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Robert, Thank you. Your request for supporting info gives me an opportunity to clarify my rather simplistic statement, which has been consistently "validated" by my 3 excellent neurologists, one of whom has advanced training from a prestigious PD research facility here in the U.S., specifically in chemical (medication) "management" of PD. However, since you asked for "supporting info", I'll be glad to provide it (although it is all over the many many websites, in one way or another...) The best reference I have regarding meds is presented in a monograph published in June 1998 as a supplement of the journal Neurology. The complete citation for the monograph is: Koller, W.C. and E. Tolosa, Eds. 1998. Current and Emerging Drug Therapies in the Management of Parkinson's Disease. Supplement 6 to Neurology Vol. 50, 48 pp. I will leave it for you to read, and discover for yourself, what lies behind my simple, yet profoundly important statement. Allow me to give you some incentive for getting a copy of the cited supplement, and reading it cover-to-cover yourself, by quoting two sentences in the Introduction to the supplement, written by editors Koller and Tolosa: "Patients maintained on relatively low doses of levodopa experienced little progression of symptoms and a much lower incidence of motor complications than expected." "When the nigrostriatal tract is already damaged, levodopa treatment might produce further cell destruction..." My understanding is that Parkinson's specialists prefer to treat with meds other than levodopa for as long as possible. The dopamine agonists, e.g. ropinerole and comtan, are used for this purpose. They are the ones I am familiar with. But how agonists function is yet another question... or rather, answer... Read the monograph. Marla Marla L. Gillham PO Box 343 Yachats, OR 97498-0343 541.547.4090 [log in to unmask] ----- Original Message ----- From: Robert Berger <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, June 11, 2001 7:48 PM Subject: PD progression > In 10 June message Marla Gilham stated "the less levadopa you take, the > better". Does anyone have any supporting information? Two times my neuro > has prescribed an increase in Sinemet when I considered my condition stable. > I took (and am taking) the first increase but refused to take the second. > He is still my neuro but only because I see no purpose in switching. From > what I learn in my support group, every neuro seems to have his own game > plan. The suggestion for a symptom journal is a good one. At least you > have something valid to talk about. > _________________________________________________________________ > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn