Parkinson's Disease Support Group
Parkinson's disease is a movement disorder often characterized by muscle rigidity, tremor, a slowing of physical movement, and in extreme cases, a loss of physical movement. The primary symptoms of Parkinsons are due to excessive muscle contraction, normally caused by the insufficient formation and action of dopamine, which is produced in the dopaminergic neurons of the...
I am taking meds for PD for 3+ years now. For the last 6 months or so I have noticed that there are no symptoms(tremors, rigidity etc) after 8 PM - be it week day or week end. My left leg would shake while at sleep according to my wife, but that does not happen any more. The way my schedule for drugs is 6AM second dose at 11AM and the last dose at 4PM. My sleep pattern is very routine I go to bed around 930 to 10 PM and wake up around 5AM I am writing to find out if any one also has no symptoms at night, that may provide us a "clue" about shutting out symptoms during day. I checked with my neuro that if this could be due to cumulative effect of meds that go into my system during day time but he says the drugs get excreted within 4 hours from the body.
I hope this finding will lead us to the cure one day
Thanks
Rajesh
I hope this finding will lead us to the cure one day
Thanks
Rajesh
Thanks for the observation. It is a worthwhile subject to discuss cause and effect.
Have a great day.
I am working too, and yes, it could be due to stress, however, on a different note, I had blood pressure and was taking 3 pills to keep the blood pressure under control, now I am down to just 1 pill a day, thanks to Yoga and meditation which reduced the over all stress thus giving me normal readings on BP. Also my job is just M-F, so that would mean week ends will have a different pattern, but that is not true in my case. It is interesting combo and I hope to hear from our other friends on this forum and hopefully we can come to some logical conclusion
I work f/t and I am the same way. I take more pills during the early part of the day. At night I am home and don't need the meds as much. I also notice that I take 4 doses on weekends and 5 doses on workdays. deskjob= stiffness. workstress = tremors, but hey, the kids need shoes.
Good luck
Thanks for you post!!!! I have been thinking about this same thing 4ever. I am on the same schedule as you and I work. I take Sinement at 6, 11 and 4 as well and also take 1 azilect at 6 am. During the day if I am late with a dose the tremors and neck stiffness start within the first hour of being late but then after my last dose at 4 pm I do not have this problem. Although I do have a stiff neck around bed time but nothing so bad as during the daytime when I miss my scheduled meds. Why? I ask myself all of the time, why? How can I go from 4:00 pm until 6:00 am the next day w/o taking meds and not have all the symptoms that plague me in the day if my meds are not taken on time. And it is the same on the weekend as well. I have been out of work for 1-1/2 month and it is the same without the stress of work. Someone told me that it might be that each dose of the daily meds total what I need to last for the 24 hours and the Azilect helps as well.
I will ask my dr. next time I go. One thing I want to state - I'm not complaining!!!! LOL Since I have not been able to exercise I no longer have leg cramps at night like I used to when exercising. This will not stop me from exercising but I think it is interesting. I used to have really bad leg cramps at night.
Have a great weekend!
Thank you for your inputs, looks like STRESS is the main and common trigger for the symptoms to manifest externally. Has anyone been successful in partial elimination of stress? I am "trying" different methods to avoid stress and think about happy thoughts whenever I see potential stress inviting situation, be it waiting for left turn at the lights or reading an email and the subject line tells me I am in trouble. when someone cuts me off on the road I try and laugh loudly(I am all alone in the car) that helps to a certain degree, but yes, please suggest any method to ward off stress and I will attempt it sincerely. I feel that I am fighting two types of stress one due to the fact that I have PD and the other stress being what I call "worldly" stress - that arises due to every day life situations and if I can battle the second type of stress I will consider myself victorious - any suggestions/tips??
Warm Wishes
As I am home recovering from a broken foot, I was scrolling through the NPF's Ask the Doctor and found a question much like yours (ours) with the NPF's Doctor's response. Here it is:
Q. . . . can you explain why he has to take so many sinemet tablets during the day and yet only 1 tablet before the 8 hours he sleeps at night, and he still wakes up showing few signs of the PD. Then by early evening after a total of 7 pills during the day, he has more issues than when he first woke up in the morning?
Dr's A. This is one of the great mysteries of PD. Some patients need meds in the middle of the night and some sleep through and do great in the AM. I wish I knew!
Taken from Michael S. Okun, M.D., National Medical Director | NPF
So there it is - at this point in time - no answer to our wondering "Why?" LOL
Do any one of you have a habit of taking a nap/siesta during day time? If yes, does this help towards the tremor/rigidity etc? I can never sleep during day time(unless due to jet-lag), hence I cannot comment on naps.