Pat,

>The reason I've been taking sinemet CR is that I had to take the10/100's
>so often it was definitely affecting the quality of my life.  I had too
>many peaks and valleys; I like the more even response I get from the CR's.
>
>I'm not sure what the reason is that I have to take medication so often,
>but I'll  certainly discuss your theory of excess carbidopa with my
>doctor.  I only know that even every two hours sometimes causes problems
>- one hour and 55 minutes seems to work better.  If I miss by just a
>minute or two I could be off for hours.

are you tense, stressed, anxious about the timing?

>My experience during the night is the opposite of yours.  If I'm
>undermedicated, I wake up abruptly, often experiencing an anxiety attack
>and foot cramps.

This is not accurate.  If I am undermedicated, I get cramps.

If I am excited (positive or negative feeling of nearly sort of emotion),
it is difficult to sleep.  Getting to sleep requires getting relaxed.
Resting  and resolving the mental emotion via trying to determine the
trigger of the emotion - and then rationalizing - working through whether I
can do anything to solve the anxiety or concern - and relaxing the muscles
that are also tensest - often works, but not always.  When I cannot get to
sleep, I take more med and do some reading or other activity until drowsy.
This works best if I put a little carbohydrate in with the med to get some
digestive juice; then, after 10 or 15 minutes, eat a prune or piece of
fruit, or a bran muffin - something to to move the stomach conttnts on
down. Follow this or precede and follow - with some more water to get the
dissolved med washed through.

It is only when I  take more medication that I
>get any relief.  The problem is that the meds don't kick in for a long
>time when I'm just lying in bed; it requires physical activity.

I consider this universal - typical for all. (exclude Alan's pump and the
use of dissolved levodopa.)

>I discussed Alan Bonander's theory of carbidopa toxicity with the head
>researcher at WashU and she said they'd never noticed that high levels of
>carbidopa caused any  problems, and they had many patients taking it.

"my theory" is more semantically "my conjecture".  The purpose of
mentioning the unexplored-to-my-knowledge concerns about the probable
negative effect of more carbidopa than needed is to get some researcher to
do some preliminary blood tests to measure plasma levels of it in high
dosage experiments.  The maximum plasma levels of levodopa and carbidopa
have not been published as far as I have found.  Nor any data on animal
brain carbidopa level when blood level high. (This pertains to conjecture
that some crosses the membranes if concentration very high - causing
suppression of levodopa-to-dopamine metabolism IN THE BRAIN.)
Second conjecture is that detrimental effect builds to significant problem
of shortage of peripheral locations needing dopamine - i.e.,
gastrointestinal, colonic, other smooth-muscle, homeostasis neurons, etc.
because the carbidopa retards conversion.  (the neural feedback lack may be
why muscles are tonic so long that they cramp; then, go into spasm when our
anxiety about the cramp getting worse "focuses" the cognitive brain on the
cramp (and it attempts to send a "relax" message, but, the "feedback"
system is dysfunctioning (disconnected effectively by lack of message
transmitters?).

I would like to take less sinemet, and look forward to approval of
>tolcapone and the transdermal patch, which should help.  I would also
>like to try liquid deprenyl along with the holistic regimen that has
>helped some people.  If anyone has any info about that and where I can
>get sun chorella I would appreciate your responding.

There has been little messaging about the "liquid deprenyl" recently. My
Eldepryl refill just received is a capsule!  Some info said the change was
to thwart black market tablets.  I would like to know what is known about
the several things.  selegiline hydrochloride is one form, liquid deprenyl
citrate must be selegiline citrate (which is a different chemical -
although it may be biologically equivalent - it may be digestibly
different).  I wonder if those taking the FDA-unapproved liquid deprenyl
citrate are continuing to get great results.  Is there more data on that?
Is it manufactured by a foreign drug company with reputable products?  Any
pharmacists willing to supply data or opinions?

Hope you are not offended by my choosing to send all this to the list, Pat.

There seem to be anxiety - tension - stress - induced motor muscles
dystonia and dyskinesia for most of us.  Learning to avoid these is one of
the best "knows" we can learn.  If I can avoid getting emotional such that
it interferes with my getting enough rest, I do well.  It is not easy to
stay calm when so many have fears causing depression/anxiety/hallucinations
and the cycle of losing cognitive control of their fate.  The economic
hardship of so many fellow humans while the powerful few have so little
empathy but insatiable greed.

Winning the game of life is enjoying your self as you make the trip with
friends.

ron      1936, dz PD 1984  Ridgecrest, California
Ronald F. Vetter <[log in to unmask]>
http://www.ridgecrest.ca.us/~rfvetter/