I have taken green tea sporadically and never noticed a boost in my levodopa on time, but I am wondering if we want it to act like a COM inhibitor we might want to take an EGCG along with a dose of levodopa?

Rick, someone did start an EGCG and rasagiline thread a while ago...think it was, ahem, you.

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...gcg+rasagiline

My only criticism with that is the guy who is studying this is co-inventor of rasagiline and is trying every which way to find a "hook" for this drug. Seriously, it appears desperate when you see the numerous angles he takes on the purported benefits of his drug. I do agree; however, on his idea of synergy. In looking for a neuroprotective, it is most likely going to be a compound of several different things that will end up working.

If you decide to try green tea and prefer that it's organic, here's a good source from a remarkable tea shop in San Francisco's Chinatown. It's loose leaf so you don't have to deal with all the usual packaging. And tasty too. Add a little honey if you prefer.

http://www.tentea.com/orgrte.html

btw the teas are reputedly tested for purity by an independent German company.

I've been taking Azilect and EGCG capsules since diagnosis in June 09 and I feel exactly the same as I did one year ago: just a slight tremor on my right hand. I have not improved but I'm not worse either. Maybe it's still too soon to confirm anything and it's just placebo effect but I'm glad I have not had to start on any other medication.

Just wanted to mention that I am a green tea drinker (organic) from way back when. I don't know if it affects it's utilization by the body but I make a quart every morning and refrigerate it and then drink it throughout the day 3 parts tea 1 part organic lemonade. I love it!
I didn't know about it's complementary use with MAO-B inhibitors but I have been taking 10 mg of Selegeline for 13 years and my progression has been quite slow.

Great site. Thanks.

Here is one that I bookmarked from almost a year ago- also about
EGCG + something called DAPH-12 in degrading amyloids
(sorry, I can't yet put links in my posts)


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Green tea chemical combined with another may hold promise for treatment of brain disorders

Boston Biomedical Research Institute | Dec 3, 2009 |


Watertown, MA—Scientists at Boston Biomedical Research Institute (BBRI) and the University of Pennsylvania have found that combining two chemicals, one of which is the green tea component EGCG, can prevent and destroy a variety of protein structures known as amyloids. Amyloids are the primary culprits in fatal brain disorders such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's, and Parkinson's diseases. Their study, published in the current issue of Nature Chemical Biology (December 2009), may ultimately contribute to future therapies for these diseases.

"These findings are significant because it is the first time a combination of specific chemicals has successfully destroyed diverse forms of amyloids at the same time," says Dr. Martin Duennwald of BBRI, who co-led the study with Dr. James Shorter of University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

For decades a major goal of neurological research has been finding a way to prevent the formation of and to break up and destroy amyloid plaques in the brains and nervous systems of people with Alzheimer's and other degenerative diseases before they wreak havoc.

Amyloid plaques are tightly packed sheets of proteins that infiltrate the brain. These plaques, which are stable and seemingly impenetrable, fill nerve cells or wrap around brain tissues and eventually (as in the case of Alzheimer's) suffocate vital neurons or brain cells, causing loss of memory, language, motor function and eventually premature death.

To date, researchers have had no success in destroying plaques in the human brain and only minimal success in the laboratory. One reason for these difficulties in finding compounds that can dissolve amyloids is their immense stability and their complex composition.

Yet, Duennwald experienced success in previous studies when he exposed amyloids in living yeast cells to EGCG. Furthermore, he and his collaborators also found before that DAPH-12, too, inhibits amyloid production in yeast.

In their new study, the team decided to look in more detail at the impact of these two chemicals on the production of different amyloids produced by the yeast amyloid protein known as PSI+. They chose this yeast amyloid protein because it has been studied extensively in the past, and because it produces varieties of amyloid structures that are prototypes of those found in the damaged human brain. Thus, PSI+ amyloids are excellent experimental paradigms to study basic properties of all amyloid proteins.

The team's first step was to expose two different amyloid structures produced by yeast (e.g., a weak version and a strong version) to EGCG. They found that the EGCG effectively dissolved the amyloids in the weaker version. To their surprise, they found that the stronger amyloids were not dissolved and that some transformed to even stronger versions after exposure to EGCG.

The team then exposed the yeast amyloid structures to a combination of the EGCG and the DAPH-12 and found that all of the amyloid structures broke apart and dissolved.

The next steps for the research team will be to explore the mechanism and potency of such a combinatorial therapy for the treatment of diverse neurodegenerative diseases.

"Our findings are certainly preliminary and we need further work to fully comprehend the effects of EGCG in combination with other chemicals on amyloids. Yet, we see our study as a very exciting initial step towards combinatorial therapies for the treatment of amyloid-based diseases," says Duennwald.

###

Authors of the study include: Martin L Duennwald and Chan Chung from Boston Biomedical Research Institute and Nicholas P Lopreiato, Elizabeth A Sweeny, M Noelle Knight, James Shorter, Huan Wang, and Blake E Roberts from the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

The Boston Biomedical Research Institute is a not-for-profit institution dedicated to the understanding, treatment, and prevention of specific human diseases such as muscular dystrophy, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and Alzheimer's. For more information, visit us on the web at www .bbri. org

Here's a thread of Rick's from 2008:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/sh...ight=green+tea

If you don't like it, maybe you're brewing it too hot. The water should be about 185 degrees F. when it hits the tea. Then remove the bag in 5 minutes and DON'T SQUEEZE IT. Just let it drip a couple of seconds, then throw it out. Now, that's better.

The tea shop in SFO is a great one, and there are a few others in Chinatown that are good, too (I hear). There are green tea bags in supermarkets now. I mistrust the huge, cheap packages because they seldom taste very good to me. Try small amounts before investing.

Enjoy.
Jaye