Supplement-wise, 5g of Mucuna Prurien powder has been used with efficacy in some human studies on Parkinson's Disease and Fertility. This dose or doses upwards of it should be a good starting point.
If your supplement is standardized for L-DOPA and you are supplementing for an effect attributed to L-DOPA, then start with about 1/2 the L-DOPA equivalent and work up if needed (this is due to the same amount of L-DOPA in Mucuna being more bioactive relative to isolated L-DOPA without carbidopa).
"Supplement-wise, 5g of Mucuna Prurien powder has been used with efficacy in some human studies on Parkinson's Disease"
That statement is made in the context of 3 trials, which refer to its use as a monotherapy
ie using it instead of Sinemet (or generic C/L) NOT in addition to
It also references whole MP powder - not MP extracts (often with higher ldopa content)
If you are adding mucuna (or any other ldopa) to a drug regime which includes carbidopa - then you need to be aware there may be an effect from that background carbidopa you are using
If you add 5g of a good quality whole mucuna powder you are probably adding 350mg of pure ldopa , which, with background carbidopa could be equivalent to 1500mg or so
"Standard antiparkinsonian drugs, OTHER THAN levodopa alone, may be continued while 'Sinemet' is being administered, although their dosage may have to be adjusted."
" Patients receiving levodopa
Discontinue levodopa at least 12 hours (24 hours for slow-release preparations) before starting therapy with 'Sinemet'. The easiest way to do this is to give 'Sinemet' as the first morning dose after a night without any levodopa. The dose of 'Sinemet' should be approximately 20% of the previous daily dosage of levodopa.
Patients taking less than 1,500 mg levodopa a day should be started on one tablet of 'Sinemet Plus 25 mg/100 mg' three or four times a day dependent on patient need. The suggested starting dose for most patients taking more than 1,500 mg levodopa a day is one tablet of 'Sinemet 25 mg/250 mg' three or four times a day."
I've been taking Mucuna for several years and I've totally stopped my left hand tremors.
It is the Ayurvedic properties of Mucuna that give this result, not the L-dopa of Mucuna.
Concentrates products such as Solaray provide L-dopa but little or no Ayurveda properties after rinsing with hetanol.
You do not need more L-dopa while you are taking Sinemet.
For Ayurveda, take natural (or almost natural) Mucuna such as Zandopa, Banyan Botanicals, Bulk Supplements, Detoxingtrading, indigo-herbs
Their L-dopa content is very low (5 or 6%).
Continue to take your Simenet but at the same time take natural Mucuna powder dissolved in a little water, e.g. to start, one dose of Zandopa (7.5 grams) per day. Slowly increase the Ayurveda dose each day and lower your Sinemet slightly (less than the amount provided by Zandopa).
The maximum limit of Zandopa (2 or 3 doses per day?) will be reached when your stomach starts to protest!
Sinemet is just a brand name for a C/L product. The issue will be the same for other C/L products
Consult your neurologist or other medical professional. If you add levadopa to existing C/L treatments exercise caution.
The reference to "equivalent to 1500mg or so" is extreme, but even just adding 350mg twice a day is a lot of extra ldopa, and the chances are that C/L 25/100 TDS would leave enough carbidopa to significantly increase the effective ldopa dose in the brain
when i did the AAT i had to stop L/C overnight and start with mucuna powder 40% of L-dopa. It took approx two weeks to clean up the body from residual Carbidopa accumulated somewhere in the body and/or brain.
To have the same coverage, in terms of hours, given by 6 x 100+25 Sinemet (approx 10 to 12 hours) I had to take 32 to 36 gr / day of mucuna powder with 40% of l-dopa that means 12 to 14 gr of l-dopa / day. In addition i was taking 600 mg /day of B6 pyridoxine HCL.
If we divide 12 gr / 600 mg we get 12/0,6 = 24 times (after the two weeks clean up period)
This ratio (24) was the "real" ratio between L/C meds and mucuna powder (but probably it was increased by the high dose of B6 at 600 mg / day).
Official ratio L/C 100+25 vs pure l-dopa is 4 to 5 (i.e. to have an On time equivalent to 100+25 mg of L/C s.one has to take 400 or 500 mg of pure l-dopa.)
When i replaced their official mucuna powder with another type with 15% of l-dopa, the amount of powder had to be increased consequently from 12 to 14 gr to 85 to 96 gr /day (i.e 32/0,15*0,4 = 85,3) to have the same coverage.
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