Chinese Herbs For Parkinson’s Disease

Patients with Parkinson’s experience symptoms like motor difficulty and tremors which are caused by low dopamine levels in the brain. The Levodopa drug is used to treat those symptoms of Parkinson’s. However, the long-term use of the drug can lead to multiple motor complications for the patients. Studies have found that the Chinese compound of Zishenpingchan, when used in combination with Levodopa, can significantly improve impaired motor movements (dyskinesia) and delay the progression of Parkinson’s in addition to improvement in non-motor symptoms. Although the extent of the effectiveness of this combination has not been confirmed in controlled trials. The study registered in China over a period of with 128 patients recruited from Longhua Hospital and Shuguang Hospital the patients (with Parkinson’s) were divided into treatment and control groups; they were given the combination drug mentioned above and/or placebo for 24 weeks. The therapeutic effectiveness of the treatment was also tested using a wide variety of tests, scales, and examination. Results showed that the Chinese compound significantly reduced the instances of motor complications and in mitigating the impaired movements as well as non-motor symptoms of the disease. This combination of eastern and western medicine – Levodopa and the Zishenpingchan granules – thus, as found in the study, has the potential for the reduction of the Levodopa drug dosages. Importantly, no side effects of the Chinese compound were found to be experienced by the patients. Thus the findings of the study show that the Chinese compound can alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson’s, have a detoxification effect and reduce the side effects of the dopaminergic agents (like Levodopa).