How do you time your medication around exercise?

Parkinson's Disease
1

My laundry list includes Rasagaline, Ropinirole, and Rytari spaced out four times per day. Because I sometimes experience dizziness and nausea shortly after I take my meds, I time my CrossFit workouts to land just before a dose. I workout at 4:30pm and my dose is at 5:30pm. What I noticed is that while overall my symptoms are better when I consistently train, I am a total wreck after the workouts. It’s like if you took two weeks of PD motor symptoms and bundled them into the 20 minutes it takes me to come home, shower, and sit down for dinner. We recently moved so I have a new movement disorder specialist who I see in March and will ask about this, too, but I’m curious how other people do it. For me it’s like:

7am dose - fine
12pm dose - fine
3pm - snack
4:30pm - CrossFit
5:30pm dose - I can barely walk, my face twists around, my arm tremors, and my feet cramp
10pm dose - finally feeling somewhat normal

Do you time meds so they peak during your workouts? I know mine are wearing off when I exercise but I don’t like the nausea and also wonder if there is a benefit to getting the intense training while NOT under the heavy dopamine influence.

Thoughts?

2 Likes
2

I still work full-time. Exercising in the mornings seems to work best for my schedule. However, I found that I was needing to wait for the meds to kick in before I could exercise. I also take Ritari and it can take a while to get going. I talked to my doctor about it and he suggested Taking half of a carbidopa levodopa tablet first thing in the morning before I’m ready to exercise. This works great. It’s fax acting, so I don’t have to wait for it to really kick in. It gives me about two hours before wear off. I find if I take my right right at the two hour mark and there’s nowhere off between doses. I work from home and have a gym in my basement. Sometimes I will go downstairs and do a mini workout. Say 20 minutes between my afternoon and evening dose. That’s also my good time to walk the dogs because the weather is and it’s peak.