Posted by Larry Hoover on May 24, 2003, at 11:39:36
In reply to Re: Foods Serotonin ANOTHER question » samplemethod, posted by Larry Hoover on May 24, 2003, at 9:48:42
> > 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.Perhaps you meant cabidopa. It's a peripheral decarboxylase inhibitor. By blocking peripheral conversion to serotonin, you'd make more 5-HTP available to the brain. However, the efficacy of 5-HTP without carbidopa is clear.
Peripheral serotonin increase is probably not a good thing. Carcinoid tumours can pump out serotonin, and many of the symptoms arise from that. And, as I understand it, the heart valve damage caused by the combination therapy phen-fen was due to serotonin increases in cardiac muscle.
> >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.I don't know why I said "rate-limiting", above. Just delete that bit. The converting enzyme is a decarboxylase.
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:227441
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030520/msgs/228836.html