Posted by Larry Hoover on May 24, 2003, at 9:48:42
In reply to Re: Foods Serotonin ANOTHER question, posted by samplemethod on May 24, 2003, at 8:54:10
> Anyone using somethig with 5-htp to make it effective??
5-HTP will be effective on its own (or not, as the case may be). The rate-limiting step in the synthesis of serotonin is the conversion of l-tryptophan to 5-hydroxy-l-tryptophan. Once that is made, it is virtually instantaneously converted to 5-hydroxy-tryptamine (5-HT, or serotonin).
What are recognized as therapeutic doses of 5-HTP and l-tryptophan are, say, 50-100 mg 5-HTP, and 1-3 grams of l-tryptophan. Note, the twenty-fold (or more) difference in dose, not even accounting for the slightly higher molecular weight of 5-HTP.
There ain't no way to make it work better, unless you are nearly totally deficient in B-vitamins.
> And below...
> Very interesting Lar.
>
> Would you suggest the 45 min high carb method after taking a 5-htp pill. At the moment my 5-htp doesn't seem to affect me at all.Can't help you there. Given the physiological fact that 5-HTP is not normally found in the bloodstream, I have no idea just how it gets past the blood-brain barrier. Nevertheless, it does so, despite the relatively small dose. Can't hurt to try it. Let us know how the experiment works (or not).
> Some people also say take levodopa with 5-htp and that will work? Can you shed any light on this.You'd be simultaneously increasing dopamine and serotonin, by increasing intermediate precursors of both. Nothing more than that.
>I am also wondering if there is some sort of coenzyme for 5-htp to cross the blood brain barrier or have something to do with the the rate limiting step of 5-htp to setotonin (Within the brain). Some sort of hydroxylase.
The rate-limiting conversion of 5-HTP to 5-HT is a decarboxylase. A hydroxylase would back-convert 5-HTP to l-tryptophan.
Decarboxylase requires vitamin B-6.
Blood-brain barrier transporters use ATP for energy. Mitochondrial energy-production defects may inhibit that process, and that's what NADH fixes (or enhances).
> Anyone using somethig with 5-htp to make it effective?Try some B-6? Pyridoxine must be activated by liver conversion to pyridoxal-5-phosphate. There are defects in that process, so some people require P5P, rather than pyridoxine. It's hard to find, and friggin' expensive.
I appreciate what you're trying to accomplish, and the questions you're asking (by the way, I love questions). However, you must find ways to determine what aspects of your individual physiology are amenable to manipulation. In other words, you need to do experiments. What works for some will not work for others.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:227441
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030520/msgs/228813.html