I take 600 mg per day. The following caught my eye recently and makes such good sense that I thought I'd pass it on.
1: Rinsho Shinkeigaku. 1994 Mar;34(3):264-6.
[Gastric acid secretion and absorption of levodopa in patients with Parkinson's
disease--the effect of supplement therapy to gastric acid]
[Article in Japanese]
Yazawa I, Terao Y, Sai I, Hashimoto K, Sakuta M.
Department of Neurology, Japanese Red Cross Medical Center.
Since an oral regimen of levodopa has been instituted for treatment of
Parkinson's disease, its absorption and metabolism has been well demonstrated.
However, its chemical characteristics of high solubility in acid solution and low
solubility in water have not been well known. We paid attention to this
characteristic and studied the relationship between its absorption and gastric
acid secretion in 38 patients with Parkinson's disease who became refractory to
therapy of levodopa. We measured the pH and amount of collected fasting gastric
juice. Gastric acid secretion was decreased in 22 patients (58%). In ten of these
22 patients, 30 ml of lemon juice was prescribed in every administration of
levodopa as a supplement to gastric acid for two weeks. Increases of L-dopa
concentration after 60 min. and 180 min. were observed after lemon juice
supplement therapy. Among the Parkinson symptoms, rigidity, akinesia, and small
step gait were improved in every case except one patient who showed decrease of
L-dopa concentration at 180 minutes. However, improvement of tremor was less
remarkable. We consider this supplement therapy to gastric acid is one of the
effective and useful methods in the management of Parkinson's disease.
PMID: 8200147
[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]