i guess my point is if not done right at the start people will lose interest and you won't know if your results are really valid. so i disagree that you just need to get started and work out the bugs later, that is amateurish research. and if the benefits are so great that you can do sloppy design why isn't everyone taking that supplement/drug already?

there's already websites that report patient opinions about what they are taking, does anyone with pd take what is posted seriously?
http://www.patientslikeme.com/condit...nson-s-disease

here's a simple trial, see what the affect of taking your first dose of carbidopa/levodopa with 8oz. of orange juice or hot water with 1tsp of sugar dissolved to test gastric emptying. if you are using finger tapping,record 10 days without orange juice and 10 days with orange juice. that's something everyone taking sinemet or stalvo could try.

so the question is how long after taking your meds do you start finger tapping and at what time intervals? does the orange juice make you go on quicker, does your on "last" longer? so what if you find out you go on quicker but go off sooner? even this simple test can result in complex results, and just saying you can tap faster 30min after taking your meds might not make the treatment useful.