WHen humans do something that helps them survive, the brain emits dopamine to reward us and thus encourage us to do it again. It feels good. CHeck out this phenomenon sometime by eating several bites of blueberries and wait a couple of minutes for them to begin to get into our bloodstream, maybe two minutes later. Try it on an empty stomach so as to not have a dopamine suppressing food negate the feelinig. You will glow. DOes the same thing happen when you take L DOPA. I suspect not. THe reason would be it seems that with pill forms of our biological molecules, they dont exactly match. I know the molecular forumula is the same but maybe the natural form is crystalline configuration and L Dopa is amorphous. Whenever they do a test with things such as beta carotene or vitamin C pills for heart disease or cancer, they make it worse than if you took nothing, as opposed to getting the supposed same thing in food. So if L Dopa does not make you feel as good as blueberries, or a sniff of cocaine for any who have experienced that, then Im wondering if more can be gained from a diet that raises dopamine than taking it in a pill form. I have posted such a diet and it should be showing shortly, posted originally a couple of years ago.

I don't have PD so L-Dopa is not on my list of medications.

L-Dopa is converted, in a one-step enzyme-catalysed reaction, into dopamine.

The fact that L-Dopa as a medication is taken in solid (possibly crystalline) form does not matter. Once it goes into solution in body fluids the enzyme which converts it into dopamine does not "know" that it was ingested in a solid crystalline/amorphous form.

So how does it make you feel when you take a pill?

STeve Lord

Steve, sorry but I don't understand your question.

it will answer all your questions

Beans, roots and leaves
A History of the Chemical Therapy
of Parkinsonism
by
Paul Bernard Foley
B.Sc. (Hons) (Macquarie), M.A. (Würzburg)
Doctoral dissertation submitted to the Bavarian Julius Maximilian University,
Würzburg (2001)

http://d-nb.info/96446392X/34

Soccertease I couldnt find anything about high dopaminediet in this tome, did you, if so what page. Thanks

Steve

Ok , question answered, I asked my brother who had Parkinsons of he feels that tell tale rush of dopamine we all know and love, he said in time it improves his performance but at no time does it create the dopamine pleasure. Thanks,

STeve Lord

Steve, dopamine can not cross the blood-brain barrier.

To quote:

"Namely, L-DOPA, but not dopamine, is transported across the BBB in humans via the L1 facilitative transporter (Hawkins et al., 2006). [My emphasis]"

Source; http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...96627308000342 .

That means that eating dopamine-rich foods (I am not sure what you mean by this) is completely pointless as far as increasing the levels of dopamine in the brains of people with PD or any other people for that matter is concerned.

On the other hand, L-DOPA can be transported across the BBB and is then converted into dopamine in the brain - I tried to explain this to you above.

That is why L-DOPA is indicated for people who live with PD.

I hope that this clears things up for you - it is all basic biomedical science.

kiwi, it's crystal clear to me and to most everyone else. i appreciate your efforts and sharing your knowledge. i wouldn't worry about trying to convince this poster of anything. just my opinion.

It is true that the conventional wisdom is that dopamine itself has no therapeutic benefit for PwP because, as others have said, it cannot cross the BBB.

You can leave it there or you can see for yourself.

I have tried to measure the impact of dopamine on a PwP (me), see the thread from three years ago, "Fermented Banana": http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread164365.html

I don't have a source of pure dopamine, so I used banana because its skin contains high levels of dopamine. I used fermentation because Aunt Bean had reported good results with fermentation.

My conclusion was:

"On the basis of limited data (3 tests of the fermented mix, plus control tests), a large helping, made from 500 ml yogurt and two medium bananas, has for me a symptomatic effect similar to that given by approximately 25 mg levodopa."

So, it wasn't a practical therapy for me. But, my results do not close down the possibility that dopamine does have an effect. Perhaps, as others have suggested, the BBB in PwP is compromised; perhaps dopamine can work via the ENS. Alternatively, perhaps my measurements were incorrect (they were based on the side to side tap test) or subject to a placebo effect or, perhaps, the effect was real but caused by something else in the banana skin.

John