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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Liquid Serotonin...?

Crashing

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Has anyone heard of a product called Liquid Serotonin? I just discovered it on the internet and was wondering how it actually works. Apparently it's serotonin in water and ethanol to be taken orally... It says:


INDICATIONS:
For temporary relief of nervousness, anxiety, mood swings, joint pains, weakness, drowsiness, itching and lethargy.


And i got the thought that maybe it would be more effective for replenishing serotonin after tripping or rolling or what have you, than 5htp.
 
i gave it a quick google and if its the same little bottle with a dropper then I think its crap. (even though all "liquid serotonin" should be the same)
Its a "homeopathic" remedy, and i read a review on amazon.

"I purchased this item as a university student for the purpose of using it in a laboratory experiment with neuronal-like cells. The neurite outgrowth observed in the cells confirmed that this product does contain actual serotonin. The concentration is not listed, but it was significantly more than required for affecting neuronal cell function in culture. Serotonin is not, however, able to cross the blood-brain barrier, and would not affect any portion of the central nervous system if ingested. The product is what it is claimed to be, though this means that it would likely be ineffective for many medicinal uses unless injected directly into the brain, which may have detrimental side effects. At any rate, it served my purposes, but I don't think people should try to heavily modify their neurochemistry and hormonal levels without professional assistance."

And

IMO, it sounds like its useless and if it really is serotonin and cant pass the Blood Brain Barrier, then it sucks completely. Plus homeopathic remedies are mostly wack. 5-htp converts to serotonin anyway so i think that should be better since it for sure does something

The review seems pretty legit considering it was someone in a university
 
I had suspicions that it wouldn't even make it to the brain but i'm not a chemist. You body can't do anything with prefabricated serotonin based on the review you posted.

I agree, homeopathic remedies are mostly just placebo. One of the greatest examples is homeopathic restless legs pills i bought. They are just talc, but actually distracted from me from my restless legs for about 2 minutes as i let the strange texture dissolve under my tongue trying to figure out what the hell was happening to my mouth.
 
Highly doubt it's actual serotonin. More than likely it's a clever product name to deceive and lure in customers who simply don't know any better. I'd steer clear, who knows what it could actually be.
 
I had suspicions that it wouldn't even make it to the brain but i'm not a chemist. You body can't do anything with prefabricated serotonin based on the review you posted.

I agree, homeopathic remedies are mostly just placebo. One of the greatest examples is homeopathic restless legs pills i bought. They are just talc, but actually distracted from me from my restless legs for about 2 minutes as i let the strange texture dissolve under my tongue trying to figure out what the hell was happening to my mouth.

haha i know which ones your talking about. I think they were hylands or something..But atleast they melted in a relaxing way lol
 
The majority of "Liquid Serotonin" is a homeopathic product. Whether it does anything or not probably depends on whether you believe in homeopathy IMO. Homeopathic remedies are prepared by repeatedly diluting a substance in water or alcohol. In true homeopathic remedies, dilution usually continues to the point where no detectable level of the original substance remains. Originally, homeopathy was based on the idea that a small amount of a substance that causes the symptoms in healthy people will treat those symptoms in sick people - this idea in itself is not crazy and is sometimes used in medicine. But what makes homeopathy unusual is the extremely tiny quantities of the substance used, that, as far as we currently understand, are not enough to have any effect. The theory given to explain it is that perhaps the water can capture come sort of vibration, memory or energy of the substance. This is not provable with current science. However, what we do know is that most clinical studies on homeopathic remedies found their effects to be equivalent to (or only very slighter better than) placebo.

The strange thing is that I have seen this "Liquid Serotonin" sold for all sorts of purposes/symptoms, some which you would associate with having too much serotonin and some which you would associate with having not enough serotonin. Even if I did believe in homeopathy, it sounds like it is being misleadingly marketed as a panacea capitalizing on the fact that a lot of people have heard only a little about serotonin and assume serotonin=good.

Some so-called "homeopathic" remedies these days, are not true homeopathic remedies, meaning they have not been quite so heavily diluted, but even if the liquid were to contain pure serotonin, serotonin itself cannot pass through the blood-brain barrier, only its precursors can, so taking serotonin would presumably only have an effect on other parts of your body, such as the digestive system (too much serotonin in the digestive system can cause unpleasant symptoms like diarrhea and nausea). This BBB problem is why serotonin itself is not used in Western medicine and we have so many drugs that indirectly raise serotonin levels or slow its removal from the brain.

If you want to raise your serotonin levels without prescription drugs, there are far better options which have actually been proven to work. For example, taking supplements of serotonin precursors, such as tryptophan or 5-HTP. Note that you should really be taking a balance of other amino acids as well, especially if you don't get enough from your diet, because serotonin precursors need the help of other amino acids to effectively pass the blood brain barrier and you also do not want an imbalance of too much serotonin and not enough of other neurotransmitters such as dopamine (unless you are only using it in situations where you have way too much dopamine), and should also take B vitamins, as they are needed to convert 5-HTP to serotonin. Studies have shown tryptophan or 5-HTP supplementation to be effective even without supplementing these other things, but taking B vitamins and amino acids alongside them makes them more effective and decreases the likelihood of side effects such as a decrease in other neurotransmitters.
 
Serotonin is not, however, able to cross the blood-brain barrier, and would not affect any portion of the central nervous system if ingested

Exactly what i was going to say. Tryptophan and 5-HTP can cross the BBB and enter the serotonergic pathway, and that's the reason people take these as supplements and not serotonin itself. Even if the product did have serotonin in it (which it seems it doesn't) it would do diddly-squat in helping you pre-load.

Sounds like a scam. Get some 5-HTP, it works really well in boosting your mood. ;)
 
I don't think any neurotransmitter can cross the BBB by itself. That's the reason why we take l-tyrosine, l-tryptopfan etc which are all pro-drugs.
 
If you want to raise your serotonin levels without prescription drugs, there are far better options which have actually been proven to work. For example, taking supplements of serotonin precursors, such as tryptophan or 5-HTP. Note that you should really be taking a balance of other amino acids as well, especially if you don't get enough from your diet, because serotonin precursors need the help of other amino acids to effectively pass the blood brain barrier and you also do not want an imbalance of too much serotonin and not enough of other neurotransmitters such as dopamine (unless you are only using it in situations where you have way too much dopamine), and should also take B vitamins, as they are needed to convert 5-HTP to serotonin. Studies have shown tryptophan or 5-HTP supplementation to be effective even without supplementing these other things, but taking B vitamins and amino acids alongside them makes them more effective and decreases the likelihood of side effects such as a decrease in other neurotransmitters.

Is that like a standard truth with most supplements? Because with tyrosine for sure you need b vitamins, i was wondering if b vitamins just help everything get absorbed better? like for example theanine
 
Is that like a standard truth with most supplements? Because with tyrosine for sure you need b vitamins, i was wondering if b vitamins just help everything get absorbed better? like for example theanine

It depends on the vitamin/supplement; amino acids (including theanine) do need B vitamins. It's not exactly that they help them absorb better though, they help the body to be able to use them.
 
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