Quote:
Originally Posted by johnt
Gerry,
You write:
"I currently take 34.5 g of Mucuna (40% levodopa) daily plus 45 g of tyrosine."
That's approximately 14g of levodopa per day, plus whatever may come from the tyrosine. This compares with for most people on C/L of under 1g (= 1000mg) per day.
I think it would be really useful to everyone if we understood why these numbers are so different.
For a start, you don't take carbidopa. Wikipedia states that [1]:
"Carbidopa reduces the amount of levodopa required to produce a given response by about 75% ..."
That reduces the comparable level from 14g to approximately 3g.
Are there any other corrections to make?
How do you avoid nausea with these amounts of levodopa?
Reference:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbidopa
John |
The doctors who have pioneered the protocol Gerry is on have a paper where they give the reasoning and mechanisms for how the nausea is controlled through administration of 5-htp instead of using Carbidopa. They also discuss other negative affects of Carbidopa and why it is not necessary for the use of treating parkinsons when using 5-htp, which allows for avoidance of side effects.
Here is an excerpt from the paper that may be of assistance in understanding how Carbidopa and 5-htp work.
"Through irreversible inhibition of AADC, carbidopa or benserazide compromises peripheral synthesis of serotonin and dopamine. This drug-induced inhibition of peripheral metabolism of l-dopa by AADC leaves more l-dopa unmetabolized and available to freely cross the blood–brain barrier into the central nervous system. As a result, when carbidopa or benserazide is administered, lower l-dopa daily intake values are required to achieve the same central nervous system results.4,6
It is documented that 5-HTP controls l-dopa-induced nausea, utilizing the same basic chemical mechanism as carbidopa and benserazide: AADC inhibition. Carbidopa and benserazide inhibition is irreversible while 5-HTP inhibition is reversible. The use of 5-HTP is superior, since under proper administration it is a nutrient that does not deplete systems or induce abnormal system functions when properly administered.1,7,35–37
If the goal of administering 5-HTP for the control of l-dopa-induced nausea is to have it function as a nutrient, this is not merely a simple substitution. It requires concomitant administration of l-dopa with 5-HTP, along with the “core nutrients”: l-tyrosine, a thiol (l-cysteine, glutathione, S-adenosyl methionine, or l-methionine), and cofactors (vitamin C, vitamin B6, and calcium carbonate). Administration of properly balanced core nutrients needs to be guided by organic cation-transporter type 2 functional status analysis, in order to achieve a balance that does not convert the nutrients into a drug."
Here is the paper -
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4238750/