Sugars and tremors

I've just been thinking about the last week and realized that my tremors have increased significantly in both my left arm and left leg.  I usually don't have tremors at all at night, but have been awakened with considerable movement in both my arm and leg for the last several nights.  I have reviewed my medication schedule and have realized I have been less than exact in taking my pills.  I am trying, today, to get back on schedule and right now, as I am writing this, I have taken my meds on schedule, but am finding the tremors have remained pretty strong all day.

I am going to attempt to maintain the schedule for the next week and see if they abate with regular medication or if I have to change my medication schedule.  One of my dear friends has mentioned to my wife that her husband's tremors increase significantly with the intake of sugars, including regular or diet sodas.  Although I don't drink sodas at all, I do love the taste of chocolate and anything sweet.  My intention is to moderate the intake of the sweets to see if that has any impact on the tremors.  I'll let you know the outcome of this experiment in a couple of weeks.  If nothing else, talking about it reminds me to stay off the sugar.

This is not the best time to start this program, what with the holidays being here, and all the neighbors and friends bringing candies, cookies, sweet breads, and chocolate, but in an effort to remain true to my comments, I will cut back significantly on their intake.  Then again, maybe I'll have to delay the experiment until after the holidays . . . .

The Sweats

Is the inability to control your body temperature a part of Parkinson's?  I don't know, but I have recently been experiencing some very warm nights, even though the temperature is fairly cool.  I find myself waking at 1 or 2 in the morning drenched in sweat.  This is something that is fairly new to me and I was just curious if there are other people having the same issue.

I can't really remember any comments to the effect that this was a Parkinson's symptom . . .  I should know better.  Smarty pants next to me produces a document that gives me a great deal of information on sweating and Parkinson's, directly from her favorite book, "100 Questions and Answers About Parkinson's Disease," written by Dr. Abraham Lieberman.  Although I am sure I have heard some of this before, I could not for the life of me recall hearing it.

The last few nights have been considerably worse than in the past and I can't really define any reason for the change.  Susan seems to believe that it is the down comforter that we replaced two quilts with that is retaining the heat and is just too much for my system.  Tonight we will use one quilt, after removing the down comforter at 2 a.m. this morning and replacing it with a single quilt.  Of course, that meant changing the sheets, etc., at 2 a.m., always a delight for a caregiver.

The take away from the article in the Lieberman book is that Parkinson's patients often lose more moisture from their bodies than they are aware of and must be constantly vigilant to replace not only the water, but the salt, that is leeched from their bodies during their sweat bout.