I have a family member who suffers from Parkinson’s-like tremors (suspected to be from chronic Lyme disease). I was reading about Betaine Anhydrous for performance, when I ran across some information regarding betaine when taken in combination with common Parkinson’s meds (levodopa and/or benserazide). It supposedly helps protect the cerebellum against oxidative stress.
I’ve also read that some people use Betaine HCL as part of a protocol to combat Lyme. They said something regarding it helps elevate hydrochloric acid in the stomach.
Would either of you think Betaine (in whatever form is potentially indicated) is something worth asking their primary care physician about? I’m not sure what meds they currently are on, but I would suspect at least levodopa.
I am not aware of any evidence for betaine for these issues.
Additionally, while a proportion of patients can have persistent symptoms after treatment for Lyme disease (“post-Lyme syndrome”), chronic Lyme disease (implying persistent chronic infection) does not exist.
So one of these is a study of newborn rat brain cells in a petri dish.
The other is a study on oxidative stress in the cerebellum of rats which did not have Parkinson’s disease.
Additionally, it sounds like your family member doesn’t actually have Parkinson’s.
So all in all, I have absolutely no idea whether Betaine will provide any benefit at all, and this evidence is not particularly relevant here. If she has a tremor, I would suggest she be evaluated by a neurologist.
I found your reply interesting because I know several people who have had Lyme in the past and are convinced that it is a chronic disease with reoccurring symptoms. If you have time could you elaborate a little further?
Why do the symptoms persist if the disease is gone?
What are the recommended treatments for these symptoms?
What is the evidence that it is not a chronic disease?
Further… Parkinson’s is not a disease of the cerebellum. Cerebellar tremors have different manifestation than Parkinson’s tremors, as do Essential Tremor, enhanced physiologic tremor, and psychogenic tremor. There are a variety of treatments, often very effective, for most tremor types, but correct diagnosis by a neurologist specializing in movement disorders is essential.
There may be a chronic post-lyme syndrome, but this is controversial and most likely very rare if it does indeed exist. While I can’t say for sure that it doesn’t exist, I CAN say for sure that I have seen people with devastating complications from attempted treatment “chronic Lyme” (most usually sepsis from a catheter placed for long-term IV antibiotics, which can get infected, becoming fatal or worse).
To be helpful to your friend, I would not recommend dicking around with speculative treatments for disorders that may not exist, but would encourage followup with a qualified physician, even if the diagnosis and recommendations given are not what they are hoping for.
Thanks for your response, jfsully. I thought I’d clarify my original question. My relative has used medications to treat parkinsonism symptoms in the past. These medications brought new issues (in some ways worse than what they were supposed to treat).
While reading about the peri rx ingredients, I happened upon the article on betaine and levodopa/benserazide. It seemed that betaine helped protect against oxidative stress caused by those medications (in rats, as Dr. Baraki pointed out).
I don’t know if these are the meds my relative was taking, or if oxidative stress to the cerebellum was the secondary symptom manifesting, but it immediately caught my eye.
For sure, no medication or supplement is totally benign, at least not if it has any benefit. A good rule of thumb is. That if a medication or substance has no possible side effects, it also has no possible benefit. That being said, we can usually find a therapeutic window to dose a drug properly to get enough benefit to justify any side effects.
it may be that the anti Parkinsonism meds caused more side effect than benefit because your friend does not have a Parkinsonian tremor (or at least doesn’t have Parkinson’s disease). Sometimes a neurologist will try levodopa or benztropine empirically, if the tremor type isn’t clear, just to see if they will work. Other times you have a doctor throwing “tremor” medicine at a tremor in an un-thoughtful way. If it is the second situation, it’s time for a second opinion.
