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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 5 of 5. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by qbsbrown on December 28, 2007, at 15:03:38
was wondering if the serotonin would act the same as does in the drugs. I would love to take for sleep, but not at the risk of mania.
Regards,
Brian
Posted by bleauberry on December 28, 2007, at 20:56:35
In reply to Does Taking TRYPTOPHAN induce mania like SSRIs do?, posted by qbsbrown on December 28, 2007, at 15:03:38
Yes it can. I've had it happen to me. I've had short-lived hypomania from tryptophan as well as the ugly frantic irritated agitated angry kind. It went away within a day after stopping it.
I do not think tryptophan is likely to induce mania except in people who are vulnerable to it or overly sensitive to brain chemistry changes. If you feel you are at risk for it then you would want to start at really low dose, like maybe 100mg, and stay at that dose for a week before increasing it another 100mg, and be on the lookout the whole time for either improvement, worsening, or mania.
Posted by linkadge on December 28, 2007, at 22:48:23
In reply to Re: Does Taking TRYPTOPHAN induce mania like SSRIs do?, posted by bleauberry on December 28, 2007, at 20:56:35
I think it is probably a lot less likely than with SSRI's. There are case reports of tryptophan producing antimanic effects in some bipolars. There are a few reports of lithium/tryptophan combinations. Apparently, lithium facilitates the uptake of tryptophan into the brain.
It could still happen though, as it did with blueberry.
Linkadge
Posted by qbsbrown on December 29, 2007, at 12:33:04
In reply to Re: Does Taking TRYPTOPHAN induce mania like SSRIs do?, posted by linkadge on December 28, 2007, at 22:48:23
Posted by bleauberry on December 29, 2007, at 19:26:08
In reply to Split doses? Or once at night? (nm), posted by qbsbrown on December 29, 2007, at 12:33:04
Dosing tryptophan is an individual customized thing. Most do it in the evening. Some do it in the morning. Some do it in a single dose and some in multiple doses. You have to experiment what is best for you.
Keep in mind tryptophan converts to a lot of different things besides serotonin. For example if you do not have enough niacin in you the tryptophan will be converted to niacin and not leave much left for serotonin. Basically to get good tryptophan conversion you need an adequate pool of B vitamins, C, and some minerals, with I believe zinc being the most important one, not sure on that. Even in a best case scenario I believe about 10% of tryptophan gets converted to serotonin. The rest goes to other stuff. So roughly speaking a 500mg dose of tryptophan is about 50mg 5htp.
Tryptophan has to compete with other amino acids to gain entry in the brain. Other amino acids bully it out of the way. To get maximum entry you want to take it before a meal, or a couple hours after a meal, and take it with some type of natural sugar such as orange juice to enhance its entry. Otherwise a lot of it just gets wasted and never gets where you want it.
Generally I found tryptophan very calming. Too calming for me. I think with me too much of it went into melatonin conversion, and melatonin depresses me. The time it sparked nasty mania was when I took it in the daytime without vitamins. It only lasted a day and maybe wasn't even mania but maybe just a bad reaction.
This is the end of the thread.
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