Читать книгу The Mood Cure: Take Charge of Your Emotions in 24 Hours Using Food and Supplements - Julia Ross - Страница 49

Some people need additional nutritional help, beyond what 5-HTP can provide in the serotonin-building department. About 15 percent of our clients have found that 5-HTP either did nothing or made them sleepless, queasy, or mildly uncomfortable in some other way. (Note: If you get any adverse symptom from 5-HTP or any other supplement, stop taking it!) If you turn out to be one of the few who does not respond well to 5-HTP, there are two excellent backup remedies. One or both should work beautifully for you.

The first is the amino acid I’ve already mentioned as being the unique food source of both 5-HTP and serotonin. It’s the amino acid tryptophan.

You know that high-protein foods contain this very special amino, but you probably don’t know that tryptophan is also available as a supplement. Taken between meals in this concentrated form, it is converted much more quickly than it is from food, where it’s less concentrated and has to compete with all the other aminos in the bloodstream to get into your brain. Our clients find that tryptophan supplements work as quickly as 5-HTP does and research shows it to be equally impressive:

Over and over, studies have shown that removing tryptophan from our diet lowers serotonin and increases depression (including winter depression), insomnia, panic, and anger and also triggers bulimia and chemical dependency. In contrast, adding it as a supplement can raise serotonin 200 percent¹⁸ and prevent or reverse all of these dark cloud problems.¹⁹

The beneficial effects of tryptophan on sleep are legendary, and studies have demonstrated its powers in PMS²⁰ and fibromyalgia,²¹ as well.

In my favorite study, tryptophan stopped obsessive birds from plucking themselves bare of their own feathers.²² (There’s a tryptophan product based on this study called Avian Tranquility that is popular among veterinarians who treat obsessive-compulsive parrots!)

Some psychiatrists, desperate to help patients not benefiting from anti-depressant medication alone, have added tryptophan with positive results: in a British study of depressed patients who had been untouched on medication alone, tryptophan was added and the depressive symptoms suddenly dropped more than 50 percent.²³ In another study, when combined with Prozac, tryptophan increased the speed of antidepressant effects and eliminated the sleep disturbances that Prozac caused.²⁴

Actually, tryptophan has had an even longer and more illustrious history as a serotonin savior than 5-HTP, but it was taken out of circulation for several years and has only recently been returned. (For a full recounting of the tryptophan saga, see page 222.)

Tryptophan is harder to find and more expensive than 5-HTP, but it’s a godsend for those who don’t do well on 5-HTP. Tryptophan not only converts to 5-HTP and then to serotonin in minutes, it can also be used to make the important B vitamin niacin and many other valuable enzymes in the body. It is available by prescription (from compounding pharmacists only), mail order, and through some health practitioners. We’ve carried it in our clinic since 1999. You’ll find ordering suggestions in the Action Steps at the end of this chapter.