My one man experiment to see if drinking a glass of single malt Scotch every day can help with Parkinson’s has been going for a year now.
So what’s the outcome? Have I single-handedly made an astonishing breakthrough where billions of dollars of investment by big pharma have failed? Or is this yet another candidate treatment for PD to add to the reject pile?
Highly unscientific though my experiment has been, I am tempted to draw three conclusions:
So what’s the outcome? Have I single-handedly made an astonishing breakthrough where billions of dollars of investment by big pharma have failed? Or is this yet another candidate treatment for PD to add to the reject pile?
Highly unscientific though my experiment has been, I am tempted to draw three conclusions:
- Single malt whisky may have a small, short term effect on slowing the progression of Parkinson’s
Anecdotally, my Parkinson’s was pretty stable for most of the past year. And symptoms got slightly worse roughly when I started working abroad
again a couple of months ago (I am back in Copenhagen two to three days every week, unable to carry bottles of whisky in my hand luggage). But I think the correlation is weak and certainly my symptoms have not improved overall.
So at best progression of my disease may have slowed a little, but in this it is difficult to be conclusive.
So at best progression of my disease may have slowed a little, but in this it is difficult to be conclusive.
- In the long run it probably makes minimal difference
Even if it had a small short term effect, I think in the long run things will essentially be the same.
- I like whisky
Nevertheless something good came out of it... I discovered that I enjoy a taste of Speyside or Islay every day. So in this particular endeavour the pleasures of the Scottish fire water outweigh scientific rigour.
That said, I probably will cut back my consumption a little. But not because I’m worried about pickling my liver.
Whilst I’ve been focusing on whisky for the past 12 months, I’ve been missing out on another one of life’s simple, alcoholic pleasures: the occasional glass of red wine...
