Category Archives: fava bean tincture

Fava Bean Tincture

fava bean tincture, , ,

Aunt Bean: May I ask if its not recommended to take Fava if you are taking Levodopa (synthetic dopamine)?

Yes, fava bean tincture can be taken with levodopa….you just have to make sure that you are not taking more dopamine than you need to function properly. It is a balancing act when using pharmaceuticals and everyone is different…so it is up to you as an individual on an hourly basis as to how much you need. I feel in my heart as a “citizen scientist and self imposed Guinea pig”, that if you take more than you need, your body will stop making it’s own. Also, that you will continually need more. Like in taking pain pills, etc…. always having to increase.  I test my dopamine levels by my symptoms and doing a finger tapping test. My left hand will slow down to nearly nothing when I am low….so does my mandolin playing.  So, my  sister…please always be careful, go slowly into any new “tests” of meds. Start low dose, not high , and work up to the bare minimum that makes you functional.  Find the foods that help you the most…..eat right, exercise and deep breathe in the warm sunshine. Laugh a lot and try not to get stressed about little things. Always count your blessing and try to help others. Foods that help me most are PAPAYA, fermented or fresh; blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, apples, eggs,  Nuts , green tomatoes, egg plant, sweet potatoes. I am mostly sugar free (I eat about 1/3 Cup ice cream a day) and definitely gluten free. 
May God Bless and Guide You, 
Aunt Bean

Fava Bean Tincture Preparation

fava bean tincture

Question: 

Can the fava bean tincture be made without alcohol? I get migraines from alcohol and also it is processed in the body as sugar which is contraindicated to Lonnie Herman’s protocol.

What blood test did she say to have before using tinctures from fava beans

Thank you,

Lillian

Answer: 

I think the tincture can only be made using brandy,  so it crosses the blood brain barrier, but if you put amount needed in a coffee cup and pour boiling water over it….the alcohol evaporates leaving the ldopa in the water. ldopa is water soluble.

Blood test is called G6PD.

Aunt Bean

Fava Bean Tincture

fava bean tincture

Do you know of anyone that sells the fava bean tincture?  My husband was
recently diagnosed with PD.  He is not taking any prescription meds as he is
concerned over the side effects and has heard the  longer one is on them the
less effective they are.

JoAnn

Answer:

I don’t  know of anyone who sells the fava bean tincture. It gets harder every year to get enough made for myself. My fall crop….5 lbs of fava beans all died in severe heat and very dry weather. So, being a farmer, we are subject to good conditions and poor. Good crops and possibly no crop. There are companies that sell fava dopamine capsules,  but off hand I can’t  think of company names. You can buy organic dry fava beans that are sprout able and follow the recipe in the download -able booklet for sprouting the beans to eat, and for making fava sprout balls. Another option is to try mucuna puriens. You can purchase  them from many sources. They are also a bean that contain natural ldopa. Eating papaya also helps. Fermented papaya does even more…if you can’t  manage to ferment your own…it can be purchased under the brand FPP . It is a dry powder . I hope this helps and I have answered you questions. God Bless and guide you.

 Love,

Aunt Bean

Preparation of Fava Beans for Parkinson’s

fava bean spouts, fava bean tincture
What follows are Aunt Beans answers to questions about fava beans. Questions are at the top followed by answers from Aunt Bean.
Robert Rodgers PhD
Road to Recovery from Parkinsons Disease
Questions:

  Ordered five pounds of fava beans online. Now I have separated the beans from the pods and dehydrated the pods. Our questions:

1) Beans: Most are a light green color, others are close to white. Should we try to sprout these beans following your 4-day method, or just cook them via steaming? Does the color of the bean make a difference with respect its ability to sprout?

2) Pods: My plan is to put them in a food processor, chop up, then cover with brandy for a month. My wife wants to put some pods in a Vitamix and mix in some brandy and coconut water and then sip this. She also thought about Vitamixing pods and beans and brandy together. Do you think that will work?

Many thanks,

Carlene and Stan

Answers from Aunt Bean
“Since you have already dried the outside pods….yes, they can be covered with brandy and shook for a month. What I did this summer was skip the brandy and just powdered them in a food processor. This destroyed the non-digestible fibers in the pods so my system could handle them. Keeping this dry powder frozen will keep it’s L-dopa for at least 6 months. Keeping a  small jar in the refrigerator to use daily has worked out well for me. I just put about 1 1/2 teas. in  with my morning supplement bowl of: hemp protein powder, ground flax seeds,  papaya ferment that I have dried and powdered and plain yogurt. Oh, I also made my own grape seed extract this year by juicing the grapes and then drying and grinding the leftover seeds and skins. I put that in my supplement bowl also. Let the yogurt hydrate the contents for about 15 minutes…adding water if necessary as it gets dry as the powders soak up all the liquid. Don’t put this dry into your stomach …hydrate all powders well before eating.  If you put the pods into brandy…it is very hard to squeeze all the brandy back out of them and we had to have a press made to do it sufficiently because much was wasted .So, I suggest powdering them instead. This powder can also be added to foods anytime during the day…be creative with it…Smoothies/ cookies, etc.   
 As far as the inner beans go. The green ones are the best for eating. The ones the are whiter will be harder and less tasty to eat. They might sprout for you if they are mature enough. Try soaking them 24 hrs and then start the rinsing process in a colander 3 times a day until they sprout. If they don’t sprout…cook and eat like the green ones. I would steam and peel them before eating. If they do sprout for you…yes you can give them time to get a one leaf started to grow/ chop and tincture them for a small portable bottle to carry with you. I carry a tincture with me all the time, because my dopamine level can drop suddenly…the tincture gives me a quick recharge within a few minutes and my balance and gait come back to normal again. Sometimes I drop suddenly when playing music out somewhere and have to take some while performing. Not many people ask what I was doing when I take out my dropper bottle and squirt a couple droppers into my my mouth…but if someone does, I just explain to them that I have Parkinson’s disease and that it is my homemade supplement that takes care of my symptoms so that I can function normally.”
Aunt Bean

How to Preserve Fava Beans

fava bean tincture

Hello.

If I need to make a tincture out of sprouted beans ( these will be the beans and a little green sprouts coming out of them), do I need to dry them first or mash and cover with brandy.  Do sprouted beans have same amount of levadopa. Also is it possible to make powder from pods using dehydrator. My parents have access to fresh fava beans, but it will only
last for the summer. How do I preserve large quantity for the next 9-10 months?

Yes, you can lightly steam fava pods and dry them in a dehydrator and then  powder them. I like to juice them also after light steam and make chips. The recipe is in the fava pamphlet on this website is downloadable. This is a good way to preserve them for the year.
Aunt Bean

Fava Bean Tincture

fava bean spouts, fava bean tincture, fava beans and dopamine

Hello.

My Dad is currently eating 4 oz of fresh fava beans a day. They store he is buying them will only have them during summer. How can he make it last?

If we are making tincture with pods and brandy ( why only brandy if I may ask), shake it for a month and use liquid. How much of this liquid is equal to the 4 oz he is eating now. He is eating pods and beans. How much pods do I need to last about 9 months? And is it ok to drink alcohol for the rest of
his life?

Also, is there a way to make powder out of pods. The question again how much powder equal to the 4 oz of fresh fava beans.

I couldn’t find any answers to these questions and will appreciate your help
very much.

Sincerely,

Laura

Brandy crosses the blood brain barrier, other alcohol does not do this so well I am told. I hold my extract under my tongue and that seems to make it work very quickly before it goes to my stomach.  You can also put the amount OF EXTRACT IN A COFFEE MUG AND POUR BOILING WATER OVER IT TO TAKE OFF THE brandy. I do  not know how many drops of tincture he will need for a dose.. Start small (10 drops perhaps and check the effect, and go up or down using the minimal amount for symptom relief. You will have to judge this for yourself and experiment. I started with 2 drops 3 times a day for a while.  This is my 7th year on tincture and now I require about 40 drops 4 to 6 times a day. Also eating egg plant and peppers are a great support with the fava  and especially papayas.
Hope this helps.
Aunt Bean

Fava Beans Tincture

fava bean tincture

Aunt Bean,

If I understand correctly, the research here:

https://scisoc.confex.com/scisoc/2014am/webprogram/Paper85585.html

shows that the leaves of fava beans are nearly as potent as the buds. Has anyone tried a leaf fava beans tincture?

Thanks in advance,

Red

I began adding some of the small leaves of fava beans to the fava beans tincture (which uses leavers connected to the top bud ) for a while and didn’t feel the the tincture was as potent and after a couple of batches went back to removing all the leaves from the bud before drying. That is my only experience with trying them. I will eat a few leaves while harvesting tops and beans and they taste much like spinach and I am sure they are very nutritious also.

Aunt Bean

Fava Bean Tincture

fava bean tincture

Hi Aunt bean,

Of course I am a Parkinson’s patient.

I made fava bean tincture from beans but instead of putting them in the dark as I read later. I placed them in a clear jar and on the  kitchen counter in the light (shady place) in sunny California.

Is the tincture still good or is the L-Dopa killed with light?

Thank you.

Response:

Tinctures always have better shelf life if kept away from light exposure. If you have started to use it and it was working , but losing it’s effect from being in the light awhile…you will know the l-dopa has been diminished. It would not make the tincture harmful, just less effective. You can not say the l-dopa would be killed since it is not a living substance, just an extract form a bean.

Next time do keep the extract inside a dark place while shaking for a month and place in a amber or dark blue bottle in a dark place for storage…or place a clear jar in a paper bag in the dark for storage. Hope this clarifies your question…

Aunt Bean

Aunt Bean’s Fava Bean Tincture

fava bean tincture

My father’s Experience with Aunt Bean’s fava bean tincture

“At first, we (my father and I) want to thank Aunt Bean for having invented such a wonderful natural remedy for people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Of course we are also sincerely grateful for Dr. Robert Rodgers for his unique research and website that offer so much help and inspiration for those in need.

I prepared Aunt Bean’s fava bean tincture from sprouted fava beans according to the instructions on her blog. I prepared the tincture for my 66-year old father who has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. My father has been going through severe tremor in the right hand, general slowness and stiffness of movements, and a softened voice. At the moment, he has been taking half a teaspoon of the tincture three times a day for one month and this is what he reports:

The most noticeable improvement is in the movements of the body. After taking the tincture, the ordinary daily chores require much less effort. It is easier to drive, play the guitar, practice yoga, cook healthy food, and socialize. The tincture has also improved my mood by reducing any kinds of depression and anxiety. Although the tincture itself does not cure the disease and did not remove my tremors, it helps the whole process of recovery by “helping and supporting you to keep going”. I have noticed that the efficiency of the tincture at least for me is much higher when I strive to maintain a positive mind set and an active and inspiring life.

Because we live in Finland, I used Finnish fava beans for the tincture. I was very careful to follow Aunt Bean’s protocol for tincture preparation as she had described it. Whenever I felt unsure about some step, I asked Aunt Bean for an advice (by email) and she immediately replied me with plenty of information. Before starting the tincture preparation, I made a plan when to do each step. Although the whole process takes about a month, the individual steps are easy, fast, and convenient. The alcohol content in brandy is enough (~40 %) to protect it from microbial contamination. Aunt Bean told me that the tincture is sensitive to light, so I found some brown glass bottles from the pharmacy. If somebody has trouble finding such bottles, I encourage them to ask the pharmacists. They always have such products in store but do not necessarily keep them available all the time. Another way to protect light-sensitive substances is to wrap a regular glass bottle with aluminum foil and store it in the dark.

If somebody would like to try the tincture, but has trouble with finger movements etc. due to progressed condition, I strongly encourage you to ask a family member or a friend to do it for you. It is not difficult, although requires care and attention on the instructions.”

Wishing you all the best,

Nina

Fava Beans for Parkinson’s

farm update, fava bean tincture

The fava beans for Parkinson’s have not come up well at all that were planted the end of July and first part of August. I purchased a really poor bag of bulk seeds this year. I am going to go against my usual growing time and try to replant this Sunday. Hopefully we will get more plants that will give us at least one picking of tops before temps hit 26 degrees this year. One year they made it to the second week in December…that would be a blessing this year.

Tomatoes have gone crazy this summer…probably have gotten a bushel from each plant so far and they are still producing. Green beans have done exceptionally well also….but fava “tops” are the most important crop here and we need more to see us thru until the end of May when the spring crop starts it’s harvest time.

“Aunt Bean” feels very well and I hope to go to Rock Steady Boxing Camp next year in Indianapolis so that I am better equipped to help our support group with exercises that target PD symptoms. Our group responded well to adding exercise to our meeting time…a
very necessary thing for all of us.

Summer is coming to a close, but work is not. I received a heavy coverall for cold weather…it was my brother’s, which makes it even more special…hopefully I can take being outside in cold weather this year to create new raised beds for the coming year.

Bean Acres is open to people with PD who want to come learn natural ways to combat their symptoms. The farm has been such a blessing to me, and my prayer is that God will use it to touch many lives in a positive way who also have this horrible disease…

It is not incurable.

God Bless you all

Aunt Bean