Hi H,
In the last couple of months I have gone from suffering from acute anxiety (to the extent that my wife called the emergency mental health team at one point) to a state of (relative) calmness and have cut my consumption of Sinimet by about 2/3rds.
I was diagnosed 18 months ago and prescribed Sinimet straight away. At each subsequent consultation the neurologist would up my dosage a bit (that seemed to make no difference). 6 months ago I was on 5 x 12.5/50 mg a day and I noticed that my anxiety was creeping up and I had a little more shakiness in my right arm and leg. Around the end of February, my wife (who is diabetic) encouraged me to try the ketogenic diet with her. I went along with this to support her but also because I am aware that there are PD research teams (UCLH and elsewhere) trialling T2 diabetes drugs for PD with some success. There is a school of though that PD is connected to insulin resistance in the brain.
I didn’t honestly expect much to happen and the first couple of weeks were quite tough but then I noticed that my muscles began to relax and I could stretch, twist, bend etc much better than for years.
Initially excited but then my anxiety began to really ramp up and I started getting palpitations and difficulty getting to sleep. I started to drink in evenings to keep things under control. To cut a long story short I hit crisis point and had a revelation (helped by some research).
It appears that many people with PD are also deficient in other neurotransmitters (not just dopamine) particularly GABA (there is a recent paper from Harvard Medical school on this). Dopamine and GABA need to be kept in balance, I understand, and an imbalance can result in anxiety, depression and a host of unpleasant symptoms. Alcohol (and cannabis and valium)) promote GABA which maybe why it worked for me (and maybe you).
I am now on a tiny dose of valium (2mg per day) as prescribed by my GP who is very supportive of this and my dietary change and cut my Sinimet to 2 X 12.5/50 per day. I also take a supplement (L-Theanine) which is derived from green tea and also promotes GABA.
My anxiety levels dropped dramatically from the day I changed my medication and I am as well as I have been for quite a long while. As a bonus, I’ve lost weight, lower blood pressure and other minor ailments have cleared up. My wife. who was diagnosed with T2 diabetes about ten years ago, is now classed as “pre-diabetic” and has also cut her medication significantly.
This is just my story and I have no medical background but hope there may be something in it for you.
Best of luck
Francis