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I hope that I did not precipitate an ill-considered aversion to Aspartame with an earlier posting. I was just reporting my personal experience. What happend was that the tap water in the town where I live is not very palatable (the odd dead crocodile in the local river may give it added body but the use of Alum in precipitating the sediment may give it a metallic flavour :-). To make the tap water taste better I had been adding a sweet blackcurrant syrup. At first I did not make the connecion but the sweetening in the syrup was aspartame and I often drank it when I took my levodopa at 4 hour intervals during the waking day (I also take eldepryl twice a day). The levodopa was somewhat erratic in its effect. I read the label on the syrup bottle and noted that aspartame includes phenylalanine which has a molecular structure not unlike levodopa. I can't remember the source but someone else has pointed out that the transport of levodopa into the brain is a bit difficult as there is competition amongst several molecules for the transport mechanism. If phenylalanine from aspartame competes against levodopa then the effectivness of the levodopa could be diminished. I substituted cane-sugar sweetened blackcurrant syrup for the aspartame sweetened syrup and the levodopa became much more predictable. To double check I went back to the aspartame syrup and my PD symptoms (mostly stiff, slow and sore - little or no tremor but constipation, fatigue, lack of concentration, blackouts and lightheadedness etc. etc.) either remained longer or re-emerged after an hour or two. Back to the cane sugar variety and I was almost entirely symptom free for four hours per capsule. I repeated the cycle of switching betwen sugar and aspartame a couple of times and became personally convinced that the aspartame did inhibit the effectiveness of my levodopa. This was not a double blind test - I always knew whether I was drinking the sugar or the aspartame sweetened variety. After some months and with some other changes in my diet and life-style (and further medication - florinef, to counter my low blood pressure) I am free of all PD symptoms for most of the day. A significant dietary change was substituting crushed linseed for oat bran at breakfast (I add it to my regular cereal). I no longer regard constipation as a serious problem. I would like to encourage other Parkies who find their response to medication somewhat erratic to discuss dietary changes, more exercise, and reducing stress, with their doctor. It worked for me and may work for them. Best wishes to everyone Andrew Wake Faculty of Education, Central Queensland University Rockhampton Queensland Australia 4702 Phone (079) 309694 Fax (079) 309604 e-mail [log in to unmask]