Posted by elanor roosevelt on March 16, 2007, at 20:41:12 [reposted on March 24, 2007, at 23:12:29 | original URL]
In reply to Re: 5 HTP Supplements... weight gain? » elanor roosevelt, posted by Larry Hoover on March 16, 2007, at 7:54:03
thanks
i'll try the tryptophan
as on it on the old days
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> 5-HTP is one step closer to serotonin than the amino acid tryptophan, normally thought of as the precursor to serotonin. If you take 5-HTP, the thinking is that you boost serotonin production, but there are concerns that much of that serotonin is produced peripherally, i.e. outside of the central nervous system, where you'd like it to be synthesized. That said, 5-HTP might also promote the formation of melatonin, so it is sometimes promoted as a mild sleep aid.
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> Far better, IMHO, to simply take tryptophan. Before there was a big scare about contamination of tryptophan, it was the most commonly used antidepressant in North America. Right about the same time Prozac was rolled out as the miracle "happy pill", a rare blood disorder was linked to cheap Japanese tryptophan. Even though they traced all the bad stuff to one factory, and that place was shut down, the fear of tryptophan contamination has been allowed to hang over this amino acid for years. The FDA restored the legality of human use tryptophan in 1994 (to zero publicity, I might add), yet it remains illegal for an American to import it. I just buy veterinary tryptophan, intended to calm mares during breeding.
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> Lar
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poster:elanor roosevelt
thread:743970
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20070320/msgs/743985.html