Posted by Larry Hoover on December 7, 2003, at 18:42:34
In reply to Re: Larry, prohibited for sale in the U.S.? » Larry Hoover, posted by stjames on December 7, 2003, at 17:04:08
> Is there an advantage to taking a single product,
> l-tryptophan, vs increasing the foods it is rich in (eggs, ect) ? I would think the food source is more bio-avalible.There is a significant advantage to using pure l-trypophan over any other source. Actually two significant advantages.
The first is not specific to tryptophan, but is true of using any pure amino.....it requires no digestion, and uptake is rapid and probably close to 100%, if taken on an empty stomach.
The second advantage also requires the empty stomach thingie...
Once in the blood, tryptophan must be pumped across the blood/brain barrier. The pump (called the Large Neutral Amino Acid Transporter, LNAAT) is not specific to tryptophan. Tryptophan must compete against five other aminos for access to the pump, and tryptophan is in lower relative concentration to each of those five competitors in all common proteins. So, it starts at a disadvantage if ingested as a component of protein... but there's another aspect as well ....tryptophan has the lowest binding affinity for the pump receptor, as well. Low concentration combined with low affinity makes tryptophan uptake an inefficient process.
Getting back to the empty stomach advantage:
So, if you take an oral dose of tryptophan on an empty stomach, you raise the concentration of tryptophan relative to all its competitors, and it is far more likely to be taken up by the brain.In order to enhance brain uptake of tryptophan from complex sources, like hydrolysed whey or soy protein (the stuff body builders use), or simply from food, the trick is to eat a sugary dessert after the meal. The sugar triggers an insulin spike, and insulin causes muscles to take up amino acids (all the competitors to tryptophan), with the exception of tryptophan. This also gives tryptophan less hindered access to the LNAAT.
I hope that weren't too compleecated.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:286901
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20031204/msgs/287508.html