Severe Constipation @ Diagnosis = Greater Likelihood for Faster Progression of Parkinson’s

Here’s the first sentence of a recent research report on constipation and Parkinson’s:

“Although constipation affects only one third of patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD) at the time of diagnosis, constipation severity at baseline predicts faster disease progression, a new study suggests.”

The researchers followed 281 patients with Parkinson’s, starting when each patient had been recently diagnosed (average time:  0.4 years); the researchers continued to check the Parkies’ health every 18 months for an average of 4.15 years, using a battery of standard clinical assessments.

At baseline, the 281 Parkies were classified into three groups:

• 43 patients had mild constipation
• 35 had moderate-to-severe constipation
• The remaining 203 had no issues with constipation

The three groups were alike in many ways.  There were no differences in terms of the medications they took, their age, their smoking habits, or their gender.

The researchers tracked the progression of all three groups, noting when each person reached certain milestones connected with PD, including the onslaught of dementia, difficulty standing unassisted, and death.

The main finding was the following:

“…the group with moderate-to-severe constipation at baseline had an earlier onset of PD-related dementia… and progressed to Hoehn and Yahr stage 3 or higher more rapidly compared with the other groups….”

I believe the researchers were not saying that severe constipation causes early onset of dementia, just that the two are associated, and that medical practitioners should keep an extra eye on PD patients who at time of diagnosis are also severely constipated.

In my case, after I was diagnosed, I was constipated for about a week.  It was an amazing (not in a good way) experience, and I kicked it by adding a lot of flax seeds to everything I ate.  This solved the problem for me.  I blogged about it (click!) and followed up with a bunch of poop jokes (click!), and have been free of constipation since.  I make sure I eat lots of raw vegetables, I still use flax seeds and chia seeds (although not as much – read my earlier post to see why), and exercise often, which I believe keeps my insides running smoothly.