My husband recently had a bout of intestinal upset accompanied by about 2 weeks of intense diarrhea. We worked to keep him hydrated and, since he never exhibited a fever, he didn’t visit urgent care until it was too late for them to be able to detect what was causing the problem. As things started to settle, his caregiver mentioned that probiotics might be helpful in getting his gut back to a normal state. Knowing that my husband is not good at eating lots of green vegetables nor does he like yogurts or pickled foods that might contain live cultures, I decided to try a probiotic pill. We spoke with his neurologist about this and she agreed that it couldn’t hurt.

Let me back up a bit to say that before this episode my husband used Miralax regularly to keep things moving. He went off it when the diarrhea hit and hadn’t started it again. The probiotic we chose was a generic version from the local drug store. He took one a day with his breakfast. We saw a change in his movements within about a week, the consistency was easier to control and he was more regular. We decided to try adding the Miralax back into the mix, but it seemed to make things worse so are now stopping the laxative to see what the probiotics can do on their own. 

Studies have been done on the gut microbiome and how it influences Parkinson’s Disease. I really didn’t look into that topic choosing to focus instead on the impact to his bowels and issues with constipation. So far things are looking good, if he also gets better absorption of his carbidopa levodopa, then that will make it even better. Anything that makes our daily lives even a little bit better is a win in my book.

My information for this blog came from observing my husband’s experience and the following two websites: https://www.apdaparkinson.org/article/probiotics-and-parkinsons-disease/ and https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/probiotics-usefulness-and-safety. I am not advocating for the anyone to use Probiotics but do encourage everyone to research this topic.