson’s early on and treat it with l-cysteine and melatonin before the symptoms get any worse. Here’s what I advise my patients who are possibly in the early stages of Parkinson’s.

When you take the l-cysteine and the melatonin, if you have Parkinson’s, you will arrest it in the early stages and should be able to live your life without it getting any worse. If things do get worse, get a DaTSCAN. You probably do not have Parkinson’s. And the DaTSCAN becomes much more accurate as the symptoms worsen.

Also, don’t forget to look on my website about how the symptoms of Parkinson’s can also be significantly alleviated using various natural therapies. Parkinson’s is an excellent example of why you should never only consult with a conventional neurologist but should also have an alternative practitioner on your team.