Jamshyd, what dose did you take? What else did you take with it?
I definitely experienced a little bit of mild mania the first day that I took it, on both occasions. I had odd intrusive thoughts, thought I saw things out of the corner of my eye a few times, and definitely have taken more joy in all pleasurable things, since trying this. I had a few tics at first, that's the most bothersome side effect.
I've read as much literature as I could find about this substance on the net. It seems the jury is still out on its safety, but it would seem I'm taking it conservatively (only twice, only 333mg of extract), compared to many reports I've read of people who've used it much more and in larger doses, and are fine, physically and mentally. I agree that this is a plant to treat with great respect, and never abuse. More is not better, and nor is more often. Mania and psychosis are real risks with this, especially for people with family histories of either one, or people who are under great stress, I'd imagine.
I've also talked to two of my professors about this plant, and about the enzymatic cleaving of L-dopa into dopamine in general. Only one had heard of this supplement, and he said the side effect and toxicity profile wasn't as high as that of pharmaceutical L-dopa, though no one knows quite why. They both said that in most cases, few of the catecholamines stand a chance of making it to the brain at all, when taken orally.
Essentially, L-dopa crosses the blood brain barrier and gets taken up by axons. It's then cleaved inside the cells into DA, and packaged into vesicles. So it's not like there are DA receptors being bombarded willy nilly by free molecules of DA in the bloodstream, the way I'd imagined it. But what does happen when you take L-dopa (or 5-htp, if we're talking serotonin -- same enzyme!), is that your DA neurons get their neurotransmitter vesicles filled to the brim, and often spill over when the vesicles just get too full or too numerous. This is where dosing gets important, I would think. I want to keep my stocks of DA up. I do NOT want to exceed that, because the psychological and neurological symptoms of too much dopaminergic stimulation aren't fun. Also, the metabolic breakdown products of all that excess dopamine must exert some oxidative stress (my biochem chops aren't that great -- I'll need one of you ADD gurus to confirm this).
This explains why I've found this chemical to have a long-term antidepressant effect, long after the less pleasant (but in me, mild) effects wore off. I have essentially the opposite of synaptic fatigue and neurotransmitter depletion.
I think I'm only going to take this, perhaps even less than one whole cap, when I feel the symptoms of low dopaminergic tone.
asecin said:
mydoorsopen, you owe me man. i got u hooked on that shit. if it wasnt for this thread and me discussing it, u would still be doing ur average drugs.
Don't flatter yourself too much there, boss. I'd actually ordered this supplement before you made this thread.
