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Mario A. Gonzalez wrote: > > I have been on Mirapex .50 3 X day fot the last 4 months, I was also taking Synemmet 25/100 3 X day, plus Eldepryl 2 X AM. > Last time I went to the Neuro, he said to start by cutting the PM Synemmet for one week, then cut the additional Afternoon one. So now I only take Synemmet in the AM. > M question is: should I increase the Mirapex to .75MG 3 X day? Is the objective to give up Synemmet completely and just take the MIRAPEX? > I am a little bit confused as to what I should or should not be taking. Are the Agonists better for you than Carbidopa/Levodopa. > > Can someone comment please? sure, we can comment. the objective is to counter the symptoms with least cost to your future well-being for Mario; the neurologist's objective is enhancement of his income and reputation; the objective of the drug salesmen is increasing their income; the objective of the drug company is likewise pecuniary primarily. the optimum medication is that which does sufficient good - allowing you to experience minimal interference in living well for the now and the future. this probably is to take levodopa with sufficient carbidopa that the levodopa gets to the brain and provides the deficit of dopamine that exists in your brain now. There is near zero valid data that any agonist is as good as levodopa which converts to dopamine - much less than being better than the natural neurotransmitter. the drug data sheet is not ever written by as hard-nosed and cynical a person as I. Laudatory information and the good characteristics are emphasized and negative information suppresed if possible. There are going to be more clinical data gathered by some companies than others; better purity and uniformity control by some et cetera. not many combinations of new drugs with others are included in early testing because this is expensive and often too complex to analyze or evaluate. I, too, am taking Mirapex since mid-July. I got up to 3 0.5 mg tablets taken as 6 halves per day concurrent with 6 halves of 25/250 generic carbi-/levodopa fairly quickly; i have stayed with that plus one 5 mg generic selegiline hydrochloride in mid morn with my second dose of the others. This seems to suffice. I suspect that i could reduce the levodopa to use 10/100 tablets 6 times a day which would be 600 mg rather than the 750 mg. daily dose i have taken for quite a few years; but, the 60 mg of carbidopa might induce more nausea. not a problem since it is easily overcome by eating small amount of low protein-low fat food to move the med into the intestine further and dilute the naseous signal. I have no intention to stop taking levodopa. I have 13 years of experience with it as the main or only supplementer. The drug that should be made available with a generic license to all current carbidopa/levodopa manufacturers is that standard tablet with a COMT inhibitor - tolcapone probably because it has a similar half-life to that of levodopa when extended. It would allow better efficiency and minimal overdosing in spikes of plasma concentration if these were 100 mg of levodopa content and configured to be broken into quarters easily. If such were taken at 2 hour intervals in the minimum amount to achieve sufficient mobility with tremor suppressed for some, the peak concentration would be low and the valley concentration higher with least total drugs. morre than enuff commenting for Christmas day. Besides, i need to check my ham in the smoker-barbeque. -- Ron Vetter 1936, '84 PD dz paradise is feeling good, not a place to go [log in to unmask] http://www.ridgecrest.ca.us/~rfvetter