Originally Posted by soccertese

i'm not a medical professional but my philosophy with pd and especially with elderly patients where simplicity is more important and where they have slower metabolisms and possibly other medical conditions, initially go with the conventional treatment that your doctor recommends and can work with you with. if you try the alternative methods and they don't work or have side affects you'll be responsible and having to explain to your mother's doctor what you did. it's totally different if it was you who had pd. it won't take long to find out how well sinemet works and there will be plenty of time to investigate alternative therapies, supplements, etc. later on. if the patient was a young onset with mild symptoms and wanted to explore possible treatments which might slow progression and alt symptom treatments, i'd say go for it, i tried a lot of things when first diagnosed before i went on meds, none had a noticeable beneficial affect.