Nutrition-packed summer recipe for people with Parkinson’s
Jane McClenaghan, a nutritional therapist and author based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, runs cookery classes and diet clinics which help people living with Parkinson’s.
This two-course meal, from her book ‘The Vital Nutrution Cookbook’, is packed full of anti-inflammatory ingredients like cinnamon and ginger, a helping of fish for omega-3 and baked nectarines to offer an easy-to-swallow treat for dessert.
First course – Thai fishcakes with zingy salsa
Thai fishcakes with zingy salsa made by nutritional therapist Jane McClenaghan
Ingredients
5-7oz. white fish
4 scallions, chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp Thai green curry paste
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tbsp flour
Juice and zest of a lime
Black pepper
1 tsp coconut oil
Method
- Finely chop the fish and place in a large bowl with the spring onions, ginger, curry paste, fish sauce, egg and cilantro.
- Mix well and then stir in the flour, lime juice and zest and season with black pepper. The mixture may be a bit wet at this stage. You can add a bit more flour if you like.
- Divide into four generous portions. Put a little flour on your hands and form each portion into a ball. Flatten slightly and fry in the coconut oil for five to eight minutes until golden brown and cooked through.
- Serve with a green salad or my zingy salsa (below).
For the salsa
½ cucumber, finely chopped
½ red onion, finely chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
½ fresh chilli, finely chopped
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tbsp chives, chopped
Juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
Method
- For the salsa, place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well together. Season to taste.
- To serve, pile the salsa high on your plates alongside the fishcakes.
Dessert – Cinnamon nectarines with vanilla scented yogurt
Cinnamon nectarines with vanilla scented yoghurt by Jane McClenaghan
Ingredients (serves 2)
1-2 tsp agave syrup
2 nectarines, halved with stone removed
½-1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ vanilla bean
2 tbsp Greek yogurt
Method
- Preheat your oven to 350F.
- Drizzle a little agave syrup over each nectarine half and sprinkle with cinnamon. Cover with tinfoil and bake for 15-20 minutes until soft.
- Slice the vanilla bead lengthways and, with the tip of a sharp knife, scrape out the seeds and stir into the Greek yogurt.
- Serve the nectarines hot or cold with a drizzle of agave syrup and a dollop of the vanilla scented Greek yogurt.
Recipes are taken from Jane McClenaghan’s book, ‘The Vital Nutrition Cookbook’.
Article from Parkinson’s Life.
Do You Know How Lucky You Are?
While my grandkids were here last week, we read books every night before bed. And, of course, each night at least one book had to be by Dr. Seuss. The night before they left, we read “Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?“
It starts out by offering some rather sound advice:
“When you think things are bad,
when you feel sour and blue,
when you start to get mad …
you should do what I do!
Just tell yourself, Duckie,
you’re really quite lucky!
Some people are much more …
oh ever so much more …
oh, muchly much-much more
unlucky than you!”
Of course, Dr. Seuss then spends the rest of the book expounding on all the different ways the reader is lucky as a ducky.
Most people would agree that having been handed a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease is anything but lucky. In fact, it can be downright scary. Even so, there are things to be thankful for. Things that cause you to pause and say, “I am so lucky” or “I am so blessed.” Things that take your mind off the unknown. Things that give you hope.
Today, I fell
I was puttering in my yard, trying to eradicate the wounded and the dead and replace them with the new. I stepped down on the shovel to finish digging the hole for a salvia plant, and I lost my balance.
It seemed as if I was falling in slow motion.
On the way down, all I could think of was hitting my head on one of the rocks that line the pathway. Some of them are sharp. I fell hard on my arm and then, with a rocking motion, came to a halt, my head never touching the ground. I waited a minute to assess the damage before trying to get up. No pain. No scratches. I was lucky. I was blessed. Given what could have been a terrible accident (considering the DBS wires tucked in my brain), I was indeed blessed.
Life is so beautiful
I went over to my grandson’s house yesterday to help him and his mom weed their backyard. When we had finished, he began yelling for his mom and me to “Come here. Quick! Come here!” He was jumping up and down (literally) with such joy on his face that I was certain he’d found a bug he’d never seen before. (Or perhaps George, “his” praying mantis, had shown up again.)
I approached where he stood, next to a small, bushy plant. He looked at the plant — a weed, by most standards — and with great excitement exclaimed, “It’s so beautiful!”
It was a smallish plant with little yellow flowers scattered here and there. To him, it was so beautiful.
Oh, how lucky I’d be if I could see the world through the eyes of a child. But wait! I did!
Oh, how lucky I am!
“Thank goodness for all of the things you are not!
Thank goodness you are not something someone forgot,
and left all alone in some punkerish place
like a rusty tin coat hanger hanging in space.” —Dr. Seuss
Could this newly discovered protein help treat Parkinson’s?
Does a new discovery reveal a fresh research pathway for Parkinson’s therapy?
The National Institutes of Health estimate that, in the United States, around 50,000 peoplereceive a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis each year.
This widespread condition is characterized by tremors, slowness of movement, and impaired balance and coordination, among other symptoms.
However, its causes remain unknown and treatments only target the symptoms, helping individuals to manage this condition as best they can.
In the brain, Parkinson’s is characterized by a puzzling feature — the aggregation of alpha-synuclein, a protein that becomes toxic and disrupts the neural pathways when it sticks together in large quantities.
This occurs when alpha-synuclein misfolds, that is, when it folds into an incorrect shape that does not allow it to function correctly, which may cause or facilitate disease.
Alpha-synuclein is typically present at high levels in the brain, and it is also present in other tissue in smaller amounts. Still, researchers have no idea what role this protein usually plays in maintaining neural health or how to prevent it from misfolding.
But a new study, from Purdue University, in West Lafayette, IN, has identified a protein able to reduce the aggregation of misfolded alpha-synuclein. The findings feature in the Journal of Molecular Biology.
How HYPE may reduce aggregation
The new research has focused on the therapeutic potential of a protein called “HYPE,” which, the investigators explain, is the only Fic protein present in humans.
Fic proteins help decide whether a cell survives or dies when it encounters stress, characterized by the misfolding of the cell’s proteins.
She continues: “We know that in Parkinson’s disease, often the misfolded protein is [alpha-synuclein]. So we asked if HYPE could modify [alpha-synuclein], and if so, what are the consequences?”
In the current study — which the researchers conducted in vitro, using cell cultures in a laboratory setting — they found that HYPE can indeed act on alpha-synuclein, decreasing the amount of aggregation of misfolded proteins. The researchers call this process “AMPylation.”
Then, the team wanted to see if AMPylation actually showed any promise as a potential therapeutic process. In Parkinson’s disease, aggregated, misfolded proteins can puncture the membranes of neurons (brain cells), disrupting their functioning.
Mattoo and colleagues wanted to find out whether AMPylation would also lead to fewer holes in the membranes of cells. To do so, they used a combination of lipids to create a surface simulating that of cell membranes.
They also added dye to the lipids, so if alpha-synuclein aggregates punctured them, the action would become visible through leaked dye.
After doing so, Mattoo notes, “We found that less dye was released with the modified [alpha-synuclein], meaning the membrane stayed more intact.”
“That means HYPE could possibly have a therapeutic effect on Parkinson’s disease,” she adds. Moreover, as Mattoo and colleagues note in their study paper, “This is the first report identifying [alpha-synuclein] as a target for HYPE.”
Going beyond the ‘Band-Aid?’
In a final experiment, Mattoo and the team studied HYPE-modified alpha-synuclein using an electron microscope. This allowed them to observe that, after interacting with HYPE, alpha-synuclein’s structure had changed.
Under regular circumstances, the researchers note, alpha-synuclein twists, which may explain its potential to form aggregates. However, when modified by HYPE, the protein tended to twist less, instead forming parallel strands.
This new modification, the researchers argue, may prevent alpha-synuclein from aggregating as much.
While the current research shows promise in finding new therapies for Parkinson’s disease, the study authors explain that they still have a long way to go.
“We’re in the early stages [of this research],” Mattoo admits, “but these results are giving us a new angle to look at potential therapeutics.”
“We’re trying to come up with drugs that could be used to manipulate HYPE’s activity. You could give them to patients who are starting to show signs of Parkinson’s or who are prone to having aggregated [alpha-synuclein]. That’s the direction we want to go [in],” the researcher explains.
Caregivers: 8 Things Caregivers Need
It’s not uncommon for spouses to decide to leave when the other gets sick. I think it could be a matter of “having had it up to here” and then finding out the one you’ve “put up with” for so long now has a condition that will most likely make your life — and theirs — a lot more difficult. Parkinson’s may change the relationship between a married couple. Bonds between a father and son. Between a mother and daughter. Friends. It comes in and subtlety takes away the ties that once bound these relationships together.
The PD patient changes. They are physically familiar, but mentally and emotionally, they’re not the same. And the caregiver is left struggling with how to deal with this new role in life: taking care of someone else while taking care of themselves.
If you are a caregiver to anyone, first of all, thank you for your commitment and sacrifice. You might get hit, have to change yet another big girl or big boy diaper, clean up another spill, or wash another naked body, but we (your charges) appreciate you more than we might be able to say or show.
Following are eight little things you can do as a caregiver that will hopefully, make your role easier:
- Breathe deeply and when you get one free minute, do one thing that puts a smile on your face. Go out to the garden and breathe in the fragrance of a rose. Put on encouraging music. Read a short devotional. Fix a cup of tea. Scream. Screaming is highly underrated.
- Don’t focus on the what-ifs. They’ll defeat you most every time. Do focus on “now.” It may seem like a tremendous struggle at the moment, but things could be worse. Today may be one of the harder days, but when the clock strikes 12, it’s a new day. Something wonderful could be ahead, waiting to happen. Your patient may turn into a pumpkin! Don’t lose hope.
- If you don’t have one already, get a sense of humor. Without one, you’ll often despair. Find something funny in every day. You need to laugh.
- Get yourself into a support group locally or online. You may not think you need it, but you do. Especially as the road becomes bumpier. And it will get bumpier. Get some support in place now, as it will make things easier to deal with later.
- You need your friends. Don’t alienate them by thinking you can do this by yourself. Accept their invitations to help. Accept an hour off, washing the dishes, picking up some groceries, dropping the kids off at practice, or cooking your family a meal. Give yourself some slack and let your friends feel needed, because if they are offering to help before you have even asked, they may see your need better than you can.
- Try to think ahead. Your loved one’s mental faculties may not be so great anymore. A daily schedule may be useful, with a reminder for doctor’s appointments, visitors, special occasions, etc.
- Don’t beat yourself up. There will be good days and bad days. You may have more bad days now due to your new, unwanted role. And because this admittedly is an unwanted role, you feel like your life has been swallowed up along with the one you’re caring for.
You have thoughts of packing it in. Giving up. Throwing in the towel. Walking away and leaving the patient to fend for himself or herself. You’re tired, weary, spent, worn out. You want it to end and you feel guilty for thinking and feeling the way you do. And it’s OK. It’s normal. You’re caring for the one you’re grieving, while at the same time grieving what you’ve both lost already and what you could very well lose still. It’s OK to be frustrated, to go outside for a reprieve and scream. It’s OK to let the tears flow. Just remember: The one you love is in this fight with you, not against you. They just aren’t able to fight as they once did. Try to remember them as they were 10, 15, or 20 years ago when you laughed together and lived life together.
Also try to remember that if your husband could get out and mow the lawn again, he’d do it in a heartbeat. If the wife you care for could brush her own teeth and tie her own shoes, you’d both be ecstatic. Whatever you’re losing, they are losing as well. They’ve been dreading the days to come with a vengeance.
If they could, the one you are caring for would take this bitter cup from you. However, that cup may one day soon be empty, so enjoy it now while there is still some liquid left, even if sour at times.
The Story Changes, While the Message Endures
Parkinson disease was in the national spotlight recently with the passing of auto industry icon Lee Iacocca, as well as ESPN founder Bill Rasmussen’s recent announcement that he has been living with the disease.
Learn more about these two very different stories, and how Parkinson’s affected each of them.
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