I know we have talked about this before, is there anything that you can add to your diet to help the meds work better. I've been having less on time than usual, harder time reaching "on" state. Done my cleansing routine, we'll see how that works. I did have some success with pink grapefruit juice but cant tolerate the taste. Thanks and have a good day everyone.

if you want to take the risk, there are grapefruit tablets
http://www.iherb.com/Search?kw=grapefruit&x=0&y=0#none

I'm having the same issue. One part of me tends to be suspicious of the meds. It seems like they vary from one refill to the next but, maybe its me that is changing. One bad habit I've gotten into is scarfing the Carb/Lev down without drinking something. I have to take them every two hours and sometimes I just don't have a drink nearby. My neuro reminded me that the gut is a very changing environment. So, I have been making a specific effort to drink at least 4 oz of water with each dose and it does seem to help a little. We also bought a really nice juicer. You can hide the grapefruit in with other fruits and veggies and you won't taste it.

Madamlash, its not just in your head. I went to a PD support group earlier this month and the speaker confirmed your suspicions...there can be as much as a 20% difference from one generic to the next. So now I have to try and remember when I seemed to be having the best results and see if I can get the pharmacist to only give me that med. I wish I knew that before. I noticed that the pills changed size, shape and colors but didn't realize it was not giving me the same results.

I'm glad to learn its not just me. I even tried switching from generic and found the generic was actually better. Isn't it interesting that something as important as medications can vary by 20%? If the rest of us varied in our job performance by 20% we'd be fired!!!! It would seem that we should have accurate enough measuring devices in our labs to not have this margin of error. I can do better than that in my kitchen with an old measuring cup.

i imagine you can get some variability from batch to batch since drug companies buy their raw materials from different sources and sometimes subcontract with other manufacturers.

here's a very interesting thread if what the poster says is true

http://www.researchgate.net/post/Bad..._generic_drugs

I agree with Dr. Brendel but moreover there are additional issues involving creep in many ways, lets take the worst cases using the simpliest example, an immediate release drug. It is far more complex to consider extended release or similar drugs but you can see how it applies in these examples....
CREEP 1 -- Generic drugs are approved with approximately 12-24 people take the generic drug and actual branded drug and usually switch during the middle of the study. The blood levels of drugs are taken and compared to each other using a confidence interval of 90% and the actual amounts need to be within 80% to 125% (notice 80%!). Sometimes the branded drug goes away because of generic competition then the first or Agency's choice generic becomes the "New branded" medication. Now the second generation generic drug gets approved using that first generation generic (assume the branded drug is off market). So doing the math, that drug could be... 0.8 x 0.8 = 0.64 --> 64% of what the original medication is and still be acceptable!!!
CREEP 2 -- Now I have yet to include manufacturing creep, most drugs are regulated to have active ingredients assay 90% to 110% in each batch, some are tighter (e.g., 95-105) but lets not assume that. So if you include that creep 0.64 x 0.9(branded drug) x 0.9(first generic) x 0.9(second generic) = 0.46% - roughly HALF of the first branded drug. If you add a bit of manufacturing changes during the 10-20 years... who knows how far you can deviate.

Now am I saying that generic drugs are half the potency of the branded drug - no. I am saying that they can be quite far off in blood levels and still be approved. Now does your drug need a minimum blood concentration threshold to work or just sustained amount....
Oct 3, 2012

I have been testing the combo of a ginger extract along with the C/L and getting positive results. Am titrating back from dyskinesias now and I think it is going to be worthwhile. In addition to pharmacological effect there is a real improvement in my stomach action. I will post a report in a week or two when better info is available.

-Rick

just food for thought

1. the package insert on sinemet cr recommends take with food, takes longer to kick in but lasts longer.
2. if you are taking supplements, try stopping for a week and see if that helps. something may be interfering. i know tea extract reduces the affect of sinemet for me.