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Aspirin + 5htp: safer way to take 5htp?

N

nevada

Greenlighter
Joined
Mar 21, 2010
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hi guys
(btw im not really sure if posting here or in ADD)
found some recent research papers that may be interesting for those interested in 5htp and its safety
it is well known that 5htp raises the risk of cardiac valve fibrosis, due to an unwanted raise in blood serotonin levels (rather than the brain)
many people in the world take this supplement mainly for depression, but there is this underlying risk.

i've found those scientific papers while searching about the safety of 5htp, where it is said that aspirin reduces serotonin levels in the blood (reducing the risks associated with 5htp) its a very recent paper, published just the last tuesday, 15 feb 2011:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21327581

also in high doses, it seems that aspirin can even raise serotonin levels in the brain:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...693c830c83690d21348b73cdb4ef2304&searchtype=a

well i think the next times i'll take 5htp, I 'll take also some aspirin!:)

hope may be useful to everybody was asking itself whether 5htp was safe or not
 
I'm sorry to say, but it is highly unlikely aspirin will have any protective effects on cardiac fibrosis caused by excessive 5-HT2B activation. Aspirin protects against hypertrophy and fibrosis by inhibiting platelet aggregation, with platelet aggregation normally leading to release of 5-HT. There's a few levels at which it can be illustrated aspirin will probably have zero protective effects:

- 5-HT levels can only drop if there is significant platelet aggregation to begin with. In healthy individuals, this is not the case so aspirin can not prevent any 5-HT release since there is next to none to begin with.
- In case of 5-HTP supplementation, 5-HTP is converted to 5-HT in the liver and not in blood platelets. So even if aspirin would significantly inhibit 5-HT release by platelets, 5-HT levels would still be elevated because of metabolism in the liver.
- In case of 2C-E, there is direct 5-HT2B receptor activation through 2C-E. It is more than likely that 2C-E has an affinity for the 5-HT2B receptor that greatly exceeds 5-HT's affinity. Even if that is not the case, the concentration of 2C-E is so much higher than that of 5-HT (typical 5-HT blood concentration is 100-250 ng/mL) that even filtering off al of the 5-HT will have no effect.

So long story short, although it probably won't do you any harm if you keep the dosage of aspirin relatively low, it is totally unlikely it will have any protective effects regarding 5-HT2B- or 5-HTP-mediated cardiac fibrosis. Not to mention the increased risk of (internal) bleeding if you regularly take aspirin.

Note: Post copied from other topic, too lazy to edit. :p
 
i would think antioxidants would provide better protection against toxic compounds in the bloodstream. Aspirin in itself is very mildly toxic and thins the blood (doesn't protect anything from damage though).

It will reduce the risk of heart attack if you take aspirin but I think supplementing with various antioxidants would be healthier.
 
Anti-oxidants won't do anything either, it's all receptor-mediated effects so it can only be prevented by antagonists, reverse agonists or some means of interfering in the intracellular pathway.

Wouldn't hurt to take some anti-oxidants though. ;)
 
I'm willing to bet that 5-HTP's cardiotoxicity has much to do with its conversion to 5-HT before reaching the brain, causing it to accumulate in the blood for reasons mentioned by the above posts. What you want is a decarboxylaze-inhibitor (eg. carbidopa), which inhibits the conversion of 5-HTP into 5-HT (or L-DOPA into dopamine) in the bloodstream.

That said, I personally have never seen value in 5-HTP and my personal advice is that you're better off not taking it altogether.
 
Jamshyd said:
I'm willing to bet that 5-HTP's cardiotoxicity has much to do with its conversion to 5-HT before reaching the brain, causing it to accumulate in the blood for reasons mentioned by the above posts. What you want is a decarboxylaze-inhibitor (eg. carbidopa), which inhibits the conversion of 5-HTP into 5-HT (or L-DOPA into dopamine) in the bloodstream.

That said, I personally have never seen value in 5-HTP and my personal advice is that you're better off not taking it altogether.
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Can you please give me more information on this
 
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