Mucuna Pruriens

Here is the scoop on Mucuna Pruriens for Parkinson’s and a detailed description of Michael’s experience with it. Some people use it as an adjunct to medication like Sinemet in order to reduce the amount of medication, and then there are people like Michael who either want a more natural approach or have too many side effects with sinemet that use mucuna exclusively. Michael was never able to tolerate any of the medications and all natural strategies had failed up until what I describe below.

Michael had tried mucuna pruriens years ago – we bought some on Amazon.
What we didn’t realize was that Michael needed a much higher extract of mucuna.

The extract you can get from mucuna is L Dopa. The stuff we bought on amazon was only 15% L Dopa. Eventually we befriended a woman in the Netherlands that was getting great results with a 98% L Dopa extract of Mucuna that she was buying from someone in Australia (who got his supply from China). The 2 main source countries are India and China.

At the point that we learned this information, Michael was in very dire straits.
This was the winter of 2016. He was 97% dependent- he needed help dressing, eating, turning over in bed, covering himself with the sheet, bathing and even wiping his butt. He was considered Stage IV Tremor Dominant Parkinson’s by his neurologist. He could walk a little, falling forward and grabbing the walls for support. He could barely speak at an audible level and his diction was terrible. 
He would have to whisper in my ear and I would decipher it. He also had constant tremendous pain due to muscle stiffening in his arms and legs. I had started interviewing 24/7 care because it was quickly becoming more than me and our friend who lived with us could handle.

I bought some of the 98% L Dopa and within 3 weeks of starting it Michael could go outside and walk. All pain left and all neurological symptoms improved. By 6 weeks he was 100% independent and he remained 100% independent until his death in July 2018 from a flu that progressed quickly into double pneumonia. His body had desperately needed L Dopa and this high potency mucuna gave it to him. He still had some tremor and low energy but everything was better. Even skin problems cleared up.

Eventually I found a source in the US that sells 99% extract and actually charges less than anyone else. Michael started with a dose of 300 mg just to see if he could tolerate it. He was always very sensitive. The effects initially lasted 3-4 hrs. This was January 2017.

Slowly we raised the dose to 700 mg 4-5x/day and eventually 850 mg 5x/day. Over time he did require more mucuna as well as more often – every 2-3 hours. He and got up to 1200 mg 5-6x/day this past year. Most people using mucuna don’t get the horrible side effect of dyskinesias (uncontrollable movements) that many people get from the drugs. At about 1200 mg mucuna, Michael did have some dyskinesia and he cut back to 1100 mg which reduced them. I know a woman that manages with 650 mg 4x/day for many years and a woman who uses a large dose of 5000 mg 3x/day for many years. Neither experience dyskinesias.

Everyone is different in terms of dose. You just start low and experiment.
I’ve also wondered about it being even more beneficial to add in some non-L-Dopa extract version of mucuna since the entire plant has many desirable healing properties. Places like Banyan Botanicals carry good quality organic whole plant mucuna if you want to try that along with the 98-99% L Dopa extract of Mucuna.

As a reference point – at Michael’s high dose of 1100-1200 mg 6x/day, a kg that costs $185 would last 2-3 months. 

Many people who take Parkinson’s medications have to contend with nausea from the drug. It’s the L Dopa/ levodopa causing nausea. Michael did get nausea when he started on mucuna, but eventually we discovered that taking about 1000-2000mg of straight Vitamin C from ascorbic acid at the same time as the mucuna worked perfectly and he never had nausea again.

This is also working to prevent nausea for some friends who are also taking mucuna. It can’t be buffered C- it needs to be ascorbic acid, which thankfully is very inexpensive. (You can get ascorbic acid at a great price at the same place that sells the mucuna). 

Candied ginger can also work for nausea but then you’re also getting a lot of sugar so we were really happy to discover the Vit C worked. Mucuna extract is a tasteless white to off-white powder. I mixed it along with the Vit C into some room temp herbal tea sweetened with honey (preferably raw honey that has more healing properties). Honey always helped Michael swallow.

Here is the US based company I bought mucuna from at a good price. We’ve also referred a number of people to this source and the mucuna is helping them, too.
(I’m not an affiliate and I get no financial benefit if you buy here).

https://www.nutrivitashop.com/l-dopa-100-pure-levodopa-mucuna-pruriens-dopamine/

You’ll also need a good mg scale so you can be exact in your dose. Here’s a link to a scale that has worked well for me.

Scale: there are similar ones on Amazon that have even better reviews, but this one has always worked for me and has not needed recalibration even after 18 months of frequent use. https://amzn.to/2BbNr0l

One more thing to mention that may help your readers.There is a Chinese Herbal Formula that has helped many people with tremors. A friend of Michael’s has used it for many months with great benefit. Michael had barely started it when he died so I can’t comment on his experience. 

Here’s one place that sells it. If you email me I can tell you more about dosage. This place seems to have the best price and you can get 10% off using code: Wholesale https://www.maxnature.com/plumflower-tian-ma-gou-teng-san.html

Please feel free to post my email address of dovidagoodman@gmail.com I’m happy to answer questions about anything I’ve written here.

Warmest regards,
Dovida