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On Wed 04 Dec, Debby Hurlbert wrote: > Brian - Is it bad to take more than 100mg carbidopa a day or just > unnecessary? Debby > [log in to unmask] > > Hello Debby, I could answer your question in 2 ways. The cop-out way (while true in its way, is to say that more than the required quantity of anything is bad, and should be avoided. Well, I won't hide behind that: The real answer is that doctors are not united on this subject. Many do not recognise a danger level for Carbidopa; conversely many do. I am going to slip in here an extract from an email which I wrote on 26 November. 2/ So: What happens to the unwanted excess carbidopa. The clever thing about Carbidopa is that it cannot get into the brain, and is forcibly separated from the levodopa at the blood-brain-barrier. By this time, the Carbidopa, cast adrift after doing a fine bodyguard job on the levodopa, is probably going to have what we might call an attitude problem, so it sets off to do the one thing it is good at: protect Large Amino-Acids from chemical attack. And they are there in profusion; their reason for being there to act as the building blocks for protein in various parts of the body.They need to interact chemically to do their job, and the carbidopa will spoil this delicate balance, until it is eventually broken down by the liver. The theory ( Idon't think it can be called more than that) is that by interfering with the delicate balance in the blood stream, the Carbidopa produces feelings of lethargy, sleepiness, lassitude, etc. 3/ If the above argument is unconvincing to a sceptical neurologist or doctor, you might ask why else do Sinemet produce a specially low dose tablet having 100 mh of levodopa and only 10 mg of Carbidopa. end of quote I have received several postings from people on the list who need to take fairly large doses of levodopa, who also complained of lethargy and similar symptoms. The level at which I would begin to worry is about 300 mg per day, so it's not a very delicate balance; just one more thing to remember Regards, -- Brian Collins <[log in to unmask]>