Sinemet has two chemicals present in it: carbidopa and levodopa. Sinemet constitutes a combination of medicines used mainly to treat Parkinson’s disease symptoms or related symptoms, such as muscle stiffness, shakiness, difficulty in body movements. Parkinson’s disease takes place often because of the destruction of dopamine creating cells, a naturally occurring substance in the human brain. Levodopa thus converts into dopamine in the human brain and helps in controlling body movements. On the other side, Carbidopa prevents Levodopa breakdown in the patients’ bloodstream to allow the entry of more Levodopa within the brain. Carbidopa even helps in reducing a few side effects, including vomiting and nausea, taking place because of the Levodopa intake.
Mechanism of Sinemet Medicine
Each of the Sinemet medicines, such as Sinemet 110, Sinemet 62.5, Sinemet 275 and Sinemet Plus tablets come with active ingredients of Carbidopa and Levodopa. Pharmacists and doctors even call this combination as co-careldopa and it is useful to cure Parkinson’s disease by simply increasing the dopamine levels in the patients’ brain.
Dopamine substance acts as a neurotransmitter and it remains present in both nervous system and brain, while it transmits messages in between different nerves. These messages help in regular functions of patients’ body. Dopamine neurotransmitter usually remains absent or presents in lesser amount in brains of parkinson’s disease patients and because of this, doctors perceive it as the prime cause of the parkinson’s disease symptoms.
Whenever you intake Levodopa, it helps in the conversion of dopamine neurotransmitter in the patients’ brain. This replaces the dopamine loss and thereby, decreases most of the symptoms related to the disease. However, the main problem with Levodopa is that it converts dopamine in different parts of human body, along with brain, which results in palpitations, vomiting, nausea and other similar side effects.
In this situation, Carbidopa is useful in combination with Levodopa to avoid such situations. Carbidopa acts as a dopa-decarboxylase type of inhibitor. It thus blocks or prevents the conversion of Levodopa into dopamine in other parts of human body and thereby, avoids the mentioned side effects. Carbidopa fails to pass to the human brain and thus, it does not affect Levodopa conversion into dopamine in the patients’ brain. Combination of Carbidopa and Levodopa thus prove to be effective to treat Parkinson’s disease and its related symptoms, while simultaneously, to reduce Levodopa’s side effects, which may likely take place in the remaining parts of the body.
Basic Tips to Intake the Sinemet Drug
You should intake the drug orally without or with food, based solely as per the recommendations given by your doctor. You should usually intake the medicine for 3times to 4times in a day.
Sinemet intake with food is helpful in reducing the problem of nausea. Hence, you should avoid intake of high-protein diet, as it reduces the exact amount of Levodopa, which your body may consumes during the treatment, until and unless directed otherwise from your doctor.
Separate the medication dosage from any iron products or its supplements by many hours as possible. This is because; iron intake may reduce the exact amount of absorbed medicine by your body. You should consult with your pharmacist or doctor to collect more details.
Sinemet dosage based solely on specific medical condition and its response to the treatment. If you want to reduce or avoid your risk related to side effects, you should begin the medicine at its low dosage and increase the dose gradually. However, you should make sure to follow the instructions given by your doctor carefully.
You may get the combination of Sinemet drug in varying strength and in different amounts of Levodopa and Carbidopa in a single tablet. Thus, you should make sure to choose the appropriate strength of each of these drugs. Doctors in this case may sometimes prescribe intake of Carbidopa alone with the combined drug.
You should intake the medicine regularly to get maximum possible benefits and you should always remember to take it during same times on each day.
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