L-Dopa

[mister]

I recently purchased some 99% pure L-Dopa and have been taking 300mg's a day, it seems great for anxiety and I can concentrate a lot better plus Im a lot less tired and more alert.

Ive read that it can be toxic which has put me off it, can someone explain in layman terms how it is toxic and if something can accompany it to make it non toxic?

fanks in advance

 

[misk]

is this something you have been prescribed?
L-Dopa is usually a combination of 2 drugs, ie levodopa and carbidopa, to help reduce peripheral side effects, so i'd be curious to know if you experienced any side effects without such a combo and at that dose?

i've taken sinemet (100mg Levodopa/25mg carbidopa) for restless leg syndrome but it made my legs alot more painful during the day, so i wasn't able to continue treatment.

taken from the wiki page on it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-DOPA)

Toxicity

Some scientific studies suggest a cytotoxic role in the promotion and occurrence of adverse effects associated with L-DOPA treatment.[4] Though the drug is generally safe in humans, some researchers have reported an increase in cytotoxicity markers in rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cell lines treated with L-DOPA.[5] Other authors have attributed the observed toxic effects of L-DOPA in neural dopamine cell lines to enhanced formation of quinones through increased auto-oxidation and subsequent cell death in mesencephalic cell cultures.[6][7] Though L-DOPA is generally considered safe, some controversy surrounds its use in the treatment of PD, given some data indicating a deleterious effect on intracellular and neuronal tissue involved in the pathogenesis of the disease.[8]

someone else will be able to explain what that means :D

 

[mister]

Hi misk, no it wasnt prescribed, the l-dopa I have is from a plant called Mucuna Pruriens http://l-dopa.org/ and so far I havnt noticed any bad side effects, quite the opposite actually as I mentioned in my first post. Im really hoping either its safe to take or I can supplement it with something to counter the toxicity as the benefits Ive noticed so far are great!

Well unfortunately l-dopa hasnt given me a dramatic increase in learning aka "limitless" because I cant fathom out what the link you posted means either so Im hoping someone could maybe shed some light and explain it to both of us.

 

[misk]

geez that site has a bit of a all good and no bad thing going on lol
i didnt notice any over the top side effects other than increased pain in my legs, but thats due to my condition plus i have tried quite a few medications with a similar side effect list and action.
so it would be interesting to see if a 'normal' healthy person benefited from it.

how long have you been taking it?
from what my GP told me, i had to wait at least a month or so for the effects to become noticeable, but the pain in my legs became more apparent (as apposed to lessened) in around a week - he then told me to half the dose and try again for another for weeks then try increasing the dose.

so it could just take some time for the actual claimed effects to become more noticeable.

i think you would need to have a natural imbalance to feel the effects most, such as someone with a GABA deficiency taking gabapentin or another GABA precursor.

good to hear you are getting good effects from it though - it can go either way really, and is usually something that is started at a small dose and worked up to a larger dose if required to reach the minimum 'effective dose'.

 

[Mr Blonde]

Some scientific studies suggest a cytotoxic role in the promotion and occurrence of adverse effects associated with L-DOPA treatment.[4] Though the drug is generally safe in humans, some researchers have reported an increase in cytotoxicity markers in rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cell lines treated with L-DOPA.[5] Other authors have attributed the observed toxic effects of L-DOPA in neural dopamine cell lines to enhanced formation of quinones through increased auto-oxidation and subsequent cell death in mesencephalic cell cultures.[6][7] Though L-DOPA is generally considered safe, some controversy surrounds its use in the treatment of PD, given some data indicating a deleterious effect on intracellular and neuronal tissue involved in the pathogenesis of the disease.[8]

I'm a bit tired and only half-way through my coffee but basically what it appears to be saying is that they suspect taking L-DOPA could lead to oxidative damage of the neuronal cells that are already implicated in Parkinson's Disease. I'm not sure exactly on the mechanism of how this happens; perhaps normal metabolic pathways are overwhelmed? I will look into this today.