Mucuna without Sinemet?

[Ob6842]

Can anyone tell me how to get more symptom relief from just taking mucuna, (specifically NOW brand) alone, WITHOUT taking any Sinemet? I’ve read about green tea enhancing its effectiveness….any other ideas?

[CaseyInsights]

A Quercertin/Vitamin C combo works well. Like so -

amazon.com/Solaray-Querceti...

[GraceAbounds in reply to CaseyInsights]

Hi Caseyinsights, thank you for your suggestion. Are you saying that the Quercertin/Vitamin C combo works well with taking mucuna alone to get symptom relief? Otherwise, what do you mean by "A Quercertin/Vitamin C combo works well."? Could you elaborate on the benefits you've experienced? Thanks.

[CaseyInsights in reply to GraceAbounds]

My suggestion than Vitamin C/Quercetin works well is based on my experience with the product Dopa Boost. It is a Mucuna/Quercetin/Green Tea combo.

amazon.com/designs-health-D...

At this point my spouse use regular C/L but each dose of C/L is accompanied by a Quercetin, Vitamin C or Green Tea capsule.

As to the benefit, she is six years in and uses 400mg of Levodopa. She also noted a ‘boost’ when I first paired C/L with the Quercetin/Vitamin C combo I linked to higher up the thread.

In short

## Quercetin is a mild MOA-B inhibitor (slows the breakdown of levodopa in the body allowing more to reach the brain.)

## Vitamin C aids in the absorption of levodopa. (More research is needed to elucidate the mechanism, but the experiments note (1) faster on set (2) enhanced absorption and (3) mitigation against degradation

## Green Tea is a COMT inhibitor (slows the breakdown of levodopa in the body allowing more to reach the brain)

Hope this helps 🌴✌🏾🌴

[Gioc in reply to CaseyInsights]

a lot!

Thank you!🙏

Fiori

[chartist in reply to CaseyInsights]

Regarding synergy of C/L + vitamin C /ascorbic acid, people with PD may find the following review of interest :

journals.lww.com/aomd/fullt...

Here are several relevant quotes from the review :

' Here, we wish to discuss the liquid levodopa–carbidopa ascorbic acid solution (LCAS), also known as citridopa, for the management of PD [Tables 1 and 2].[2–4] The alkaline environment of these medications decreases the absorption of levodopa. In this way, acidic compounds such as ascorbic acid can increase the absorption of this drug and prevent its oxidation. In addition, the liquid forms of levodopa may facilitate its absorption due to increased surface area and distribution uniformity. Moreover, patients with advanced PD may experience possible delayed gastric emptying, and in such patients, liquid forms of LCAS are more tolerable than solid forms. '

' Shukla et al. studied 20 patients with severe PD symptoms, who were given LCAS. They observed that LCAS had better results on the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale in all sections when compared to levodopa–carbidopa tablets. Of note, the most remarkable outcome was observed during the first month. Furthermore, it is important to note that improvement in the symptoms were at a plateau throughout the study period. A possible explanation for this loss of efficacy may be attributed to the downregulation of dopamine D2 receptors in the striatum due to sustained exposure to high dopamine levels.[2] '

' In 2017, Yang et al. aimed to determine the long-term retention rate for LCAS therapy and identify the reasons for the discontinuation of LCAS treatment in 38 patients with PD. The most common reasons for the withdrawal of LCAS therapy were persistent dyskinesias, poor drug adherence, and worsening of wearing-off symptoms. In their study, only 36.8% of the patients with PD continued the LCAS treatment after 12 months. In addition, a multivariate logistic model showed that younger age and severe mood-cognitive scores are markedly associated with LCAS treatment failure.[3] '

This seems likely to potentially apply to mucuna pruriens (MP) as well as those using MP + carbidopa.

As with many options in PD, there are upsides and downsides to be considered. One of which is, will the addition of vitamin C/ascorbic acid with its pH reducing effects, require a dose reduction of C/L or MP to compensate for potential increased absorption of levodopa?

Art

[GraceAbounds in reply to CaseyInsights]

It certainly helps! Thank you for your time in clarifying on the use of the Quercetin/Vitamin C combo. If I understand correctly, C/L was once paired with this combo, but now the C/L is paired with individual capsules of Quercetin, Vitamin C or Green Tea. I am interested in pairing the levodopa from mucuna with the combo.

Can you point me to sources where I can learn about the information you shared on Quercetin, Vitamin C and Green Tea?

Are you still using Dopa Boost? If not, why have you stopped?

Thanks.

[CaseyInsights in reply to GraceAbounds]

I once used DopaBoost exclusively. But it is relatively expensive and there is no insurance refund. That is a little problematic for a retiree. But it is still in use, the last bottle finished some three weeks ago. I pair it with Vitamin C.

I still use the Quercetin/Vitamin C combo. Though feel free to use a pure Quercetin product of your choice.

This understanding comes from combing through a tremendous amount of literature in my five years on this platform. So if you want to go down the rabbit hole here is a link to Pub Med. Type in you querry and begin your trip

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Another way to dig up this information is to get hold of Perplexity - an Ai driven search engine. You will need to use it in Pro mode if you want to dig deeply into research papers. In Pro mode however there is a limit to the number of responses when riding freebee.

perplexity.ai

Have fun 🌺✌🏾🌺

[drumhead]

Maybe ask your neurologist to prescribe carbidopa to go with it?

[Gcf51 in reply to drumhead]

Since carbidopa consumes B6, taking it defeats a reason not to take C/L. I take C25/L100 and plan to ask for a lower dose of C as available EU (may also be available in USA).

healthunlocked.com/cure-par...

[Windermere1]

research the b1 therapy. Read daphne Bryan’s book from Amazon and join her fb group Parkinson’s b1 therapy and watch her utube video interviews. It works My success story is on her utube page

[Btraveria1]

Mucuna versus Parkinson: Treatment with natural levodopa AUTHOR: Rafael González Maldonado

This is a good read with what you need to know about taking Macuna.

[pdpatient]

Try Matcha instead of just green tea and the edge is greater

[hercules957]

I was on mucuna for a year and a half and I needed to increase the dosage progressively. It was not very effective in controlling my symptoms and I was getting nauseous more and more. I switched to Sinemet and all my symptoms became under control. I wasted a year and a half of relative comfort.

[goldiewan]

green tea seems to act a bit like carbidopa, in terms of helping the l-dopa get into the brain. I use it regularly. The dosage is quite low for me. About 1 g of Macuna to half a cup of green tea every 2-3 hours. Less in the evening. Works well for me.

[Ob6842 in reply to goldiewan]

Do you take Sinemet with the mucuna, or just the mucuna alone? I also have learned that taking 3 T of lemon juice (or the juice of one lemon) helps levadopa be absorbed also. Anyone have any experience with adding lemon juice to water to help mucuna get across the BBB?

[goldiewan in reply to Ob6842]

I generally don’t take sinemet now, unless I’m out and travelling, for convenience. Interesting about lemon juice. Haven’t tried but can vouch for green tea.