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Thanks, Dee. Laureen can move her shoulders just fine when *not* on meds. The meds (Sinemet) seem to stiffen her up rather than help with mobility. It wasn't always that way, but she has been on Sinemet for at least eight years now. Interestingly, it's not just Sinemet. When she takes highly-concentrated vegetable extracts, she gets the same reaction as with Sinemet, symptom-wise. What she doesn't want to do is take one more drug of any kind. What amazes me with PD are the doctors' reactions to it. One neurologist wrote Laureen about half a dozen prescriptions on visit. It was like, "Want to try this? Here, I'll write you a prescription. How about this one? Here's a prescription. And another. And another. And one more. Experiment on yourself and see me in a year or so." A few years back we made contact with a shaman in Ecuador who told us he would have Laureen "dancing like a ballerina" (I know, amazing that he knew what a ballerina was). I told a big-name PD neurologist about it, and he encouraged us to try the treatment--and if the herbs worked, to bring him some so that he could have them analyzed for the active ingredient. While I was impressed at his apparent open-mindedness, it was another example of how much is *not* known about treating PD. Anyway, we never did go to Ecuador. Too much shamanic competition going on.... Scott >===== Original Message From "Parkinson's Information Exchange Network" <[log in to unmask]> ===== >Good morning Scott, >...In answer to your question about shoulder shrugging, I don't have that >problem myself.... >...It does seem strange that your wife would have difficulty shrugging her >shoulders when her Sinemet is working. That is when we should be at our most >flexible and pain free. I do recall having read articles about Levadopa related >dystonia. In those cases, I believe the recommendation was to reduce the >Sinemet dosage to see if it relieves the dystonia without aggravating the >Parkinson's symptoms. If that doesn't work, it is suggested that adding >Amantadine might help. Check with your doctor if you suspect that there is a >connection here and do some research on the subject before doing any alteration to >the drug dosage. > >Happy Halloween! > >Dee > >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] >In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn Scott E. Antes Department of Anthropology Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5200 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn