5-HTP side effect
Baron Blackfang
2, 50 mg caps twice a day. I didn't find any relief from insomnia, and I
found that my anxiety increased rather than decreased.
5-HTP is supposed to be the active metabolite of tryptophan, which was used
in the past as an antidepressant until it was banned by the FDA.
Has anybody else had any good or bad experiences with 5-HTP?
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-----------------------------------
Fortitudo Et Macto (Strength And Honor)
Motto of the Roman Legions
Steve Harris
<7HCh8.41889$ZC3.3...@newsread2.prod.itd.earthlink.net>...
>I recently gave 5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan) a try as a sleep aid. I
consumed
>2, 50 mg caps twice a day. I didn't find any relief from insomnia, and I
>found that my anxiety increased rather than decreased.
>
>5-HTP is supposed to be the active metabolite of tryptophan, which was used
>in the past as an antidepressant until it was banned by the FDA.
Do not take 5-HTP. It's converted (to variable extent) by the liver aryl
amino acid decarboxylase to serotonin (5-HT or 5-hydroxytryptamine), which
is a bad thing to have in your blood in large quantities. It causes cardiac
myocytes to proliferate, and that causes proliferate valve disease (a
problem seen in methylsergide overdose, old-time fenfluramine users, and
victims of midgut carcinoid tumors that make a lot of serotonin). And, BTW,
any serotonin that is made by the liver never gets into the brain, so it
does you no good there. Some 5-HTP does get into the brain (the same
transporter that gets tryptophan gets it in, but that doesn't work without
the COOH group) and is converted to serotonin there. But you pay for that
with serotonin made outside the brain, which you want strictly controlled.
Free serotonin outside the CNS is nasty stuff. It causes instant
vasoconstriction, which is one reason why platelets sop it up and store it
as a sort of nature's wound vasoconstrictor anti-bleeding agent. An
overdose, however, causes enough pulmonary vasoconstriction to cause
pulmonary hypertension. Give an animal an overdose of serotonin and they die
of pulmonary hypertension. The same is true of an overdose of fenfluramine--
death follows in minutes from that mechanism. Serotonin is also a growth
factor for smooth muscle cells, which aids in wound healing when platelets
dump it on small areas of damage. But again, too much of a good thing causes
proliferation in smooth muscle cells where you don't want it, and that's the
valve disease.
There is some irony in the fact that tryptophan, which does not raise
peripheral serotonin levels, and is a fairly safe way to raise brain
serotonins, is illegal to sell without prescription. But 5-HTP, which
bypasses the APUD cell enzyme that converts tryptophan to 5-HTP, is still
available over the counter.
SBH
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adaedalus
Do you have any studies or references to support this? Thanks
Alex
>
> Do not take 5-HTP. It's converted (to variable extent) by the liver aryl
> amino acid decarboxylase to serotonin (5-HT or 5-hydroxytryptamine), which
> is a bad thing to have in your blood in large quantities.
Steve, do you think there might be risks in taking one 50 mg capsule
of 5-HTP once a *week*?
I do that to prevent migraines. (Sometimes I forget and let two or
three weeks elapse, but then I have to take a capsule to *relieve* a
migraine :-( It definitely affects my neurotransmitter balance,
because in an hour or two I feel a change in my mood, which gets much
less prone to focusing and much more prone to relaxation, so it's a
good thing to take on Friday evening :-)
I have read that B6 is needed for the conversion to serotonin, so I
take care *not* to mix it with a B6-containing supplement, to minimize
probability of conversion taking place in the gut on the bloodstream.
BTW, a brand of 5-HTP, I think from Nature's Way, comes with a hefty
dose of B6. I'd never buy it.
Steve Harris
Alex wrote in message ...
>"Steve Harris" <sbha...@ix.RETICULATEDOBJECTcom.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Do not take 5-HTP. It's converted (to variable extent) by the liver aryl
>> amino acid decarboxylase to serotonin (5-HT or 5-hydroxytryptamine),
which
>> is a bad thing to have in your blood in large quantities.
>
>Steve, do you think there might be risks in taking one 50 mg capsule
>of 5-HTP once a *week*?
I would guess not. The average person with carcinoid heart disease is
excreting around 50 mg 5-HIAA a day, as I remember from one study,
suggesting that it takes around that much serotonin dumped into your blood
to do this to you. In turn suggesting it's probably only people taking
upward of 50 mg 5-HTP who are going to get into trouble. But who knows where
there total safety limits are?
>>I have read that B6 is needed for the conversion to serotonin, so I
>take care *not* to mix it with a B6-containing supplement, to minimize
>probability of conversion taking place in the gut on the bloodstream.
>BTW, a brand of 5-HTP, I think from Nature's Way, comes with a hefty
>dose of B6. I'd never buy it.
It does seem the ultimate stupidity to put these together into a supplement.
Duhhhhr (it's about like taking L-DOPA and B6 for your Parkinson's-- you're
not gunna get much dopamine into your brain THAT way). But remember that if
you take B6 at all, you're probably loaded with it. In other words, just
because you take B6 today and 5-HTP tomorrow, that doesn't mean you're not
getting as good conversion as your body can do. How long do you have to
wait for B6 washout? I have no idea. Which is why it's best to limit the
5-HTP intake, unless you're going to regularly measure your urine 5-HIAA's.
DB
Tryptophan is still available in the US. A certain company comes to mind.
They label it for animal use. A mere technicality.
Alpha Male
"Steve Harris" <sbha...@ix.RETICULATEDOBJECTcom.com> wrote in part:
>
>
> There is some irony in the fact that tryptophan, which does not raise
> peripheral serotonin levels, and is a fairly safe way to raise brain
> serotonins, is illegal to sell without prescription. But 5-HTP, which
> bypasses the APUD cell enzyme that converts tryptophan to 5-HTP, is still
> available over the counter.
It seems like the Corporate Whores ( or Future whores) at the FDA needed to
get rid of the competition. Just a few days after the official ban, the
cover of Time or Newsweek touted the new wonder drug...Prozac.
Tryptophan, per se, was never the culprit, it was the genetically-modified
bacteria used in the fermenting process.
-------------------------------------------
<snipped>
Unfortunately, the body of published research (more than 200 studies) does
not definitively establish whether toxicity resulted primarily from the use
of genetically engineered bacteria or from cutting corners in the
purification procedure. The status of this question is expressed in the
following quote from Science (2):
"Regardless of the legal details, the crux of the EMS case remains the issue
of whether the disease is, in fact, due to genetic engineering. At the same
time Showa Denko began using its new, genetically engineered bacillus (known
as Strain V), it also reduced the amount of activated carbon used to filter
the fermentation broth from 20 to 10 kilograms per batch-suggesting that
inadequate filtration might have allowed impurities to pass through."
"That possibility is discounted by scientists at Showa Denko, says Richard
Hinds, a Washington lawyer who represents the Japanese firm. The amount of
powdered carbon used for filtration had varied before without ill effect,
and it was not unusual for it to dip this low, Hinds says."
Genetic engineering is also implicated by two additional facts:
(a) The toxin has never been shown to be present in the original,
non-genetically engineered bacteria. If the non-genetically engineered
bacteria do not produce the toxin, it would seem likely that genetic
engineering conferred the ability to produce the toxin.
(b) Tryptophan produced by other manufacturers, who have been using
non-genetically engineered bacteria, has never led to outbreaks of EMS, even
though these manufacturers are also likely to cut corners in their
purification procedures from time to time, as Showa Denko did.
Based on these points, we conclude that it is highly likely that genetic
engineering was the determining factor in generating this toxin.
http://www.home.intekom.com/tm_info/rw80101.htm#Tryptophan
----------------------------------------------------
see book:
The FDA Ban of L-Tryptophan:
Politics, Profits and Prozac
By Dean Wolfe Manders, Ph. D,