Be careful not to rely too heavily on Parkinson’s disease medications.

I developed juvenile Parkinson’s disease in 2006. After 10 years of Parkinson’s disease, I started taking more and more medications from the hospital. My medications are the following three types.

Name of the drug in Japan	The amount used per day	Active ingredient
Neupro®︎ patches 13.5mg	2 pasted per day	Rotigotine(JAN)
Stalevo®︎ Combination Tablets 50mg	1 tablet each after breakfast, lunch, and dinner.	Levodopa, Carbidopa Hydrate, Entacapone
MENESIT®︎ Tablets 100mg	Take up to one tablet per day in an emergency.	Levodopa, Carbidopa Hydrate

The only main medications I use are Neupro Patch and Stalevo. I have Menecit as a stopgap when I am immobile, but I rarely use Menecit. I will now describe what I have been doing specifically to get by with less medication.

This is the result of my own trial and error, and I cannot necessarily say that it will help your symptoms, etc., if you adopt it as is. Please understand this point and do so at your own risk. Please understand that I cannot be held responsible for any problems that may occur.

Exercise as much as possible even if you have Parkinson’s disease.

There is now the PD Cafe in my area that has a program to keep me exercising, and in addition to the exercise program offered at the PD Cafe, I also go to a fitness center that focuses on stretching.

I am aware of the factors that can lead to dangerous situations. For example, on days when I put my weight on the outside of my feet, I am more likely to get injured if I cannot stand up properly, if I have poor postural control, or if I walk on my midsection and almost fall over.

In terms of having a keen sense of one’s own body, exercise should be done as much as possible.

Keep your body warm and hydrated in moderation.

Fourteen years ago, when I suspected I had Parkinson’s disease, my body temperature went back and forth around 35 degrees Celsius. In order to raise my body temperature, I purchased a Cosmopack and a particular hot pack that emits far-infrared radiation to raise my body temperature. My current body temperature is around 36.5 to 36.7 degrees Celsius, and I have not had the flu for the past 3 to 4 years.

Simply place it on your stomach or where your muscles are tight and sore when you sleep or rest, and warm it up. Even just warming up the muscles will soften the stiffness, so when you wake up, your movements will be closer to those of an average person.

Also, as you warm up, you will want to drink water, so drink room-temperature water or tea to rehydrate yourself. Thus, water intake is now possible without strain.

If muscle stiffness is not relieved by warming up, put on a CD and relax.

I try to use hot packs to soften the sore muscles from the groin to the ankles, but sometimes it is difficult. In such cases, I use the CD “HemiSync”.

The CDs are voice-guided meditations. The purple jacket on the left side of the photo is used during the daytime because most of them last 30 minutes, and the yellow jacket on the right side is mainly used for bedtime.

I went into a bad off state and couldn’t even stand up, but after listening to the CD I was able to act like a normal person for about 2 hours, but after 2 hours I was back off.

It is possible to minimize the amount of medication.

It is possible to live on a minimal amount of medication. However, it isn’t very sensible if you do not have enough medication to meet your needs and if it interferes with your life.
I believe that the following three points will lead to a good result.

(1) Consult with your doctor about the amount of medication to take.
(2) Trial and error in devising ways to ease the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
(3) Anxiety about Parkinson’s disease can also be controlled.

I hope you can maintain yourself in as good a condition as possible.