Effect of Carbidopa/Levodopa on organs of the body

[cjsg]

My husband takes 8-10 carbidopa/levodopa pills (25/250mg) He takes one every other hour. He can tell when they are wearing off (he used to take every 11/2 hour) He doesn't have any side effects except a LITTLE diskinisa. He take a 8 mg requip before he goes to bed so he can get out of bed at night. He had tried other medications to supplement and they have all made him have very disturbing dreams so we had stayed with what works for him. My question is does anyone know the effects of carbidopa/levodopa on the organs in the body? What does this do to his heart, liver etc.?

Oh, by the way his doctor has suggested he get a pump that put med directly into his intestines. The doctor has only done this operation on one other person, and between that and the cost we are not going to do that.

[hsolte]

I use Stalevo which contains 200 mg Entacapone (which prolongs the effect of levodopa and is supposed to be a very strong antioxidant(PUBMED Entacapone is an Antioxidant More Potent than Vitamin C and Vitamin E for Scavenging of Hypochlorous Acid and Peroxynitrite, and the Inhibition of Oxidative Stress-Induced Cell Death.)

[cjsg in reply to hsolte]

Thank-you for telling me this. I will look into it. My husband's doctor prescribed a medication that was to help the sinemet last longer. He was supposed to take 4 or more of those pills a day, and no lessing of sinemet times was mentioned. It was also expensive.

If if has other properties we will look into it again. Where did you find out ther information you shared?

[CplParkinson]

If he's at 1 pill every two that's not to bad. Being 25/100 I suspect those are the small circle ones that are instant or rapid release. How long has he been diagnosed with the disease? Usually operations aren't considered until at least 5 years I thought. I was considered for pump but considering my situation with small kids 4 under 10, we went with DBS. But I've heard great things from others with the pump. Don't jump into anything without doing your research. Only thing I've really heard about levodopa was your body starts having problems with absorbing it properly or something and Dyskinesia. But nothing about organs. I may look more deeply just in case.

[cjsg in reply to CplParkinson]

Thanks for your input. My husband has had PD since 2008 and of course probably before. If you find any research on effects of sinemet on the organs of the body please tell me where you found it. Last apt with movement disorder doctor he asked if we want to talk to a rep of the pump. For curiosity's sake I said yes have them contact us. They never did. It says on the mfg web sight they will not help financially with people on Medicare!!!