How to deal with food blocking sinemet?

[Blackfeather]

I know about food containing protein blocking the absorption of sinemet, but I seem to have a high degree of need for protein in my diet. How should I best manage this problem? Protein does interfere with my sinemet, but I have tried just eating vegetables and fruit during the day but it doesn't hold me and I get weak from not having protein. Catch 22, I know!

[Serenity_finaly-1]

I suffer from spikes, dystonic pain, from non controlled sinemet so I freely eat protein. I am finding out I am a bit of an odd duck.

youtu.be/EtZ0NGlJ4zk(Not working as expected?)

[laglag]

Take your Sinemet 30 minutes before a meal or 1 hour after and try not to stuff yourself with protein & I believe that will help. Here is a good article I just found:

nutritionucanlivewith.com/2...

[Jeansm in reply to laglag]

Thank you for this very useful link.

[Cbgs in reply to laglag]

In addition to spacing ur rx before or after meals, Drinking OJ with ur sinemet will help it metabolize quicker

[GymBag]

I can not take any medication on an empty stomach and like you I need energy. An old pharmacist told me to take the meds. with a large glass of milk . He said that milk protein does not interfere as much. My Neurologist suggested I take my meds. with a soft drink like a coke or with a hot coffee if I want to get a quick up take and he said that the caffeine was beneficial . I often add a nice maple or chocolate covered do-nut as well to keep it healthy.

So now only under strict doctors orders you understand, I now take naps, and consume lots of coffee and coke and donuts.

[Hidden in reply to GymBag]

lol.

[johntPM]

If you're able to, you could exercise immediately after taking the dose. I find this reduces the time it takes for the dose to take effect.

You could dissolve your Sinemet in a vitamin C solution. This reduces the time that the dose needs to take effect and allows you to bring forward the eating of protein by about 10 minutes.

John

[RobertoOcana]

Plan ahead your intake C/L 1 hr before meal; program the alarm of your CEL phone to remind you, a couple of minutes before of after no big deal

[FMundo]

I believe that protein competition with Sinemet is simply a timing problem. MD's speak of the need to separate the timing of dosing from that of when you ingest food (protein). Its like a train leaving the station. The train can only support so much at one time. So you should plan to take your medication at least one hour before eating... or two hours after eating. You don't need to forgo eating protein.

My suggestion is get a Pebble watch or schedule your Iphone or Smart Phone alarms (to alert you to take a pill) at times that don't overlap these boundaries. I take Sinemet at 6 a.m. 2 pm and 10 pm at night and eat plenty of protein at meals at 7, noon and 7pm.

[ramondo4 in reply to FMundo]

Do you take other medication apart from Sinemet, the eight

hour gap seems longer than I have been advised, what dose do you take FMundo.

[FMundo in reply to ramondo4]

I take Carbodopa-Levodopa which is essentially the same thing. The dosage is 25-100mg 3x per 24hrs. Been on that dose for three years. It's beginning to "wear off" at around seven hours.

Gradually this medication will become less effective leading to other medication options. While initially I chose to believe that taking the drugs led to faster decline of their effectiveness and encouraged dyskenisia (contrary to my MD's opinion). However I think now MD was correct in saying it was "the advance of underlying disease, not the medication that produces the bad stuff.

Basically I subscribe to the idea that you "take medication" based on its results in how you feel (in close consultation with your MD) I also use an electronic alarm so that I take medication on time, the same time, everyday. My poor nervous system gets enough curve balls with PD, it doesn't need to adjust further with medication on varying schedules.

[S70AWD in reply to FMundo]

Whose life is that stable, that you can count on eating every day at 7 am, noon, and 7 pm??!! My breakfast comes anytime between 6 am and 9:30 am, lunch between 11:30 AM and 2:00 pm, and dinner between 5:50 and 8:00 pm. I usually don't have much control of when it happens, it just sort of gets fit sometime.

[FMundo in reply to S70AWD]

One thought I have .... is to take medication one hour before eating. That assumes you can reliably know when you will be having the next meal. I suspect that as your PD symptoms get more advanced, you'll find your way to organize your life around PD. Like it or not, that's reality.

[S70AWD in reply to FMundo]

It may become a choice of organzing my life around PD or organizing my life around my boss! Thanks for the suggestion, it may help around dinner for now.

[Hidden]

Black feather, i have found that eating high protein meals in the evening is helpful.

[BUZZ1397]

Awhile back I accidentally discovered that when I was doing well (dopamine level was good) but then I messed myself up by eating some protein, if I took some of the kids chewable vitamin C and some green tea extract that put me back to nearly okay again. It really helped considerably and I have continued that occasional practice as needed.

[wifeofparky]

Take your Sinemet 1 hour before or two hours after a meal for best absorption

[JohnPepper]

There are two golden rules - 1. don't eat anything containing protein within a minimum of one hour after taking levodopa medication - 2. Don't take levodopa withing two hours of eating a good meal containing protein.

This means that if you take levodopa every four hours you can plan to eat at a time that keeps you clear of these two rules. If you can't plan accordingly, then talk to your doctor. If he doesn' t agree then change your doctor.

If you are abiding by these rules you will probably need to take less levodopa medication.

[Niludi]

Hi@blackfeather,it's strange maybe it's the sinnemett that is making you crave for protein because since taking sinnemett I started to eat a lot of salt which I never used to.even to the extent that everyone notices.i wonder if anybody else has this.

[JAS9]

When you say that you tried eating just veggies and fruit did you try to eat veggies that had high levels of protein?

youtu.be/dVJe_CrvLvY(Not working as expected?)