{"id":8363,"date":"2019-07-31T12:50:17","date_gmt":"2019-07-31T12:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplyhealth.io\/?p=8363"},"modified":"2021-06-17T14:31:32","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T14:31:32","slug":"14-things-to-know-about-dyskinesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplyhealth.io\/14-things-to-know-about-dyskinesia\/","title":{"rendered":"14 Things to Know About Dyskinesia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Parkinson’s disease is an illness that is associated with a number of symptoms ranging from mild to severe. These symptoms include things like tremors, slow and jolty movements, some stiffness, as well as significant balance problems. But the symptom known as dyskinesia is linked to a certain type of medication that is commonly used to treat Parkinson’s. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dyskinesia otherwise referred to as involuntary and uncontrolled movement, can range in how severe it is from person to person. It may appear as nothing more than fidgeting or swaying. For a lot of people, living with dyskinesia is a lot easier to manage than dealing with the other symptoms of Parkinson\u2019s and so it is worth tolerating for the benefits that the medication has towards some of the other symptoms of the terrible disease. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This list identifies 8 things that a person living with dyskinesia should know, and is also a useful resource for the friends and family of a sufferer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Tweak the timing<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another tweak that a person with dyskinesia <\/a>might look to make to their use of medication is to do with the timing of when they take it. This careful consideration of the timing of medication is important to make because of the wearing-off effect or phenomenon, which sees some patients feel that the effects of the medication end at different times after a dose has been taken. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A doctor may then decide to split the daily medication into smaller, or more frequent doses, so as to prevent wearing off period from being an issue at all. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, this is something that people with dyskinesia need to know about, as they may have been unaware of the options regarding tweaks and changes to the medication they take to manage their condition, and indeed any possible tweaks and changes to the timings of taking their medication. With a condition like dyskinesia, knowledge is definitely power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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2. Talk to your doctor about changing your medication dosage<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Levodopa <\/a>has been identified as the medication that is much more likely to cause side effects like dyskinesia when it is administered in the medium to higher doses. It is thought that a dose of more than 600 milligrams per day, over a long period of time, is associated with a greater number of diagnoses of dyskinesia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this in mind, it is pertinent to find the lowest dose that will still allow a person to remain in control of their symptoms. A doctor will need to work this out through a period of trial and error, probably by starting a person on a low dose and then carefully and gradually increasing the dose as needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is an important piece of information for sufferers of dyskinesia to be aware of, as, in a lot of cases, people tend to simply stick to the suggestions of their doctor without exploring the implication of this or any other options that may be available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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3. Take additional medication for your Parkinson’s disease<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another thing that people living with dyskinesia might not be aware of is the fact that taking additional medication to treat Parkinson’s disease<\/a> could prove important in lessening the severity of the symptoms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, it is thought that taking a medication known as a dopamine agonist could actually allow a doctor to reduce the prescribed levodopa dosage, which could obviously help to reduce the severity of some of the symptoms of dyskinesia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the dyskinesia causing levodopa, which is converted to dopamine in the brain, dopamine agonists impersonate the actions of any naturally occurring dopamine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These last 3 points all refer to playing around with the medication somewhat, which is obviously something that should never be taken lightly and something that should be undertaken following consultation with a doctor, but it is all useful information to know about dyskinesia, both for those directly affected and for their carers and the people that live with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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4. Talk to your doctor about continuous drug infusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A simple way to potentially rule out any potential fluctuations in medication <\/a>delivery and natural or supplementary dopamine levels is through the continuous drug delivery, via a system such as the duodenal infusion, which sees the medication travels through a tube directly into the intestine, at carefully monitored intervals or via a continuous flow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst the methods that facilitate continuous flow and infusion can be potentially intrusive and even a little invasive for the person affected, they are a great way to ensure a healthy and consistent supply of the medication that a person needs in order to be able to function properly and effectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to the potentially complicated and even expensive facilitation of a system like this, many people with dyskinesia don\u2019t actually know too much about things like continuous drug infusion, which is a shame, as it can be an effective way of managing a condition as challenging as dyskinesia can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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5. Consider deep brain stimulation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For the most severe and life interrupting of symptoms, and for those that don’t improve with medicine, a doctor may come to the eventual conclusion that it is worthwhile for them to recommend surgical treatment of some kind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These surgical treatments, such as deep brain stimulation, usually involve attaching thin wires onto targeted and specific parts of the brain that are designed to control movement via the delivery of electronic pulses through the wires. Interestingly, this has been shown to lower the impact of symptoms by as much as 80%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following surgery<\/a> like this, providing there are no serious complications, most people are able to reduce their need for medications, which is something that a lot of dyskinesia patients may have considered as something that was virtually impossible. Again, knowledge is power, and only by having a wide understanding of the options available to sufferers of dyskinesia, is anyone in a good position to work out which way is best for them to attack it head-on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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6. Adjust your diet<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Where this snippet of advice is concerned, it has to be said that there is no specific diet that can help to treat dyskinesia, but there are plenty of small dietary changes that can be made which will affect how the body absorbs and uses levodopa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As levodopa is one of the main building blocks of protein<\/a>, the body absorbs it along with dietary protein, which means that if you eat a protein-rich meal along with your levodopa pill, the body can’t absorb the medication as successfully. What this points to is the idea that people with dyskinesia should adopt a low protein diet and there are plenty of things to support that idea. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One concern would be that protein is obviously one of the fundamental elements of any healthy and balanced diet, and so consultation with a wide range of professionals from the world of both health and nutrition is advisable before any significant dietary changes are made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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7. Lower your stress<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Due to the fact that a person\u2019s dyskinesia may have a tendency to get worse during periods of high stress<\/a>, learning to effectively regulate stress levels could help a person to minimize their symptoms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, if a person tries to practice deep-breathing exercises or even meditation, they may find that their ability to manage stress has benefits that stretch beyond managing their dyskinesia. Simply spending more time with family or friends has been proven to be a good way of lowering stress levels and even listening to music has been found to be a successful way of lowering stress levels, scientifically as well as anecdotally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely anyone could benefit from lowering their stress levels, especially in this day and age where everything seems to run at a million miles an hour, but for people with dyskinesia, it can be extremely beneficial for their condition, as well as the rest of their life in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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8. Exercise aerobically<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Swimming, rowing, and cycling <\/a>are up there with the best ways in which someone with dyskinesia can exercise aerobically. The general good feeling that comes from exercise can have benefits on the whole body, as well as the brain, with natural endorphins and dopamine serving to balance out the hormones in the body. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exercising is a necessity for people of all ages, especially in a world where our lifestyles are becoming more and more sedentary. Similarly to the point referring to diet, no amount of aerobic exercise is going to cure someone of dyskinesia, but it can go a long way to helping them feel much better within themselves and able to lead a happy and healthy life, whilst managing their condition and the symptoms that come with it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This list of things to know about dyskinesia is far from exhaustive, but it is a good starting point for sufferers and their families from which to carry out their own research.
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