Posted by zefdie on June 19, 2006, at 2:29:08
In reply to Re: where did u go? - chest pain » cardinaldirection, posted by Larry Hoover on June 6, 2006, at 6:18:28
> 5-HTP can go straight to serotonin, in the blood stream. That can cause cardiac changes. What do they call the peripheral decarboxylase inhibitor, carbidopa? You may need to take an enzyme inhibitor, to get the psych effects you're looking for.
Hi Larry, I had a question I thought you might have ideas about.What do you think of sublingual 5-htp? There are 50 mg sublingual 5-htp supplements with pyridoxal 5'-phosphate. I'm wondering if taking 5-htp this way is even more dangerous for the heart than is taking a 5-htp capsule. I thought it might be a way to get more 5-htp into the brain rather than the stomach, but I don't know how quickly 5-htp converts to serotonin and if all I'm really doing by taking it this way is getting lots of serotonin into my bloodstream.
I've found that this way of taking 5-htp works really well for my depression but I want to be safe as well.
Tryptophan has limited effect for me. I suppose I could try pharmaceutical grade. I so prefer 5-htp but I don't want to screw with my heart.
Here's one study comparing 5-htp with a decarboxylase inhibitor and with 5-htp without. It found no difference in efficacy:
Neuropsychobiology. 1988;20(1):28-35.
L-5-hydroxytryptophan alone and in combination with a peripheral decarboxylase inhibitor in the treatment of depression.
Zmilacher K, Battegay R, Gastpar M. Psychiatric University Outpatient Department, Basel, Switzerland.
In an open study 25 depressed patients were treated with L-5-hydroxytryptophan (L-5-HTP) either alone or in combination with a peripheral decarboxylase inhibitor. The therapeutic efficacy of L-5-HTP was considered as equal to that of traditional antidepressants. There was no difference in efficacy between the two treatments. Best results were obtained in patients with an anxious-agitated depressive syndrome and in patients with an endogenous depression if the illness had been acute. The onset of action was rapid (within 3 or 5 days). Gastrointestinal side effects proved to be dose-dependent and occurred more frequently in patients receiving L-5-HTP alone, whereas psychopathological side effects (especially acute anxiety states) have mainly been reported in patients receiving L-5-HTP in combination with a peripheral decarboxylase inhibitor.
PMID: 3265988 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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