Читать книгу The Mood Cure: Take Charge of Your Emotions in 24 Hours Using Food and Supplements - Julia Ross - Страница 76

If you rely on coffee as your pick-me-up, it is particularly important to take tyrosine supplements and to eat tyrosine-rich protein foods in the morning so that you can make and keep yourself alert without it. Caffeine raises your mood for a short time, only to bring it crashing down later. To make matters worse, it robs you of the crucial morning appetite that would otherwise lead you to eat a good cat-stimulating breakfast (not to mention impairing your sleep, your blood pressure, and the other things I mention in chapter 7). You’ll be surprised at how well substituting tyrosine for caffeine will work for you. (Plan on going through the usual caffeine withdrawal headache at first, though.)

Don’t overdo tyrosine or it can make you jittery or even raise your blood pressure too high. Let me give you an example of what can happen when you take more tyrosine than you personally need. David and his daughter Sharon were experiencing the blahs after years of demanding careers and unrelenting family-related stress. They read about tyrosine in The Diet Cure. It sounded so good that they decided to take 4 capsules three times a day—much more than the recommended starting dosage—because they assumed that more would be better and they were so run-down. Both did have overnight increases in energy and a complete elimination of their depressive symptoms.

After two weeks, however, David started to feel unusually tense and to wake up a little too early. When he went for a physical, his doctor told him his blood pressure was too high. David came to see us soon afterward and we told him to stop his tyrosine and read the warnings he’d apparently overlooked in The Diet Cure; too much tyrosine can cause headaches, elevated blood pressure, and a wired, jittery feeling.

David reported that his mood and energy slumped as soon as he stopped taking tyrosine, but his blood pressure went back to normal. A few weeks later, we suggested that he take 1 tyrosine capsule in the early morning and again at midmorning for a while, monitoring his blood pressure as he went along. His apathy disappeared again right away, but this time his blood pressure stayed down.

David’s daughter Sharon, on the other hand, could initially handle 4 capsules of tyrosine at a time just fine. She loved them. After six weeks she cut back to 3 capsules (three times a day). In her third month, she settled at 2 capsules three times a day; and after six months, she no longer needed tyrosine at all.

Your body’s reactions must be your guide in determining how much tyrosine you’ll need and when you can start cutting back. If, for any reason, you feel discomfort or no benefit after starting tyrosine, but you clearly have the symptoms associated with cat deficiency, do the following:

1. Stop taking your tyrosine and review the amino acid warning signs in the “Caution Box” on pages 199–200.

2. Read part 2 of this chapter starting on page 65 to see if you have a low-thyroid condition.