Other Methods in Brief

Not every method deserves its own page. Here I collect what I tried and gave up again, and approaches I'm keeping an eye on.

Rapamycin

Rapamycin (sirolimus) suppresses the immune system and is considered an anti-aging drug in the longevity scene. In mice it prevented Parkinson's changes. Starting March 22, 2023, I took it at times at a low dose (at first 5 mg per week), and I have since stopped. The study results are mixed, and even the longevity pioneer Bryan Johnson gave it up in 2024 because of side effects. I explicitly do not recommend it, especially since it requires a prescription and is expensive.

Broccoli Seed Tea

Tea made from broccoli seeds, following a recipe by the researcher and Parkinson's patient behind The Patient Researcher. At the end of 2022, people with Parkinson's reported clear improvements in constipation, fatigue and brain fog. I drank it for several months starting in March 2023. It mainly targets symptoms I don't have, and it did nothing for me.

Chiropractic and Osteopathy

Starting in December 2023, I was treated by Dr. Matthias Meier in Ulm (Impulse Health Management). Because I started other methods at the same time, this moved into the background, and I can't say anything about its effect. There are no studies that prove an effect in Parkinson's.

SRT Zeptor and Vibration Training

In late summer 2022 I spent a few days on safari in Africa. Afterward, the speed scores of my left hand were better than ever. I read that the neurologist Charcot observed back in the 19th century how bumpy train rides eased Parkinson's symptoms, and he developed a vibrating chair from that.

In March 2023 I bought a simple vibration plate, which did nothing, and then in May 2023 the SRT Zeptor. You stand on a platform that vibrates in random patterns (stochastic resonance therapy). In a study at the University of Bonn with 54 patients, balance improved clearly after eight days. For stiffness, slowness and tremor, the difference from the sham treatment was not clear.

By now I have doubts about whether it does anything for me, and I haven't used it in a long time. For people with balance problems and a risk of falling, the training can still make sense. You don't need your own device, since many physical therapy practices offer it.

Vibration Glove by Prof. Peter Tass

Prof. Peter Tass, a German physician and physicist at Stanford University, has developed a glove that gently vibrates the fingertips in a specific pattern (vibrotactile coordinated reset stimulation, vCR for short). The idea: in Parkinson's, groups of nerve cells in the brain fire abnormally in sync. The staggered vibration stimuli on the fingers are meant to break up this synchrony through the nerve pathways, and over time the brain is supposed to actually unlearn the abnormal pattern. That is why deliberate breaks are part of the treatment. The glove is usually worn for a few hours a day.

• First studies (2021): In eight patients who wore the glove for two hours a day, tremor, stiffness, slowness and balance improved, and in some cases mood and sense of smell as well (Frontiers in Physiology). One participant even ran marathons again afterward.
• With sham treatment (2024): In a double-blind study with 16 patients who wore the glove for four hours a day over two months, slowness decreased clearly, but the tremor did not.
• Approval: In 2023 the US company Synergic Medical Technologies received Breakthrough Device status from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its glove "VT Touch". Larger approval studies are underway, and the original glove can't be bought freely yet.

There are now replicas. A research company from northern Germany has rebuilt the glove based on Prof. Tass's principle and will probably soon provide me with a device to test. I'll report here on how it goes. Information on the research is available from the Tass Lab at Stanford.

Heavy Metal Detox

Some doctors suspect that heavy metals such as mercury, lead or aluminum play a role in diseases like Parkinson's and that they should be removed from the body in a targeted way. An effect on Parkinson's has not been scientifically proven, and some detox agents have side effects of their own. My own heavy metal tests are listed under Other Tests.

I already had a video consultation with Dr. Leonie Nahberger of the Detox Klinik in Lübeck, who, together with Dr. Joachim Mutter, specializes in root-cause therapy and heavy metal detox. I'll be starting the detox soon. I have already been tested for heavy metals several times, including hair analyses and blood and urine values with Dr. Guschlbauer. Before the treatment I will probably have new tests done with Dr. Nahberger. I'll report here.

Palm Cooling

I tried "palm cooling" or "alpha cooling", but it had no effect.