Anyone ever use 5-HTP and or L-Tryosine for depression?

[DerickVonD]

I've tried a **** load of anti-depressants and they never work past 2 months and they always kill my sex drive and motivation.

 

[purebred]

The Good Drug Guide : new mood-brighteners and antidepressants

HYPERICUM
Hypericum is important for a different reason altogether. Many constitutionally unhappy people refuse to have anything to do with orthodox Western medicine. They won't take "unnatural" pharmaceutical products at all. In consequence, they spend much of their lives trapped in a squalid psychochemical ghetto of low spirits. The only sort of remedy that they'll conceivably contemplate taking must carry a "natural" label and soothingly "herbal" description.

Unfortunately, most folk remedies are only marginally effective. Our drug-metabolising enzymes are the product of an evolutionary arms race to counteract plant toxins. For plants tend to manufacture psychotropics because they poison or debilitate creatures tempted to eat them - not to heal our psychic woes. The Wisdom Of Nature is a quaint piece of make-believe. Perversely, several of the natural remedies that sometimes actually work - notably Cannabis sativa, Erythroxylon coca and Papaver somniferum - are now illegal to consume. Other "natural" interventions such as bright light therapy combined with good sleep discipline may be of limited use. But two options worth exploring are SAMe and St John's wort.

Hypericum, the active ingredient in St John's wort, appears to be an effective mood-brightener and anxiolytic - by today's standards at least. Its side-effect profile and efficacy in mild-to-moderate depression compares favourably with its synthetic counterparts. Hypericum's blend of serotonin-reuptake inhibiting and (mild) MAO-inhibiting properties (not a combination otherwise to be explored with potent synthetics: the risk of the potentially fatal serotonin syndrome is too great) contributes to - without wholly explaining - its generally benign effects. Once again, much more research is needed, preferably not bankrolled by the makers of lucrative competing products. Thus a German trial published in the British Medical Journal in February 2005 reported that a proprietary standardised extract of hypericum/St John's wort was more effective and a better tolerated treatment of moderate to severe depression than the SSRI paroxetine (Paxil). This runs counter to the negative findings of the 2001 U.S. trial sponsored by the makers of the SSRI sertraline (Zoloft) - which concluded that for moderate to severe depression, St John's wort was no better than a placebo. Faith in the integrity of biological psychiatry would be greater if the single strongest predictive factor in the outcome of any published clinical trial wasn't the identity of the funding body. A Cochrane Review published in October 2008 found that hypericum extracts used to treat major depression had similar efficacy to standard antidepressants but fewer side-effects.

INOSITOL
One further remedy, albeit at "unnatural" doses, is worth noting. Inositol levels tend to be low in depressives and high in euphoric people. Taking myo-inositol as a food supplement in doses of 12g and more per day represents perhaps the first successful use of the precursor strategy for a second messenger rather than a neurotransmitter in the search for long-term mood-brightening agents. Inositol and its derivatives serve as messenger molecules within the nervous system. The molecule itself is a naturally occurring isomer of glucose. It is a key intermediate of the phosphatidyl-inositol cycle. This is a second-messenger system used by several noradrenergic, serotonergic and cholinergic receptors. Adult westerners typically consume about one gram of inositol per day in their food. The richest dietary sources are fruits, nuts, beans and grains. The mood-darkening ("stabilising") effect of lithium in manically euphoric people may be explicable in terms of its inositol-depleting effect. Potentially, if taken in high doses, inositol seems to be a good way of lightening the spirits and diminishing anxiety in "euthymic" and depressed people alike. Dosages of even 50g and more reportedly produce no toxic side-effects. This regimen shouldn't be attempted unsupervised by people with a history of bipolar disorder. As usual, much more research is in order. One "problem" is that naturally-occurring compounds - such as inositol and SAMe - can't be patented. So the scope for high profit-margins is diminished. Progress is unlikely to be brisk.

 

[flash89912]

5-htp helped with depression during a trenazone cycle. Was like freakin night and day, after I started taking 5-htp

 

[DerickVonD]

Well the good thing about saint john's wart is I'll be able to find it easier and won't need to order it online.

 

[DerickVonD]

Thanks for the info.

 

[kingdong]

5-htp didnt seem to do much. Im not convinced that it didnt metabolize in my blood before reaching my brain. A few grams of tyrosine right after waking seemed to put a pep in my step. Who knows what it would do if i took it throughout the day.

 

[DerickVonD]

Well I guess I'll give Saint John's Wart a try, it seems to be as cheap as melotonin. If they have it at rite-aid that's a plus too because I can just walk up and get it. It's good if I don't have to order it online because eh I don't want my family knowing I'm depressed. I'm not suicidal, so don't worry. I just don't want to tell them, because I don't think they can understand, plus if my grandmom finds out she'll want me to see the doctor about it and I'm not going back on SSRIs. I don't live with her anymore fortunately, but I still don't want her to find out because I see her often and she's the tyhpe to not shut up about something.

 

[kingdong]

You can also try saying that your buying some fitness supps, and that the tyrosine is for focus/thyroid health



In fact, you can say its the healthy part of Red Bull, and that you can get way more for way less shopping this way.

 

[mylo]

try yohimbe, it's an otc stimulant available at gnc, good for cutting too, imo.

 

[DerickVonD]

I just read Saint Johns Wart shouldnt be used by people with bipolar...great. I never have manic episodes, just depression ones. I guess bipolar people can't take anything.

 

[DerickVonD]

I'm thinking of trying saint john's wort anyway. Does it have any effect on testosterone? Bought some at rite-aid, they didn't have 5-HTP there or anything else that might help, so I decided to get a cheap bottle just to see what it does. If I go a little manic, I'll chuck em I guess.

 

[DerickVonD]

Well guys it hasn't negatively effected my workout. Saint John's Wort is working. I'm only taken 300mg. I don't feel that it makes me happy, but that it prevents me from being too unhappy if that makes sense. I'm less worried and less bothered by things now. I might try doubling the dose just to see what happens.

 

[purebred]

I believe fish oil has been shown to promote healthy mood levels as well. I remember seeing it on Healthnotes when I use to work for Vitamin Shoppe and it was cited for helping with depression at 9g. I don't remember the EPA/DHA doses though

 

[DerickVonD]

I believe fish oil has been shown to promote healthy mood levels as well. I remember seeing it on Healthnotes when I use to work for Vitamin Shoppe and it was cited for helping with depression at 9g. I don't remember the EPA/DHA doses though

Most caps are only about 360mg EPA, 320mg DHA.

 

[purebred]

Most caps are only about 360mg EPA, 320mg DHA.

Look into the fish oil situation then. I recently created a thread on fish oil: search for it and 'TheLastRonin' posted a great link regarding omega 3's/fish oil and some studies done on individuals with mental disorders. I believe depression was among the many disorders included and studied in combination with fish oil administration!

 

[DerickVonD]

Fish Oil helped my mood to an extent, but I needed more help. When your days usually consist of you thinking about why you don't have a gf and why a lot of stuff is messed up and how anger it makes you, to jsut not worrying about that stuff, I'd say that's an improvement.

 

[plorntstar]

try yohimbe, it's an otc stimulant available at gnc, good for cutting too, imo.

yohimbe is amazing stuff. makes you super horny as well.

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