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Neurogenesis and precurser ratios supplements for opiate recovery

Mlgjp8612

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 2, 2016
Messages
34
Hope i posted in correct category. I saw a couple of fitting ones.

Im 33 year old female. Started off heavy marijuana smoker for a few years. Afterward For.a good ten years ive been an IV opiate user. Ive been mostly clean for a month and no longer physically dependent. Ive done my fair share of stimulants, downers and mdma. The heaviest mdma use was between 2006 and 2008 and last use was 8+ years ago. Ive got some neuro endocrine, autoimmune and probably adrenal issues going on. Probably for starters from living in intense stress, fear and negativity for my whole life. In turn led to substance.abuse and made those issues worse. I cleared hep c a good 3 months ago.

Im considering using lions mane and rhodiola or tryptophan. If i supplement with dopamine precursers and my receptors are damaged, which im assuming they are, then its pointless. This is why i thought tryptophan would be better. However, from my understanding, if you supplement with one and not the other you can further the.imbalance. has anyone heard that supposed general rule of thumb is to supplement both in 1:10 ration. (100mg tryptophan 1000mg tyrosine)
Also from my understanding, and similar concept as to why you should not supplement with only 1 of those.2, if your dopamine is low and serotonin high, it will start pulling serotonin level down. This does not make.sense to me as none of that serotonin is converted into dopamine so why/how is the serotonin being drawn from.

What are your opinions on this? Everyones neuro chemistry is different and there isnt much known on these.things and its very.frustrating to me. Ive thought about upregulating D receptor but that for some reason makes me a little nervous.

Im working on my gut health and clean eating. I try to keep moving but been to depressed to do any intense exercise. I know its the best way to get endorphins flowing and to heal on all fronts really.
 
Supplementation with tryptophan and tyrosine is not of much use if you get a healthy amount of protien in your diet. Not only is the conversion of tyrosine->l-dopa and tryptophan->5-htp the rate limiting steps in monoamine synthesis (meaning if you take excess of either amino acid your body will not make any more dopamine or serotonin) but even taking L-dopa/5-htp will result in >90% of the dose being converted to monoamines outside the BBB and hence will do very little for central DA/5HT levels at all thanks to the activity of aromatic amino acid decarboxylase. see also, why people with parkinsons take L-dopa with carbidopa and not alone.

Also if you are able to exercise and write a BL post using basic logic and reasoning you almost certainly have functional non damaged DA receptors. The receptors themselves are almost never damaged as your body synthesizes new ones slowly but surely and they control, among other things, muscular movement and coordination. If anything was damaged it would be the neurons that present DA receptors but even then you'd expect to see parkinsonian symptoms if you actually damaged them to any extent. Moreover opioid use is not known to be directly neurotoxic as much as it is toxic to ones lifestyle/sociology (doing opioids leads to prioritizing opioids over other "normal" rewarding activity like hanging out with interesting people, experiencing new things, a healthy diet and aerobic exercise).

It sounds excessively simple and reductionistic but in cases of recovering from moderate to heavy drug use associated with anhedonia and depression I strongly advocate a review of your diet, an exercise plan with at least a moderate amount of aerobic exercise, social support and mindfulness working toward the life you want to be living rather than expecting pharmacological agents to "make it all better". You should focus on making each day a little better than the last and striving towards being productive while finding natural sources of rewarding activity in your life whether that be learning, helping others, or treating your body and mind right with good food and good people. Don't get bogged down in assuming your problems are caused solely by the activity of one or two chemicals in your head, you could have the highest dopamine/serotonin levels ever measured but if you sit on your butt watching TV all day you'll feel like crap.
 
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