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Misc L-Dopa? Anyone have experience with mucuna pruriens?

G

Get_Higher

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 11, 2010
Messages
81
Hi I was looking into supplementing with this for my son and myself to hopefully help control some attention/motivation/depression issues. Does anyone have any experience with the velvet bean? I would like to hear anything, not just as it pertains to my situation. Thanks.
 
Yes in short i dont remember it doing anything.

I also have attention and depression issues. So i really appreciate you trying to find something to help your son. It can be a nightmare trying to find something that helps.

(Sorry if this comes off as rude i have autism and im just trying to give you the best answer i can give you. It has nothing to do with you but the sketchy people who push things without evidence of safety or effectiveness based on questionable science and prey on desperate people. My parents would buy me anything to try and help me because they love and care about me. )

Anyway, basically l dopa can convert to dopamine. But dopamine has many receptors and many functions in the brain. You often hear about dopamine in relation to mood and attention. However, it has many other roles especially in movement. For example carbidopav(increase brain delivery) +l dopa in parkinsons.

So i do not think l dopa is selective enough that you can take little enough to not have side effects but high enough to be effective
 
It seemed to help my dad.
He had Multiple System Atrophy (double Parkinson's disease)
I asked him if he felt more comfortable inside his brain and he said yes.

That medication gave off a very strange odor to his body.

I tried one once just to see if I could determine what it was doing to him and if it was helping him and it made my heart beat really fast and I felt like shit! It did not help opiate withdrawal either.

That is all I got for you.
I wish you the best.
God bless.
 
Thanks guys! I read some studies with figures and adjustments and success rates so I’m not gonna let anyone push something on me or from me into my son without some fairly extensive research. You did not come off as rude d1nach, thanks for sharing!
 
Painful One, do you remember the formulation ad dose you took? What else was in your system?
 
The problem with L-DOPA is that most if not all of it is normally broken down in the gut, outside the brain, and therefore unless you take truly massive doses it won't effect brain dopamine levels.

When it's used in Parkinsons therapy a second medication like carbidopa is also given, because it blocks the metabolism of L-DOPA outside of the brain, so that instead of 1-5% becoming dopamine in the brain and the remainder going to waste, now 80% or more does.

So basically, if you are taking L-DOPA and not taking a DOPA decarboxylase inhibitor too, I think you're gonna need to take doses of 50-100g a day to see major changes in dopamine levels inside the blood brain barrier.

5-HTP actually has the same problem: most is metabolised outside the brain.... amino acids are a little more complex than people give them credit for
 
sekio said:
So basically, if you are taking L-DOPA and not taking a DOPA decarboxylase inhibitor too, I think you're gonna need to take doses of 50-100g a day to see major changes in dopamine levels inside the blood brain barrier.
Click to expand...

This is true, but the scientific literature comparing mucuna to synthetic L-Dopa would suggest that the plant contains within it other compounds that may be dopa-decarboxylase inhibitors, in the same that tea does.

All the studies done comparing the two show mucuna to be superior to L-Dopa, and to be devoid of the side effects of the latter.

Mucuna also contains 5-Meo-DMT and bufotenin, as well as 5-HTP (as you mentioned) and nicotine. O top of that, it contains NADH and co-enzyme Q10 which may go some way to explaining it’s almost magical effects on restoring energy and vitality.

Whatever’s going on, it’s a pharmacologically complex plant and the therapeutic effect is
likely due to an “entourage effect” of all these compounds combined, rather than one or each of them in isolation.
 
Get_Higher said:
Hi I was looking into supplementing with this for my son and myself to hopefully help control some attention/motivation/depression issues. Does anyone have any experience with the velvet bean? I would like to hear anything, not just as it pertains to my situation. Thanks.
Click to expand...

For me personally, it makes me quite sleepy. That could be a good or bad thing, depending on what you want. I have ADHD.

You may find this (free) article helpful. It's a study where they attempted to use precursors 5-HTP and L-tyrosine to to treat ADHD in a couple of populations. It showed some mild positive effect.

This was the protocol they used in the adolescent group:

21435

"In addition to the basic amino acid dosing values, other daily cofactors generally required for synthesis of the monoamine and maximum benefit from the protocol were administered. These included vitamin C 1000 mg, calcium citrate 220 mg, vitamin B6 75 mg, folate 400 μg, L-lysine 500 mg, L-cysteine 4500 mg for adults and 2250 mg for children, and selenium 400 μg for adults and 200 μg for children. In general, L-dopa in the form of standardized mucuna pruriens 40% was added when the recommendation of the first urinary OCT assay interpretation demonstrated its need, which was a frequent occurrence."
 
Last edited:
Survived Abortion said:
Mucuna also contains 5-Meo-DMT and bufotenin, as well as 5-HTP (as you mentioned) and nicotine. O top of that, it contains NADH and co-enzyme Q10 which may go some way to explaining it’s almost magical effects on restoring energy and vitality.
Click to expand...

Wow I didn't realize that. Actually I just read through a published paper, and it states that tryptamine and 5-HO-tryptamine have been found in them... different than 5-MeO-DMT. It would be 5-MeO-T instead.

In any case, wow, interesting plant with a really wide range of medicinal applications.
 
Get_Higher said:
Painful One, do you remember the formulation ad dose you took? What else was in your system?
Click to expand...

I don’t remember, it was years ago.
It was just L-Dopamine.
I am Sure it was a very high dosage.
My dad was really sick. Poor dad.
It was terrible and a scary disease.
He got scary at times.
I was lucky he trusted me and I could talk him down.

I did not have anything else in my system.
I was out of opiates and in mild withdrawal.
I wanted a clear opinion on what the hell this medication was doing to my dad.
He could not tell me. He said “how do I tell?”
so I sampled it.
I thought it might help opiate withdrawal but it did not and I thought my heart was going to explode.
I remember it being one of the outstanding times in my life of high heartbeat, scary situation.
 
sekio said:
The problem with L-DOPA is that most if not all of it is normally broken down in the gut, outside the brain, and therefore unless you take truly massive doses it won't effect brain dopamine levels.

When it's used in Parkinsons therapy a second medication like carbidopa is also given, because it blocks the metabolism of L-DOPA outside of the brain, so that instead of 1-5% becoming dopamine in the brain and the remainder going to waste, now 80% or more does.

So basically, if you are taking L-DOPA and not taking a DOPA decarboxylase inhibitor too, I think you're gonna need to take doses of 50-100g a day to see major changes in dopamine levels inside the blood brain barrier.

5-HTP actually has the same problem: most is metabolised outside the brain.... amino acids are a little more complex than people give them credit for
Click to expand...

^^^ yes this is right.

They gave my dad the L-Dopa and carbidopa together with about seven other medications.
It was a full time job for me just keeping him in medication.

I really do NOT think it is a good option for you and your son @Get_Higher
I don’t at all.
 
It can help ADD symptoms just like psycho stims but tends to not be as predictable and needs to be taken with a decarboxylase inhibitor as already said.

If that doesn’t work and you don’t want to go with Adderall or similar, I’d try a low dose of selegiline probably and it has the benefits of being neuroprotective.
 
sekio said:
The problem with L-DOPA is that most if not all of it is normally broken down in the gut, outside the brain, and therefore unless you take truly massive doses it won't effect brain dopamine levels.

When it's used in Parkinsons therapy a second medication like carbidopa is also given, because it blocks the metabolism of L-DOPA outside of the brain, so that instead of 1-5% becoming dopamine in the brain and the remainder going to waste, now 80% or more does.

So basically, if you are taking L-DOPA and not taking a DOPA decarboxylase inhibitor too, I think you're gonna need to take doses of 50-100g a day to see major changes in dopamine levels inside the blood brain barrier.

5-HTP actually has the same problem: most is metabolised outside the brain.... amino acids are a little more complex than people give them credit for
Click to expand...

This article says that 5-HTP can be used as a competitive DOPA decarboxylase inhibitor in the place of carbidopa.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Parkinson’s disease: carbidopa, nausea, and dyskinesia

When -dopa use began in the early 1960s for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, nausea and reversible dyskinesias were experienced as continuing side effects. Carbidopa or benserazide was added to -dopa in 1975 solely to control nausea. Subsequent ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

It is documented that 5-HTP controls l-dopa-induced nausea, utilizing the same basic chemical mechanism as carbidopa and benserazide: AADC inhibition. Carbidopa and benserazide inhibition is irreversible while 5-HTP inhibition is reversible. The use of 5-HTP is superior, since under proper administration it is a nutrient that does not deplete systems or induce abnormal system functions when properly administered.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's safe to use this as self-medication, or especially give it to someone who's underage, though.
 
We sell Mucuna in bulk where I work for a great price. A few folks with Parkinson's buy it fairly often. I add to my kratom sometimes also with turmeric, black pepper, cinnamon ect.
I find the boost similar to ashwagandha when mixing with kratom. Both really extend and connects to the kratom. Very nice glow, deeper and lasting much longer. Exercise makes it last longer too imo
i definitely enjoy the mucuna pruriens aka kapikacchu aka velvet bean
I tried a mucuna extract once years ago. I was in small forest hanging in my camping hammock with the deer, in MD/DC area.
I was gonna sleep in the woods.So I decided to empty several capsules of mucuna i think 20% extract into my water bottle. It was also the fucking dead ass summer heat and i was constantly sweating and pissing and drinking water. I should have just taken one cap and gone swimming or something. It wasn’t too bad just felt like i was on a hard comedown from something. I ended up sleeping on my family friend’s couch nearby.
i made several attempts to sleep outside that summer but it was just too sketchy
 
Thanks Bonch, that sounds interesting as I use Kratom and like ashwaganda as well. And thanks to everyone else, more research is needed before thinking of using for treating the lil one.
 
No. 13 Baby said:
can I just keep taking it for my Abilify-induced permanent anhedonia?
Click to expand...
I take it a couple time's a week with l-phenylalanine , then l-tyrosine and 5htp on other days, with l-cysteine and lysine on another; Until more is known about supplements if you must use them (like i do a crazy ton of em) use only some of them some days, and take breaks from some. The mucuna dopa I would not take every single day
 
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