I am writing to ask advise about mucuna pruriens; where to find a good source and how much to try using when I start.
I was dx in 2009 and I am taking only Sinamet 25/100 every 2 hours and one 50/200 slow release for the night. My major symptom is dystonia, mainly in the muscle of the legs.
Thank you so much
Mcuipe,
Mucina puriens or cowhage which is another name for the herb does not cross the blood brain barrier so it's like throwing money out the window. Better to join a gym or buy a stationary bike etc.
Hey, Seattlestir, just not so! Every time I take my Mucuna powder (40% Levodopa) as part of my Amino Acid protocol, I get 2 hours of good "on" time. And it has been going on like this for 2 years, which shows it isn't any placebo effect--that would be more ephemeral.
More power to you! I'm here to support and encourage. Anyone can easily research my statement about the blood brain barrier. The very existence of carbidopa levodopa as a breakthrough therapy rests on the discovery of how carbidopa allows L dopa to cross the blood brain barrier. My statement stands as my opinion.
There is no actual contradiction between your statement and mine. Carbidopa increases 4 fold the amount of levodopa that crosses the blood brain barrier: "Carbidopa reduces the amount of levodopa required to produce a given response by about 75 percent and, when administered with levodopa, increases both plasma levels and the plasma half-life of levodopa, . . . The plasma half-life of levodopa is about 50 minutes, without carbidopa. When carbidopa and levodopa are administered together, the half-lifeoflevodopa is increased to about I .5 hours."
fda.gov/ohrms/dockets/daily...
Taking larger amounts of levodopa (e.g., via Mucuna) can compensate for the lack of carbidopa. These larger amounts normally lead to nausea and/or vomitting, but the Hinz Amino Acid protocol avoids that because it maintains a balance between dopamine and serotonin.
Another option to enhance the effectiveness of Mucuna is (courtesy of Silvestrov!) to use EGCG (green tea extract) along with vitamin C and Omega 3 as a substitute for carbdopa. (Scroll down to 2nd post by dumpelkin to find links to Silvestrov's carbidopa-replacing protocol:
I think you may be wrong about that.
It is well known that dopamine is a neurotransmitter. The dopamine content in brain tissue is reduced when the conversion of tyrosine to L-dopa is blocked. L-Dopa, the precursor of dopamine, can cross the blood-brain barrier and undergo conversion to dopamine, restoring neurotransmission (Kulhalli, 1999).
I want to express my guiding principles of inquiry in sifting out any medical therapies and claims. This list can be found on a google search in many forms. My list is off the top of my head. I did study statistics and research methods at the University of Washington, Seattle.
Hallmarks of research using the scientific method:
1 peer review
2 replication
3 control (group)
4 random assignment
5 double blind
6 multi center
I view claims of help from alternative therapies with an open mind. But....I believe if an alternative treatment works (like eating limes to treat scurvy) it will become evident even if not fully understood at the time.
Big pharma, western medicine, FDA, AMA, NIH and other "boogey men" are in my opinion our best hope for advances in treatments and disease modification, and hopefully a cure.
Using Mucina pruriens as an example. I posit that if this was an effective therapy it would be mainstream. I trust my team of doctors to advise me. They have dedicated their lives for my benefit.
I'll leave it there. That is my opinion.
I respect your position. My son is a PhD biologist and says exactly the same thing.
There seem to be two schools of thought on this; those who put a lot of faith in hard science, (read; FDA approved) and those who are weary of drug side effects. I'm somewhere in the middle and have no interest converting people. I have a question for you, though, which I don't ask to bolster a position, but because I want to know what you think. How should we account for all the pwp, which is a lot, who say MP works well for them? Surely, they are in close touch with their symptoms.
I am aligning w u more now that I have nearly exhausted the treatment menu and supplements " du jour ". Save CBD; now there's a rainbow worth chasing - esp non THC /"legal Canabidiol"
As long as big money, lobbyists, and politics are involved in Big pharma, one has to be skeptical of western medicine... Just look at to the direct television ads focused on the public re PD, night after night.
As a hold out: 1. They are unaware of long term effects to other body systems, perhaps and 2. potentially uses up any available dopamine as it connects to MP somehow (a short term relief)? My MDS mentioned something like this in passing when I wasn't ready and have probably garbled the theory completely.
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