Posted by Larry Hoover on December 10, 2004, at 10:06:38
In reply to James South - anyone tried his recommendations?, posted by jasmineneroli on November 24, 2004, at 1:24:40
> Since I've been experimenting with tryptophan, under my Pdoc's care, I've become a little leery of taking amino acids, due to some unfortunate combination results recently.
> I had wanted to increase my nightly dose up to 2000mg because I'm not getting enough sleep relief from 1500mg (and 500mg does nothing at all). This over a period of 3 weeks.
> I am taking it with chromium picolinate, niacin and B6 (P5P), all apparently, will aid absorption.
> (My Pdoc has given me the OK to go as high as 3000mg). My anxiety/depression seems to somewhat under control, but anxiety breaks through now and then, even though I'm still taking Klonopin.
> I'm nervous about going up to 2,000 - 3,000mg.
> I just discovered Dr. James South's site and read his recommendations on tryptophan for anxiety/insomnia. He suggests combining 500-1500mg tryptophan with 33mg 5HTP and 5mg Melatonin.
> This sort of puts three phases of serotonin metabolism into your brain at once. Which I think is the point of the method!!
> Has anyone tried this combo?
> Does it seem safe :re-dosages? (isn't 50mg 5HTP equal to much higher doses of tryptophan..serotonin syndrome problem??).
> Love to know your opinions.
> Thanks,
> Jas
> PS (I go back to Pdoc in a week and would like to be armed with info).I guess you've been to the Pdoc by now.....
Yes, the strategy is to simultaneously load different components of the tryptophan pathway. I see nothing inherently dangerous there, but the high dose of melatonin might cause problems on its own.
The pineal gland is thought to produce about .4 to .5 mg melatonin per day, all of it released just before your normal sleep time (diurnal cycle). Exogenous (sourced from outside, literally) melatonin can be poorly absorbed, or may not fully cross the blood/brain barrier (individual differences), so a high supplemental dose may be required to fully augment natural pineal secretion.
However, and this may be important, the melatonin receptors shut down if they're overstimulated, i.e. if they saturate. Too high a dose will have the same effect as if there was no melatonin present at all.
So, that's my only concern with the melatonin recommendation. Each person has to find their own acceptable dose. I personally find that 1.5 mg is about as high as I can go, or it inhibits sleep induction. Later in the night, I do fall asleep, but that is heavy sleep, and I'm definitely hung over the next morning. I was taking about .4 mg, but I raised it a bit due to an article that suggested that selegiline and melatonin worked synergistically to reduce dopamine auto-oxidation.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:419594
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20041123/msgs/427173.html