Natural Levodopa

   About mid April , Paula spent a week transitioning from Ropinerole to carbadopa/levodopa (by doctors request) and as a result she spent two weeks in bed nauseated with flu like symptoms and muscle pain. At this point, in our opinion she was still producing quite abit of dopamine on her own, because she was only taking 3 mg of Ropinerole and 1 mg of Azilect , a very low dosage ,and doing quite well at that dosage (in our opinion based on what we knew friends were taking) so we decided before we commit to carbidopa/levodopa (based on what we had read about the drug) to get off all the parkinson drugs and try the natural levodopa (macuna pruriens seed extract) and brain specific supplements. Our thinking being that there is research showing brain cell regeneration in rats, and with the success we experienced with supplements, before we force synthetic levadopa on her brain,  let's give the all natural products a chance and see how she responds. She had to get off Azilect because you cannot take macuna pruriens seed extract (natural levodopa) with Azilect. So we stopped taking everything except Klonopin which she takes because she acts out her dreams in her sleep, and there is no interference with the macuna pruriens seed extract.
   So if I have totally confused you, we got off all the parkinson drugs and gave the natural approach a chance, hoping it would work and thereby eliminating all the side affects that come along with the drugs and hoping that brain cell regeneration would have a chance. The transition wasn't without incident. It took about a month to get the right dosage worked out. We tried three products they all worked but the one that worked the best was one you take on an empty stomach, maybe because there is no interference with absorbtion and conversion to dopamine.
   We were on all natural products from March 1st until July 1st and we liked it but for one problem, Paula just didn't have much of an appetite ,she ate about 4 or 5 bites of her meal and maybe two meals a day and just couldn't force herself to eat more. She dropped another 15 pounds in the 4 months and she just couldn't afford to lose any more weight, She now weighs 105. What we did experience was more consistency in how she felt, more good days. We could go to walk just about every day, she was walking 2 miles. Her cognitive functions were much better, always present and understanding, not much fog or confusion. The trade off was her motor skills were not as good. She  needed help getting in and out of bed and in and out of the car, and up and down from chairs.Mostly her legs, not enough muscle power to move them around or manipulate. She could walk great, once she got moving, it was mostly the short quick tasks that we all take for granted.      
   So at this point she is on small amounts of  carbidopa/levodopa, and her appetite has improved greatly, and her motor skills also have improved to the point that she can get in and out of bed and up and down from chairs on her own. We have started seeing a Naturopatic doctor that sees parkinson patients (beginning stages). Hopfully through working with her we can improve Paula's health even more. She has had many varied blood tests done and great results so far, to which we attribute the vitamins and supplements and a good diet of fruits, veggies and good fats.