what I don't know, and can't find answers using google or the search engine:
does taking l-dopa or any form of dopamine fix the actual problem, of not making enough nuero transmitters, or do you have to do it the rest of your life or a long time to stay on a balanced level.
Levadopa only works as long as you take. There's also some worrisome characteristics about it like,
"Levodopa itself accelerates the disease by producing oxygen free radicals, unstable particles that increase injuries to the brain and dopamine degradation."Would it have that effect in you if you didn't have Parkinson's? I don't know.
is there any safer form of dopamine besides l-dopa that will fix the problem in the brain (wellbutrin and deprenyl, as far as I have read, use L-Dopa, so unless they are unique in thier form of L-Dopa, that makes it safer, that is out of the question.
Are you sure about the L-Dopa <-> Wellbutrin, Deprenyl connection? I mostly get my info off Wikipedia (yes I know... elephant populations haven't tripled in the last couple of months
) and I haven't seen anything like that. Not saying you're wrong, just curious if you could link me with a source.
Anyways all these drugs are a little sketchy. When you come right down to it, there's just not been that many human trials, especially in people who are otherwise healthy. Of all the drugs mentioned, the most well tested and probably safest is Wellbutrin. It also has the added advantage that you could easily and legally obtain it from a variety of medical practitioners without much hassle.
Keep in mind im not taking dopamine as a enhancer to get an edge, all I want is to fix the defenciency to a normal level. I need to know if this makes it safer to take L-Dopa?
I don't know why you're so quick to say that you're not taking it receive an edge, I can't imagine you'd be taking it for any other reason. What's the difference between your normal and some else's edge? In any case this is the Immortality Institute web page (most discussion revolves around tweaking as opposed to fixing), if you want simple medical advice there's probably more appropriate fora available... but there's nothing wrong with improving yourself IMHO, it's an excellent impulse to cultivate (while retaining your humanity of course), so hopefully you find some of information here useful.
On the other hand, it might not give you the edge you're looking for or even take away some of the gifts you might take for granted. I mean it could make you more "normal" to have a "normal" balance of brain chemicals. But normalcy is... well by definition mediocre and not all that great of thing to aspire to.
Disclosure time: I'm a dopamine fiend, take 5 mg of deprenyl daily, eat kilos of chocolate, take lots of intestinal flora supplements (based on an unattributed line in wikipedia that microbial fermentation produces amines) and drink lots of tea. It might not sound like much, but with brain chemistry less is more, otherwise the vicious scythe of homeostasis comes down on you like the judgment of a 1000 gods. Plus a scatter shot approach seems to keep your body from building up a tolerance to the various chemicals too quickly.
Some other chemicals you might want to try (and I've been meaning to try myself).
*
Amphetamines -- I'm surprised no one's mentioned it (or that your doctor didn't mention it). When I hear dopamine that's the first drug that comes to my mind. It's in medical usage and it's pretty safe at prescribed doses. Hell, if you're a child in America it's practically in the drinking water (or should be -- why should only the rich kids get to benefit from its use?).
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Nardil -- MOAI. It's metabolites include
phenylethylamine (hence the name phenelzine, I think), and it also inhibits the breakdown of said metabolite. Seems like it would be an interesting combination. Has other miscellaneous effects (serotonin, what's that?
), so who knows? Relatively inexpensive, I think, since it's so old, but I haven't been able to find it on any my regular prescription-free drug sites.
What's interesting is how this whole family of drugs is all so similar (from dopamine to amphetamine to phenylethylamine to methamphetamine to X):
Phenethylamines (PEA) Maybe I'm just obsessed with them. It's probably a good thing, I got scared away from chemistry way early, or I'd totally waste hours synthesizing some of these chemicals...
Anyways, I'd hypothesize that anything you do to increase PEA will benefit you. Without knowing anything about you beyond your Asperger's syndrome diagnosis, I'd further hypothesize that given the "cold" nature of people with the disorder you probably don't experience "love" much. Love is very related to PEA. That is, a some of the subjective effects people ascribe to love can similarly be reproduced with a bump in PEA, and that you're simultaneously deficient in dopamine and diagnosed with Asperger's seems a pretty strong coincidence.But... I'm simply a random drug abuser on the internet... so what do I know?
Is dopamine in an antioxidant get to your brain to fix the nuerotransmitters, or just another road to uselessness.
You cannot simply eat dopamine to increase the levels of dopamine in your brain. But orally ingested dopamine is still _very_ good for you was my only point.
When I did a search for dopamine on the forum and internet, all I found was talk about L-Dopa.
You could try a natural source:
Mucuna Pruriens It contains the same chemical, but it's easier to obtain and "natural" (whatever that means). Also, putting that term into the search box here will return some very information dense threads with a lot more considered debate about the relative merits of levadopa in general and mucuna pruriens in particular.
As far as I can tell about Hydergine, is that it stimulates dopamine receptors. Does this help in a dopamine nuerotransmitter problem? Or does it fix only one side of the nuerotransmitter?
Shepard, I didn't diagnose my dopamine defenciency, like many other people, I went to see a doctor, I have aspergers syndrome and I took a test which suggested im dopamine defecient, also, the doctor told me the correlations between my behaviour and the symptoms of dopamine defenciency, then I went home and did research on the lot of information he gave me. I dont think its fair to assume people diagnosed themselves when they give no hint they did so. My doctor is unaviable for a few months, even by phone.
I find its easy for other people to help other people, sort of like the old saying giving advice is easy but taking it yourself is hard. When it comes to myself, I have a lot of trouble finding the right answer.
UPDATE:
I found this on google
Phenylalanine
to
Tyrosine
to
L-Dopa
to
Dopamine
to
Norepinephrine
to
Epinephrine
So would taking anything before L-Dopa synthetically actually make "good" dopamine eventually or does the brain control that, and since I have a defenciency, it would just choose "not" to make more? Does the brain choose how much Phenylalanine is converted to dopamine eventually? or does it use all that you put in?
It really all depends on _why_ you don't have enough dopamine to begin with. That's a huge chain of chemical reactions you just summarized there. There's probably hundreds of points of failure to consider. Many that aren't even known by human scientists owing to the largely inscrutable nature of our own bodies.
In the end, the only way you're going to know is just to try it. None of the chemicals mentioned are going to going to kill you if you use them for a short duration, and if one seems to work, tell your doctor, get checked out and move from there.
BTW, I feel bashful even typing this, but you are solid on the basics right? Getting enough protein (60+ grams), physical activity and mental stimulation. While not as easy as popping pills, they're definitely more effective. To put it another way, you're going to get crappy results regardless unless you cover those basics.
Asperger's I'm not too about sure though. I'd be curious what having Asperger's is like. My own personal demon that I've been trying to conquer is low-grade (but constant) migraines, which might be a little similar to Autism. I've noticed that a lot of the behavioral aspects of autistic people seem to be like people who are undergoing intense pain. (I know at my worst, rhythmic tapping of my head is great way to take my mind off the pain).
Anyways, good luck and be safe (especially when doing something as dangerous as using mind altering drugs... even supposedly safe ones... always make sure to have an second person to objectively provide their observations).
Edited by lumnar, 27 August 2007 - 01:51 AM.