Posted by Paulie on April 23, 2003, at 14:28:30
In reply to What are the best Natural Serotonin enhancers?, posted by McPac on April 22, 2003, at 23:13:04
From Depression-anti-aging therapies by James South
Increased brain production of serotonin through tryptophan supplementation does not automatically increase serotonin nerve activity. At low levels of psychobiologic arousal, there will be adequate serotonin to support the correlative low serotonin nerve activity, even when neuron levels of tryptophan and serotonin are low (22). This more apathetic, vegetative quiescent variety of depression ("I'm so depressed I can't even get out of bed") is referred to as the "apathetic-inhibited" type (22). This form of depression represents more of a deficiency of activity of the dopamine/ noradrenalin "yang" "get-up-and-go", activating neural circuits, and so tryptophan/ serotonin may offer little relief to, or even worsen, this type of depression.
At higher levels of arousal, however, the more rapid turnover of serotonin in the synaptic gap will require higher levels of serotonin production to adequately maintain the greater activity of serotonin circuits. Thus Young and Teff suggest that tryptophan will be most effective as an anti-depressant in those suffering from "anxious-agitated" depression, with its high state of stress arousal, combined with the depression (22). Anxious, agitated depression occurs when a person's dopaminergic/ noradrenergic activating ("yang") neural circuits are functioning strongly, without the calming, relaxing, mellowing serotonin circuits ("yin") functioning strongly as a complementary counterbalance.
Paulie
poster:Paulie
thread:221657
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030423/msgs/221780.html