My husband has been on Requip for four years but now finds he is not getting the level of relief from his symptoms that he would like.When we spoke to the neuro about this, he upped his medication to 20mg of Requip XL and said to try that but John could have LDopa if he still felt it was not enough.Here comes the confusing bit. He said to take it immediatly after meals to avoid side effects.I queried this because of the protein in the meal but he said that avoiding protein was only important with a small number of people. Has anyone any comment as we are now confused.

Hi Englishcountrydancer,
I think you will find that sinemet will be much more effective taken at least half an hour before meals. Soccertese also recommends
"take it right after you wake up and no food"
in the thread on "This is kind of exciting"
Protein competes with levodopa at the recptors, and the protein wins!
I find if I try to take my sinemet before meals, it rarely works.
Best wishes
Ron

My neuro said that the protein -sinemet connection only holds up for about 20% of people. Another neuro that I heard speak recommended taking sinemet either 30 minutes before or 90 minutes after eating. They all seem to have a different take on it. I think it's safe to say that individuals vary!

as always, there are exceptions, but did you mean the sinemet or the requip that he should take after meals. i think requip needs to have a little something in your stomach - i used saltines in the morning and finally quit from nausea.

sinemet is a major problem with food, especially proteins, one can stay off for 4 hours if you don't time it around your meals or overeat.

one thing to add - it took a while in the progression of the illness to get to the point where protein bothered me. it didn't early in the illness.

paula