YOPN has had the good fortune of hosting many wonderful guests during our speaker series events. A crowd favorite is Dr. Laurie Mischley.  

For those who are not familiar with her, she has been a practicing ND (Naturopathic Doctor) for over 20 years and is the founder of the Seattle Integrative Medicine center in Washington state.  What makes her especially relevant to our community is that she focuses her practice and her research work solely on Parkinson's Disease.  Based on the results of her many research studies, she is certain that every one of us with PD can positively impact the number of "good years" we have with the disease through exercise and diet.

My Call to Action

They say that a speaker is good if you walk away having learned one new and actionable item. Rating Dr. Mischley on that scale is a ridiculous measurement, as I walk away with 10+ new learnings every time.  Yet, I realized that while I love her talks, I've never actually tried her program. Since I'm a "walk the talk" kind of gal, I knew I had to jump in.  I also had that annoying 20 lb weight gain that so many women get between the ages of 45-55, seemingly overnight and arriving as stealthy as Ethan Hawke moves in Mission Impossible, (which by the way is mission impossible to lose!)

I knew I had the exercise piece covered. In addition to walking my two goldendoodles every morning for 30-45 minutes, I box three times a week, weight train twice a week and do yoga once weekly.  However, my diet had room for improvement.  So I set up an intro appointment to jumpstart my journey..  

Getting Started on the Plan

Dr, Mischley’s team gave me a list of lab work to be done prior to my first appointment with her in  Mid-March.  We reviewed the results together.  I should point out that Dr. Mischley uses her own “PD optimum ranges" based on her research.  For instance, her acceptable level of B vitamins is higher than the typical scale.

My results showed slightly elevated cholesterol and blood sugar levels.   That, along with my “slightly elevated” weight  gave me pause. Her next statement was surprising-  “From a Parkinson’s perspective, cholesterol is neuro protective so I’d much rather you be slightly higher than slightly lower (and of course you want the HDL to be higher and the LDL to be lower)  Huh.  That’s interesting. She continued on to say "Regarding your weight, I'd much rather you be 10 pounds overweight than 10 pounds underweight with Parkinsons as it's the folks that can't keep weight on who lose strength and have greater risk of falls.  So, while you don't want to be drastically out  of range, a little elevation is actually a good thing sometimes.  Wow that was enlightening! 

There were, however, a few things she was concerned about:  my inflammation levels, blood sugar and concerns on Vitamin D and B deficiency. She gave me a list of supplements to address some of these concerns that included: Glutothymene (a liquid antioxidant), 2 different B vitamins, and one D vitamin. She outlined a plan that  included downloading the  free ProPD app. and to strictly follow this eating plan for 90 days.  (Please refer to the hyperlinks above for more information on both the app and the eating plan) 

Results 

While everybody's different, I found it easy to follow and stick to. The most interesting thing to me was that by eating the right foods, I no longer had hunger pains as the sugar levels stabilized in my body and I found myself not snacking all the time.  I also believe that eliminating dairy (or most of it), along with eliminating bread and pasta helped   in reducing my inflammation and gave me more energy.  My mind felt clearer and overall, I felt better. 

The results by the numbers look like this:   I lost 15 lb., lowered my cholesterol by 20 points, lowered my blood sugar by two points and increased my vitamin levels to Within acceptable levels.  I am still working on the inflammatory scores but overall feel much better than I did before I started…