My mom's condition has some similarities to what D0gma described.

About 3-4 years ago, my mom started showing classic signs of PD -- one of them being the bradykinesia along with the blank stare. She was diagnosed with PD and started with way too much Sinemet (600mg/day) ... she developed dyskinesia, then cut back to about 400mg/day ... still had dyskinesia, and now (on her own, not doctor's orders) has cut down to 100-150mg/day. She takes that dose to get a boost but then can get through the rest of the day at a lower energy and more slow motioned pace. I also feel like she has withdrawal symptoms every day ... when the 150mg dosage wears off after about 3-4 hours.

It seems to me that the slow motion-ness is PD, or at least Parkinsonian, because my mom had it before starting any medication.

D0gma, do you not think that your slow motion-ness is PD? What symptom(s) led to the initial PD diagnosis? Did you have slow-motioness/bradykinesia before starting on Sinemet?

Our goal with my Mom's treatment is to hopefully get her off Sinemet entirely. The fact that she takes such a low dose and is able to function without a continuous dosage gives me hope that we can try to kickstart her endogenous production of dopamine through natural supplementation like NADH, l-tyrosine ... and other precursors. I've heard some studies/cases where this has helped and others where it has not. I suspect that not everyone's root cause of PD is the same, so I think safe experimentation is the only way to find out on a case-by-case basis. I also worry that if she kept taking high (and increasing) doses of Sinemet or any l-dopa, her body would become completely dependent on external sourcing and it would become much more difficult to kickstart any endogenous production of dopamine.