Amino acid management of Parkinson's disease: a case study.
Hinz M, Stein A, Uncini T.
Source

Clinical Research, NeuroResearch Clinics, Inc., Cape Coral, FL, USA;
Abstract

An extensive list of side effects and problems are associated with the administration of l-dopa (l-3, 4-dihydroxyphenylalanine) during treatment of Parkinson's disease. These problems can preclude achieving an optimal response with l-dopa treatment.
PURPOSE:

To present a case study outlining a novel approach for the treatment of Parkinson's disease that allows for management of problems associated with l-dopa administration and discusses the scientific basis for this treatment.
PATIENTS AND METHODS:

The case study was selected from a database containing 254 Parkinson's patients treated in developing and refining this novel approach to its current state. The spectrum of patients comprising this database range from newly diagnosed, with no previous treatment, to those who were diagnosed more than 20 years before and had virtually exhausted all medical treatment options. Parkinson's disease is associated with depletion of tyrosine hydroxylase, dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. Exacerbating this is the fact that administration of l-dopa may deplete l-tyrosine, l-tryptophan, 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP), serotonin, and sulfur amino acids. The properly balanced administration of l-dopa in conjunction with 5-HTP, l-tyrosine, l-cysteine, and cofactors under the guidance of organic cation transporter functional status determination (herein referred to as "OCT assay interpretation") of urinary serotonin and dopamine, is at the heart of this novel treatment protocol.
RESULTS:

When 5-HTP and l-dopa are administered in proper balance along with l-tyrosine, l-cysteine, and cofactors under the guidance of OCT assay interpretation, the long list of problems that can interfere with optimum administration of l-dopa becomes controllable and manageable or does not occur at all. Patient treatment then becomes more effective by allowing the implementation of the optimal dosing levels of l-dopa needed for the relief of symptoms without the dosing value barriers imposed by side effects and adverse reactions seen in the past.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...1/?tool=pubmed

http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsro.../ucm271703.htm

I once took 5HTP as recommended by a book that my naturopath recommended, half an hour later I was throwing up. So I'm sure this is very complicated to get everything in the right balance - kind of discouraging actually as I have no idea where to find a medical practitioner who could or would monitor this for me.

My MDS is on sick leave, and another one in his practise has been trying to help me sort out my nighttime aching and sleep disturbance - my latest move is supposed to be taking one and then two 100/25 Sinemet CR at bedtime, that's a pretty big increase over the five regular ones I take spread out through the day now. I really wish I could find something that would slow this down a little, don't we all.

Has anyone switched from regular Mirapex to extended release Mirapex? Did it help smooth things out?

Wendy,

we have a love/hate relationship with mirapex, let me get that out right away. we hate its side effects, and have twice tried to wean off of it to no avail. but our neuro asked us to try the ER when it came out, so we did.

what we noticed is that you cannot control the side effects like you can if you take smaller doses. for us, the worst side effect is sleepiness, followed by brain fog, so we take .375mg every two hours (I know, it's a pain, but the side effects are much less this way). when we took the ER, we noticed the side effects for us were a bit overwhelming and we could not reduce them by playing with splitting the pills because you can't do that with ER. so we gave up on the ER and went back to our regular weird way of taking mirapex.

everyone is different, though. if it works for you, great! this is just our experience.

That case study would support what i know from personal experience, that Dopavite is beneficial for PWPs.

I had read this study a while back when i first got involved in my mom's treatment. It made a lot of sense to me, so she started taking various l-dopa precursors like tyrosine, phenylalanine, etc. ... She did not gain any benefits from this approach, in fact she stopped because there was some question as to whether the supplements were making her feel ill.

A few months after this trial and error effort, my mom ran an organic acids profile test that measures functional levels of vitamins, minerals, and amino acids using metabolites excreted in the urine as markers for these nutrients. It turns out that she had adequate levels of tyrosine and phenylalanine, which would explain why she did not benefit from them. After a number of failed trial and error approaches to supplementing, i've learned that this kind of nutritional functional testing is invaluable ... it reduces the pill and pray ... It also has provided important insight to what is going right and wrong in terms of my mom's metabolic function specifically in the areas of mitichondrial function, methylation, oxidative damage levels, and gut function.

Nick,

Here is my understanding of the Amino acids contribution to the PD story:

I use a product called Dopavite which was designed specifically with the nutritional needs of PWPs in mind, providing the precursors necessary for natural dopamine production. Along with l-tyrosine it contains vit b6, folic acid, niacin, manganese, iron and zinc. Apparently you could be getting enough l-tyrosine, for eg., but if there is a prolonged deficiency of any of the additional building blocks/co-factors, dopamine production is compromised. Also, if you are taking the drug l-dopa, you need to separate its intake from dietary protein/amino acids regimes as there is competition for uptake. When complex interactions occur people always seem to blame the food or amino acids. If instead, you pitch the drugs, you have to wait a considerable length of time for the benefits of good diet/supplements to emerge.