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Why Aren’t My Parkinson’s Medications Working? Could It Be What I’m Eating?

One of my students said he heard at a conference that eating protein interferes with Sinemet, and that this made him confused. “I’ve been on this drug for months and no one ever told me about this. I was told to take Sinemet with food so it doesn’t upset my stomach, so I’ve been eating it with a beef sandwich.” Then another student said, “I have heard three different time frames regarding when to eat protein.”

So I decided to call around and see what pharmacists had to say. While I received several different versions of the rules, there was an underlying reasoning which was consistent.

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How to Use Your Noodle to Improve Parkinson’s Upper Back Rotation

With Parkinson’s disease, the upper back gets really rigid and stiff. This rigidity, compounded by forward rounding, prevents it from rotating correctly. As a result, the lower back (designed to stabilize, not rotate) must take over, leading to lower back pain. Using pool noodles, this seated exercise can help treat upper back rotation.

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Improve Parkinson’s Stiff Back and Eye-Tracking Issues With This Seated Noodle Exercise

With Parkinson’s disease, the rib cage gets stiff and flexes forward, causing a lack of rotation in the spine. This stiffness, compounded by the “lats” (the muscles in your back that attach to your arms) getting tethered down, causes difficulty when reaching and straightening your arms. When you can’t rotate in your upper back (thoracic spine), your body will start to compensate by rotating and extending parts of your body that are not meant to rotate. This almost always results in shoulder or back pain.

Furthermore, the eyes may have difficulty tracking a moving or stationary object or finding the next line in a book when reading.

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How to Use Balls to Release Tight Parkinson’s Hip Flexors

Tight hip flexors are a huge problem for people with Parkinson’s disease. Many of my fighters complain of hip and back issues that stem from tight psoas and other hip flexor muscles.

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Beginner Hip Flexor Stretch for Parkinson’s

My clients ask for an easy stretch they can do in the morning or evening that will help with the rounding forward posture and back pain Parkinson’s disease can cause. It’s very common so I started doing this exercise with all my private clients and integrating it into my boxing classes. It’s easy and gets to those pesky psoas muscles that get overly tight especially on people with PD.

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