I had intended to wait another month before posting on this one, but the group could use a little positive push right now, so I'm going ahead.

A month ago, I had a problem. I was losing the use of my legs. It was most noticeable at night. If I tried to get out of bed the muscles went into tetany and would not function. I was pretty maxxed out on meds. 24 mg of requip plus about 1500 mg of sinemet total in both forms. As Laura mentioned, I have been dealing with some unusual problems for a year now and it was taking that much medication to make it through. Taking something every two hours. Having to hit the bed by 8:00 PM just to avoid crawling or, worse, a total lockup.

I must interrupt myself here to explain that this is actually a two-part report with the intent of giving you as much info as possible. Now, back to the story.

I had been half-heartedly toying with an herb called scullcap for some time, but without any discipline. It has been listed in the USP years ago as a nerve tonic and it showed promise. So I began taking two capsules of 850 mg each at bedtime and it did the trick on the night time tetany, but not on the insane medication load needed to get through the day.

So, a month ago I was taking the scullcap; silymarin; and saw palmetto. The latter two had been in the picture for some time and are included for completeness. Everything else was hit-or-miss. So, as I said, there was some improvement but it was very limited.

Still trying to get a handle on the meds, a week ago I started the flavonoid quercetin and was amazed. It has just been a week and my two hour tether has lengthened to four to six hours, bedtime has gone from 8:00 PM to 10 to 11:00, and medication has dropped to 900 mg of sinemet and I'm going to start fiddling with the requip today. Those are the most awesome results that I have had from any alternative approach.

Here is a reference:

1. Pharmacology. 2003 Jun;68(2):81-8.

Quercetin potentiates L-Dopa reversal of drug-induced catalepsy in rats: possible
COMT/MAO inhibition.

Singh A, Naidu PS, Kulkarni SK.

Pharmacology Division, University Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Panjab
University, Chandigarh, India.

L-Dopa plus carbidopa treatment remains the first-line therapy in Parkinson's
disease. The use of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and/or monoamine oxidase
(MAO) inhibitors as an adjunct to L-dopa therapy has yielded varying degrees of
success. Quercetin, a flavonoid present in many plants, is reported to inhibit
COMT and MAO activities, the key enzymes involved in the metabolism of dopamine.
In the present study we have studied the effect of quercetin on the L-dopa plus
carbidopa combination against perphenazine and reserpine-induced catalepsy in
rats. Neuroleptic-induced catalepsy is a widely accepted animal model for testing
the drugs used in parkinsonism. Catalepsy in rats was induced by administration
of perphenazine (5 mg/kg i.p.) or reserpine (2.5 mg/kg i.p.) +
alpha-methyl-P-tyrosine (200 mg/kg i.p.). Catalepsy in animals was assessed by
using the bar test. The quercetin dose (25-100 mg/kg, p.o.) dependently reversed
perphenazine- as well as reserpine-induced catalepsy. When quercetin was combined
with a subthreshold dose of L-dopa plus carbidopa, the anticatatonic effect was
potentiated. Pretreatment with a central COMT inhibitor, 3,5-dinitrocatechol
(OR-486) (10 mg/kg p.o.), or a MAO-B inhibitor, selegiline (5 mg/kg i.p.), also
potentiated the actions of threshold dose of quercetin against perphenazine- or
reserpine-induced catalepsy. On the other hand adenosine (100 mg/kg i.p.), which
is known to decrease the release of catecholamines through an action on
presynaptic A(1) receptors, partly reversed the protective effect of quercetin
against perphenazine-induced catalepsy. Quercetin through its COMT and MAO
enzyme-inhibiting properties might potentiate the anticatatonic effect of L-dopa
plus carbidopa treatment. The results of the present study strongly suggest that
quercetin could serve as an effective adjunct to L-dopa therapy in Parkinson's
disease.


PMID: 12711835 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]