it's awesome karrie. i was reading books by Dr. Daniel Amen (the PBS guy who does stuff on the brain, including differences between men/women brains) and i'd just gone through months of trauma with my bully boss. i'd developed anxiety attacks and depression and had taken paxil for a few months. went off the paxil (side effects) and started taking the 5-HTP because of what Dr. Amen had said about it and what i'd found in researching it.
i think of it like baking bread. if you want to make bread you have to have enough flour, right? well for your brain to make serotonin and melatonin (the feel good and make you go to sleep hormones) your brain has to have access to enough tryptophans. i might have that spelled wrong.
HAHAHAHA my silent little anya just came walking toward me crying victorious. i said "whatcha got anya?" and sure enough, she had a plastic bag in her mouth. she LOVES ziplock bags.
ok, back to the 5-HTP. anyway, you can't just take serotonin - your brain either has to make it or some antidepressants work by helping your body hold onto the serotonin it's already made (serotonin re-uptake inhibitors.) but a caveat, if you are taking an antidepressant you have to be careful with the 5-HTP because there is a condition where you can get too much serotonin in your brain that is serious. i think it's called serotonin psychosis. as long as you're not taking an antidepressant, you're fine taking the 5-HTP. i asked my chiropractor about it because she's also a naturopath and she told me she's taken it for years & thinks nearly all of us are deficient in it. she said if you're not deficient you simply won't notice anything. here in oregon tons of people have SAD, seasonal affective disorder (depression) from the lack of light - you need light to make both seratonin and melatonin.
i take 50 mg at bedtime - dr amen recommends you start there and can take as much as 300/day. i find the 50 is perfect. i could tell the difference the next day - really. slept like i was a teenager again and felt super the next morning. my son was having serious anxiety & depression problems and was taking celexa for about a year. he went off of it, but when winter arrived he started feeling badly again and i got him to try the 5-HTP - and he was thrilled with it. my youngest daughter also takes it.
you can get it over the counter in with supplements. i buy it from pureformulas.com because that particular brand is coming from the research lab and i figure i'm getting a controlled quality. the thing with supplements is you never can be certain about the contents so you want to buy from a reputable brand.
http://www.pureformulas.com/5hydroxytryptophan-90-vegetarian-capsules-by-thorne-research.html
if you decide to try it, let me know if you like it or not. i've told a ton of people about it and am always curious.
Very interesting program.
