About two months ago, my lovely wife insisted that I subject myself to her own experiment. The idea was to link a stimulus (peppermint) to the actions of the meds (sinemet and requip) in hopes of triggering dopamine release. The method was to simply put a peppermint candy (Altoids curiously strong etc) in each pill bottle and take a sniff each time I take a med.

Darned if I don't think it has had an effect independent of the other things I am experimenting with. I think that it has cut down my early morning wait for "kick-in" from an hour to less than 30 minutes! If I skip or avoid the peppermint it takes substantially longer than if I chew a couple of Altoids with the meds.

In retrospect, I suppose it shouldn't be surprising. But it is.