The link below has come up before and has been brought up again by Pinkanga:
http://yarchive.net/med/5-htp.html
Basically, when injested, 5-HTP being an amino acid, undergoes decarboxylation inside the liver by a certain enzyme. By this process it is converted into 5-HT (serotonin). That is all good, but all this happens way before 5-HTP crosses the blood-brain barrier, and so it is wasted!!! Moreover, serotonin outside the brain causes other complications such as heart fibrosis etc.
All this should have been a common knowledge to all of us, if we did a bit more research! In fact, patients with Parkinson's desease (low levels of dopamine) have been treated using the same principle of using a dopamine precurser (L-DOPA) instead of using a serotonin precursor (5-HTP). EXCEPT, L-DOPA is never given by itself! Otherwise it would be decarboxylised in the liver the same way 5-HTP does! It is given with a decarboxylase inhibitor CarbiDOPA. This prevents L-DOPA being broken down in the liver, and lets it cross over into the brain, which is what we need. This also goes for 5-HTP!!!
Here is some info on Carbidopa (first decent page i've found so might not be the best one for facts/info):http://home.caregroup.org/clinical/altmed/interactions/Drugs/Carbidopa.htm
If anyone has any info on its availability, it would be great. All of this would explain why 5-HTP never really worked for me well, and if it did, it was probably a placebo effect.
[ 09 January 2003: Message edited by: Runner ]
[Edit: Changed title. BigTrancer]
[ 10 January 2003: Message edited by: BigTrancer ]
http://yarchive.net/med/5-htp.html
Basically, when injested, 5-HTP being an amino acid, undergoes decarboxylation inside the liver by a certain enzyme. By this process it is converted into 5-HT (serotonin). That is all good, but all this happens way before 5-HTP crosses the blood-brain barrier, and so it is wasted!!! Moreover, serotonin outside the brain causes other complications such as heart fibrosis etc.
All this should have been a common knowledge to all of us, if we did a bit more research! In fact, patients with Parkinson's desease (low levels of dopamine) have been treated using the same principle of using a dopamine precurser (L-DOPA) instead of using a serotonin precursor (5-HTP). EXCEPT, L-DOPA is never given by itself! Otherwise it would be decarboxylised in the liver the same way 5-HTP does! It is given with a decarboxylase inhibitor CarbiDOPA. This prevents L-DOPA being broken down in the liver, and lets it cross over into the brain, which is what we need. This also goes for 5-HTP!!!
Here is some info on Carbidopa (first decent page i've found so might not be the best one for facts/info):http://home.caregroup.org/clinical/altmed/interactions/Drugs/Carbidopa.htm
If anyone has any info on its availability, it would be great. All of this would explain why 5-HTP never really worked for me well, and if it did, it was probably a placebo effect.
[ 09 January 2003: Message edited by: Runner ]
[Edit: Changed title. BigTrancer]
[ 10 January 2003: Message edited by: BigTrancer ]