When is a side effect not a side effect?

[johntPM]

The NHS give the definition of "side effects" as "Side effects are unwanted symptoms caused by medical treatment."

See: nhs.uk/common-health-questi...

So far, so reasonable. But, what does the definition mean in practice?

I was searching for an answer to a particular question:

"Should I time my attempt to defecate for when I'm "on", about a hour after taking Sinemet?"

My reasoning being that it seems correct to suppose that you have more chance of success when you're at your best. And that, for me, brings in Sinemet (well, actually, in my case, Stalevo).

One of the listed side effects of Sinemet is constipation.

See, for instance: rxlist.com/sinemet-side-eff...

Does this mean that if you take Sinemet you are more likely to experience constipation caused by:

- the Sinemet?

- the underlying disease, PD?

Notice, that in both cases you are likely to assume that the answer applies in all cases, at all times. Perhaps the true answer is more nuanced than that.

[park_bear]

High-dose thiamine restored my normal peristalsis and high-dose vitamin C restored normal moisture content.

[LAJ12345]

Yes that is the problem with questionnaires. They never have the answer you want to give as an option.

When you look at the data sheets for medications often the side effects are all the same things as they are supposed to be fixing. It does make me wonder how much of the symptoms of PD is caused by the side effects of various meds.

[alaynedellow]

As Parkbear says some side effects are good. HDT helps restore normal bowel action.

[johntPM]

Thank you for your replies.

Wikipedia has this definition of a "side effect":

"In medicine, a side effect is an effect, whether therapeutic or adverse, that is secondary to the one intended; although the term is predominantly employed to describe adverse effects, it can also apply to beneficial, but unintended, consequences of the use of a drug. "

Note, that this differs from the "NHS" definition in that it includes unintended beneficial consequences.

[GymBag]

I dont think it necessary to know what percentage of your constipation is due to the PD or any of your PD meds. You have PD . It affects the communication between the brain and the internal involuntary muscles as well as the external voluntary muscles and that is a lot more than bowls. If you are doing well with a PD medication you are not going to vary the amount you take to solve constipation.

All-Bran cereal, Bran Buds cereal, apples, prunes, every day will help do that. The information / feed back loop between the brain and internal muscles gets worse and presents other problems. Think about how many internal involuntary muscle systems we have and the consequence of information transfer failure or garbled communication.