Quote:
Originally Posted by GerryW
L-dopa from Mucuna may be more effective than the isolate and require less for the same results. See section 5.1 of http://examine.com/supplements/Mucun...ns/#summary5-0. "A rat study investigating the same question found that low dose Mucuna paired with benserazide (peripheral dopa-decarboxylase inhibitor) was able to suppress symptoms associated with Parkinsons while low dose Levodopa + Benserazide was not; additionally, long-term usage of Mucuna Pruriens was more effective than long-term usage of Levodopa in isolation, when both were contributing the same dose of Levodopa.[22] The differences seen were suggested to be due to a possible Dopa-decarboxylase inhibitor in Mucuna Pruriens. Other studies comparing Levodopa to Mucuna also note this difference, and suggest that one needs thrice as much Levodopa in isolation to match Levodopa from Mucuna.[15]"
Another study showed it to worked better than Sinemet. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1738871/.
Hinz's mucuna is 40% levodopa vs the 4% founf naturally so perhaps it is spiked. In any case it takes a lot of capsules to get an equivalent dose. Each tsp is equivalent to 8 capsules. |
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gary, that article means nothing to me. sorry. it's in rats and in 1 part of the experiment they compare mucana against l-dopa by itself, that proves nothing. plus you can just modify your dose/timing with sinemet, you can't just look at 1 or 2 factors. there's price, convienence, purity, etc.
as far as 40% l-dopa, your're taking 9tsps every 3 hrs? if 40% that would mean that you are taking more than 3tsps of l-dopa in every dose. the normal dose of l-dopa is 100mg every 3 hrs in admittedly a compressed pill.
here's my calculation, i picked whole wheat to estimate the weight/cup of a grain as a starting point.
1lb=3.3cups
48tsps in 1 cup
474grams in 1lb
1lb/3.3cups = .30lbs/cup x 48tsp/cup = .0063 lb/tsp x 473gram/lb = 3grams/tsp x .40grams l-dopa/gram = 1.2grams of l-dopa/tsp of mucana
so you are taking 3.6grams of l-dopa per dose? the normal dose for sinemet is 100mg l-dopa.
maybe my calculations are off but common sense would tell you that 40% l-dopa in mucana makes no sense. as far as evolution goes, that makes no sense for a plant, the reason the plant has l-dopa i assume is as a defense mechanism, animals avoid it because they get dizzy when they eat it but 40% would be overkill, natural selection would have selected against it.
i apologize if my calculations are off.