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I recently cited the ELLDOPA study which concluded that question of levodopa toxicity was still unresolved. However, upon closer examination of the study and the terminology used, it turns out the question of toxicity as you and i define it was not even addressed. Instead, the authors redefined “toxic” to mean “hastens disease progression.” i can see how they got there - if you define disease progression solely as the loss of dopamine neurons and you define toxic solely as something that kills dopamine neurons, you have a nice, neat “if A=B and B=C, then A=C” thang going on. But toxic is not defined as “something that kills dopamine neurons,” and toxic things do not, by definition, hasten disease progression - for example, the toxicity of chemo is undisputed, and it, obviously, is used to slow disease progression. Medline Plus medical dictionary defines toxic as a poison (or a toxin, but toxin has a very narrow definition) and a poison as: 1 :a substance that through its chemical action usually kills, injures, or impairs an organism, or 2 : a substance that inhibits the activity of another substance or the course of a reaction or process anything that causes the kinds of side effects levodopa does can surely be said to be injuring or impairing people (keep in mind that the only place dyskinesias occur without drug inducement is in Hungtington’s disease, with the emphasis on *disease.*) it is such a no brainer, it has baffled me how the question can still be under debate. Now i know - the question of toxicity isn’t under debate at all. So if you see any headlines claiming that levodopa is not toxic, question how they defined “toxic.” it probably does NOT mean that it has been shown that levodopa is not harmful or injurious. And I have one question - every single one of those authors has an MD, or a PhD, or both, which we generally take to be in indication of intelligence. Sooooo... are they being disingenuous, or are they just stupid? Either way, it is not good for us. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn