Our consensus of the energy drink is now this: you will feel really pretty good....but then pay for it later. We liken this to the adderol we use on an as needed basis, which does work, but you will feel like total crap after it wears off. Our neuro told us this would happen. It's odd how addictive it is supposed to be, because of the horrible after-effects. But if you have a meeting or something and have to definitely be "on", well, it's an option to have this.

At any rate, we aren't drinking this anymore. The drink we drank has l-phenylanaline in it, which I have read is a precursor to levodopa which is a precursor to dopamine (and apparently phenylanaline is a precursor to other neurotransmitters as well). This explains to me how it works, also because of the fava bean experiments that have been done....where if you sprout them, or nuke them before sprouting (see the thread on fava bean white rat report) you increase the phenolic amount significantly. That's why many PWP are sprouting the beans instead of cooking them and eating them that way. Phenylanaline is a natural substance found in foods like meat, which is OK for the body to take, but when added to other things to make aspartame, is neurotoxic (and other horrible things like making formaldehyde as a by-product of metabolization).

Maybe taking so much raw phenylanaline simply wears things out upstairs, I don't know. I just know that if you feel that crappy after drinking one, it can't be good.

Sorry to rain on anyone's parade-heck, if this works for you and you don't have any ill effects, maybe it's OK for you, we are all different after all and who can say for someone else. Just wanted to update our experience with this.

I had my first energy drink about 3 weeks ago and I try to have one every day. I feel like I'm on a smooth sailing ride for the rest of the day, focused, alert, attentive, and energetic enough to live my normal routine. The day I had two I couldn't sleep but otherwise it does not interrupt my sleep.

I am so delighted to find another PD person who has the same reaction. It's like a drug how good I feel and knowing it may soothe PD takes the edge off of the guilt at picking up an addictive substance. Thanks!

I am 57 and was diagnosed not quite 2 years ago.



sailUOTE=lurkingforacure;681955]Yesterday quite by chance my husband was offered and accepted one of those 5-hour energy drinks. I think it's actually called "5 Hour Energy Drink"!
At any rate, he said he felt the best he had felt in a loooong time, giving his symptoms an improvement rating of 20-30%, which is huge (and he is very analytical, so I think his is a pretty fair assessment). It also alleviated, pretty much immediately, his constipation problem, which we had been grappling with for about a week, within 15 minutes (yes) of drinking the drink. Placebo? We don't think so either.

So I dutifully got online and looked up what's in this thing. TONS of B3, B6,
B9, and B12, citicholine, some other stuff....but what caught my eye was this: "L-phenylanaline". I know this is a big component of aspartame which we avoid at our house like the plague, so I was worried, but then realized that this substance by itself, when not combined with the other ingredients in aspartame/nutrisweet, may not be the neurotoxin I thought. In other words, standing alone, l-phenylanaline is not neurotoxic.

What's more....soccertease has a post today under the fava bean thread which discusses how fava beans contain, yes, l-phenylanaline, precursor to dopamine! We were wondering what made the energy drink so effective-was it the B vitamins? the caffeine (they say it has only one coffee cup worth of caffeine, so probably not), what? My bet is on the phenylanaline.

Has anyone had one of these things and experienced a similar effect? We went out and bought a case of the things today, you can get them everywhere, we got ours at CVS.

PS-Had horrible sleep, though, so I don't know if that's related to the energy drink or not...our sleep is pretty lousy most nights anyway. I'll report back as we consume more energy drinks. Love to hear anyone's experiences or thoughts about these drinks.[/QUOTE]

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"soccertease has a post today under the fava bean thread "
no i didn't

in commenting on the aspartame theme, the artificial sweetner, the only effect that I have had is it put me in the bathroom doing overtime!! yikes..

Hmm...may be worth trying instead of swallowing extra horse pills. I think you are having a good reaction due to l-phenylaline (an amino acid precursor to levodopa) and the B vitamin complex because the amino acid helps boost the production of levodopa while the B vitas support neurotransmission in general.

I am taking acetyl l-carnatine and a B complex. I too notice a big difference...virtually no "offs" and much more energy but tired of taking so many pills. blech.

Laura

It might be the citicholine (CDP-Choline.) CDP-Choline seems to reduce the need for L-Dopa. In a Spanish study subjects taking 500 mg/day for 30 days were able to reduce their dose by 30%. In another study CDP-Choline improved bradykinesia (slowness) by 23% and rigidity by 33%.

Would it be the case that your husband washed down some of his medication with this fizzy drink? Don't some people deliberately dissolve Sinemet in fizzy drinks because it accelerates the absorption of the l-dopa?

CDP Choline reportedly is an intermediate in the production of acetylcholine. For those like my husband who experience adverse effects from acetylcholine boosting, would suggest extreme caution using this supplement. We learned the hard way.

Hi Gerry,

would you mind telling us what product you're using for CDP choline? I have looked for it, only to find choline, not CDP choline. Thanks for the information.

Try the life extension foundation.