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hi to brian collins and all of you here i am yet again posting a private message to me for all of you to share and/or comment on [and for permanent storage in our archives] in re my message about steve's troubles with sinemet, brian collins wrote to me: >Hello janet, just a quick line to you regarding Carbidopa: >It is actually in the tablet to stop almost all of the levodopa >being attacked and broken down while it is in transit in the >bloodstream from the stomach to the brain. >It is a very clever system: the carbidopa, having done its job >when the levodopa reaches the blood/brain barrier, is stripped >off by the barrier, which acts like a very fine filter - the >levodopa squeezes through, the carbidopa doesn't. Incidentally, >Dopamine cannot cross the 'BBB' either. brian, you say that that: "the carbidopa prevents the levodopa from being broken down in transit to the brain" interesting... my diagnosing neurologist described it in almost opposite terms: "the carbidopa prevents the levodopa from having any effect on the body until it reaches the brain" i had the impression that levodopa floating around in the body 'unsupervised' by carbidopa could cause some nasty side effects, one of which was action on the 'vomiting centre' which resulted in severe nausea i also understood that the side effects from levodopa were the main reason that the levodopa/carbidopa combination was developed in the first place but more to protect the body from the levodopa rather than to protect the levodopa from the body! but maybe we are saying the same thing in different ways?!? your comment about the 'very clever system' is something i agree wholeheartedly with here's to the wonders of chemistry! your syber sis in chemical churiosity janet janet paterson - 50/9 - sinemet/selegiline/prozac - [log in to unmask]