FAQs

The first week: if you experience an upset stomach or other symptoms the first week, make a phone appointment and your caregiver can tell you what to do.

In the first week patients who experience upset stomach after taking their pills are the most depleted of neurotransmitters and the ones that are suffering from the most severe nutritional deficiency.

CysReplete needs to be taken as two pills three times a day with the first dose at noon (five or six hours after waking up).  20% of patients taking CysReplete first thing in the morning experience a brief upset stomach lasting 20-30 minutes.  Taking the first dose of CysReplete at noon prevents this problem.  If you take your first dose of CysReplete right after you get up and experience no upset stomach, you may continue taking it first thing in the morning.

Carbohydrate intolerance or nausea due to bread, noodles, cereals:  Occasionally, after the symptoms are under control, patients may experience GI upset (nausea) at certain times of the day, lasting 20 to 30 minutes.  This is carbohydrate intolerance and is highly specific.  It is caused by one food: a bread, a noodle, or a cereal.  Changing the food is the key.  Stopping white bread and eating whole wheat is an example.

When heartburn is experienced after taking the pills it is a mechanical problem.  If you simply gulp the pills down, they may get stuck on the way to the stomach and dissolve, causing burning discomfort.  Proper management of this problem is to hold the pills in your mouth with water for 10-15 seconds until the surface of the capsules starts to dissolve so that when you swallow, the pills slide down without getting stuck.

When amino acids are started or increased and symptoms get worse, this is known as a paradoxical reaction.  While it may seem contrary to common sense, the proper management of a paradoxical reaction is to increase the amino acid dosing value.  If the cause is a paradoxical reaction, symptoms usually improve in 1 to 2 days after increasing the amino acids.

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The goal of this therapy is relief of symptoms and is a process with no defined endpoint in time.

Some will arrive at their destination in one week while others may need 4 or 5 months.

Some may grow tired and drop out.  Of the patients that drop out, most are very close to their goal. (relief of relative nutritional deficiency symptoms)

We do not know which patient will achieve their goal in one week and which will require five months.  The only way to sort this out is by taking this journey guided by laboratory testing.

One or two labs are generally needed. The labs do not determine or change the course of treatment, they do however give us a basic idea as to how you’re responding to the treatment.

You will need to schedule a phone consult with the doctor weekly until you have reached your relief of symptoms.

We are committed to you getting the results that change your life for the better and we expect you to have that same commitment for your own life and health.  We do not offer any refunds on your $5000.  We will refund the cost of any supplements that have not been opened at any time.

If you drop out for 30 days and wish to restart, your doctor fees and shipping costs are still covered for the year, however, you must pay $200 per lab after your restart.

No, there is no need to pay $4500 again.  After your first year in our program, you will only pay $90 for phone consults when and if they are needed or you may opt to pay $2250 for your second year and $200 for each lab, if needed. We will still provide you with free shipping on all nutritional products.

If symptoms have been under control and then return, in over 99% of cases it is because the patient has missed one or more doses of pills.  It is very common for patients to claim they haven’t missed any pills, but the fact is that sooner or later everyone misses a dose of pills. 

Missing only one dosing value of pills can lead to a relapse of symptoms.  When the pills are taken properly it can take 3 to 5 days before symptoms come under control.  If you miss a dose of pills today then miss a dose of pills 4 days from now followed by a missed dose 4 days after, it may seem like the pills have not been working for two or more weeks.  The best way to manage this problem is to “journal” (write down) all pills taken each day.  Usually, after five days of journaling, the pills start working again.

Parkinson’s patients: To get optimal results with Amino Acid Therapy, Parkinson’s patients need to avoid the use of Parkinson’s drugs. Many Parkinson’s patients on the advice of their neurologist, decide to avoid the L-dopa meds (Sinemet) for as long as possible due to the inevitable side effects such as involuntary head movements, confusion, other abnormal movements, and restlessness.  For those patients who are currently taking Sinemet or commonly prescribed dopamine agonists (Requip, Mirapex, and Neupro) you must first discuss your decision to do Amino Acid Therapy with your neurologist so that he may assist you in the removal of your current meds in order for you to get optimal results from the Amino Acid Therapy.

Patients with problems other than Parkinson’s: It is not necessary to go off current meds.  As your symptoms improve and disappear, your need for medication will be eliminated. You may ask your regular doctor to stop your meds. (anti-depressants, anti-anxiety, Crohn’s medications, among others)

You can tell your regular doctor that you have decided to try a scientifically based nutrition program to control your Parkinson’s symptoms and improve your overall health.

We are here to help you to have a better life with better health outcomes and we expect your regular doctor is in it for you as well.

It is not necessary that we have a relationship with your doctor for you to get optimal results with Amino Acid Therapy.

We are available to speak with any medical professional who may have questions or concerns that may help you achieve your best life and health.

For higher dosing in Parkinson’s protocols, the aminos come in powder form that can be mixed in water, juice or other food. (Applesauce, yogurt, oatmeal)

No. We will mail your urine lab kit to your home. All the information you need to collect your sample and submit it to the lab is in the kit. Labs are sent through FedEx and you are provided with the FedEx packaging for mailing along with the proper address sticker.  Labs are evaluated at DBS Labs in Duluth, MN.  You must have 7 days prior to your testing of “no missed doses” for a valid lab test.

Most patients are very happy to continue taking their pills after their symptoms are gone. There is a small percentage of patients who can stop their pills altogether and still go without symptoms. The majority of these patients have eliminated symptoms with the aminos for six months or more before they stop their pills. There is also a group of patients who, once they have controlled their symptoms for a period of time, can get the same benefit taking less aminos. At this time, there is no way of determining who can stop their pills and not have a return of symptoms. We suggest patients stay on the dose that eliminates their symptoms for at least six months before going off pills to determine if they can go without or take less and still maintain.

Ok, here’s a more down to earth explanation. I’ll do my best. I presume you are aware of the whole “toxins in the environment” causing all manner of body problems. So I’ll start there. The body rids itself of toxins by producing “glutathione” in the cell to throw out the trash. In our modern toxic environment we are constantly bombarded with toxins and more toxins. The body must have adequate sulfur amino acids such as cysteine in order to produce glutathione.  As the toxins bombard the body all the sulfur aminos get used up making glutathione.  The cysteine also serves as sort of a gateway for serotonin and dopamine precursors to enter the micro-neurological system in the brain. With the cysteine all used up:  the gateway closes the micro-neurological neurotransmitter system collapses, glutathione production ceases and toxin levels just keep increasing.  With this microscopic collapse in the brain of the neurotransmitter system comes all manner of symptoms including Parkinson’s.

To restore the system, amino acid precursors for serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine along with adequate cysteine must be dumped back into the system in levels far higher than your diet could ever provide. The cysteine manages elimination of toxins and operates as the gate to allow adequate precursors into the system so that it opens back up from the collapsed state and starts functioning normally again, hence Parkinson’s symptoms disappear and the progression of the disease is stopped.

Neurotransmitters are chemicals that allow our nervous system to function properly by providing electricity throughout the body.  If we do not have adequate amount of neurotransmitters, it is as if the power company has not provided enough electricity to our home.

The damage to our electrical system has been shown to be caused by toxins, trauma, biological substances, and genetic conditions.  It can occur anywhere in the brain and often in multiple areas.  Symptoms that we experience as a result of the damage depend upon the location in the brain where the injury has occurred.

The master neurotransmitters are serotonin and dopamine; they are manufactured from amino acids which are usually available from our diet.  L-tryptophan is the precursor of serotonin and L-tyrosine is the precursor of dopamine.  There is a limit to the amount of serotonin and dopamine that can be made from L-tryptophan and L-tyrosine respectively. If your diet cannot supply the required amount of serotonin or dopamine to regulate your body appropriately, you have a relative nutritional deficiency.

L-tryptophan is converted to 5-hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) which will make all of the serotonin you require. Some L-tyrosine is converted to L-dopa but may not make all of the dopamine you needed to restore function. So a natural form of L-dopa, Mucuna, is also included in the nutritional protocol to provide necessary dopamine to restore function. The goal of this process is to determine the exact amount of supplementation of 5-HTP, L-dopa, and L-tyrosine required by your body to eliminate the relative nutritional deficiency and restore proper function.

Your health care provider uses regular patient visits to monitor your progress, patient symptom analysis, nutritional supplement dosage changes, and laboratory testing to determine the specific levels of amino acid precursors that are essential to each patient on an individual basis. MTO, monoamine transporter optimization, is the laboratory test performed on urine samples to arrive at the dose of amino acids that will bring your neurotransmitters to the proper level.  It measures serotonin and dopamine output against the known amount of amino acids you are taking.  Adjustments to the dosing are made based upon the results of the MTO.

While some patients will get optimal results with only amino acid therapy, other patients may need to add additional nutritional supplementation to optimize their results.

During the course of your care, your doctor may discover other nutritional needs you may have that could prevent you from getting optimal results with the amino acid therapy.  Because every person is biochemically unique, additional supplements needed by patients are recommended on a case by case basis.

With over thirty years of clinical experience in nutrition and natural health care, our doctors are also available to discuss your current nutritional supplement program and give expert guidance and advice to help you reach all your health goals.