schwad01,

Ways to get more out of Stalevo:

Are you really careful to avoid all protein?

It has been reported [1] that a high-fat, high-calorie meal may delay absorption of levodopa by about 2 hrs.

I find exercise immediately after taking Stalevo enhances its effect.

If your aim is to take less drug in total, there may be benefit in taking smaller doses more frequently.

If your aim is to get the dose to last longer, and you were prepared to take an agonist, you could take a longer lasting agonist like ropinirole CR to give you a relatively stable foundation. If you wanted to avoid taking an agonist, rasagiline is an alternative.

You may find the levodopa equivalent plasma calculator [2] useful in order to visualize the pharmacokinetics of the situation. You could investigate the pharmacodynamics of Stalevo on you by repeatedly doing the tap test during the duration of a dose, see [3].

References:

[1] http://www.pdr.net/drug-summary/Stal...e-levodopa-441

[2] http://www.parkinsonsmeasurement.org...cokinetics.htm

[3] http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread183360.html

John