Posted by Anton on July 17, 2003, at 17:27:25
In reply to Re: 5HTP--PLEASE how much to take, safe, what bran, posted by avid abulia on July 17, 2003, at 16:28:27
Yeah, you may get a bit of diarrhea on it at first few days, and may get tiredness, similar to another anti-depressents and it does take a few weeks for a good therapeutic dose to build up, but if you want to compare it's side effects to anti depressents, then it's way ahead for people with minor depression or maybe seasonal depression, it's a worthy alternative than anti depressents in this case, it also stables appetite so that you don't feel hungry all the time like on other anti depressents. It is also many times more active than tryptophan. There's been numerous studies comparing 5-htp to anti-depressents and it's said to work just as well with less side effects, so go figure. Its probably not known to be used as much because it is a natural hebal remedy that can be bought without prescription and not many anti depressent drug companies would like that I would gather. I sometimes wish I had of stayed on it, in a combo with sam-e, but I have ocd and anxiety from ocd and needed something stronger. And there is really no point in taking it while on any other serotonin drugs. Another good thing about 5-htp is when tappering of any anti depressents it works like a charm to reduce any withdrawl symptoms. Here's some articles if you want to learn more about it,
http://www.naturalinvestor.com/nfm-online/nfm_backs/Nov_00/5htp.cfm
http://www.prohealthnetwork.com/library/showarticle.cfm/id/3130/T/Both/
for a very unbiased review:
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psychology/health_psychology/5htp_myth.htm
poster:Anton
thread:242396
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030714/msgs/242945.html