Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition, brought to you by nutritional weight and wellness.

We are a Minnesota-based company that specializes in real food nutrition education and counseling.

My name is Leah Kleintraud, a registered and

licensed dietitian and your host for the show today. We've got a very special show for you all. I'm

going to be talking with a longtime nutritional weight and wellness client who has worn many

different hats throughout her personal and professional

life, and I'll let her tell you a little bit more about those hats. But one of the hats we will be

focusing on today is the hat of a caregiver for a loved one who is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Just a little background on Parkinson's disease. It is the

second most common neurodegenerative disease in the United States. So it's joined in the ranks

with Alzheimer's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. I hope I pronounce that. Okay,

most people know it as ALS. And multiple sclerosis, which is MS.

And these devastating conditions, they broadly involved gradual degeneration and death of the neurons in the

brain and the nerves. In Parkinson's disease, people commonly struggle with disordered movement.

So tremors, stiffness and rigidity, slowed movements, and feet shuffling.

Constipation, memory issues, or brain fog, sleep disturbances, fatigue, anxiety, these are also

common symptoms. and our special guest

today is going to tell us about a couple others. Current treatments involve medications that

provide or try to keep dopamine in the brain and help to manage symptoms. But unfortunately,

there is no cure for Parkinson's disease at this time. However, our

special guest and her late husband did experience the power of real food and some targeted

supplements to improve the quality of life for someone going through Parkinson's, as well as the

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