Posted by Adam on August 20, 2001, at 16:44:23
In reply to No MAOI food reaction?, posted by djmmm on August 20, 2001, at 8:41:04
Some people are simply less prone to hypertensive reactions than others. The thing is, unless you monitored your blood pressure with an accurate instrument after ingesting a "forbidden food", there's no empirical way to determine if you are hypertensive or not. You may not experience anything noticible, but still have an elevated blood pressure. The amount of b.p. elevation may not be dangerous. There are many things to consider and possible explanations. In the case of your protein supplement, not knowing what all its ingredients are, it's hard to say. None of the amino acids that you mentioned have the sympathomimmetic properties that tyramine has, though.
The neurontin, acting as it does on the GABAnergic system, may lower b.p. a little. Phenelzine itself has some enhancing effects on GABA signaling (as does isocarboxazid), and this may explain, at least in part, why these MAOIs do not cause rare cases of spontaneous hypertension, like tranylcypromine can (tranylcypromine seems to have some amphetamine-like properties, which may be the source of the trouble). But none of these factors is as potent, I think, as simple person-to-person variability, and one's susceptibility to hypertensive reactions is something that presently cannot be determined beforehand. You would simply have to try and see, which could be dangerous if not done with caution.
Dose is also an important variable. The amount of tyramine you consume is going to determine how severe a response you are going to have. You may simply have not eaten enough of a questionable food to have seen an effect, but it would not mean you were incapable of having a hypertensive reaction to a sufficient dose of tyramine.
> What would cause someone to NOT have any sort of reaction to tyramine? I don't follow a MAOI diet, and never have, I also take protein supplements (in the form of a shake) which include (among others):
>
> *L-Phenylalanine 3500 mg
> *L-Tryptophan 1340 mg
> L-Tyrosine 2780 mg
>
> My doc has no clue...I'm a 23 yr old male, I take Nardil (60mg) for depression...and Neurontin (1800mg), Topamax (200mg) for epilepsy, and occasionally (1 or 2 x a week )Inderal (40mg) and trazadone (50mg)
>
> any input would be appreciated..
poster:Adam
thread:75656
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010814/msgs/75711.html