Supplemental Tryptophan/5-HTP w/ High Protein/BCAA Diet?

[kissdadookie]

Good idea or bad idea? Been hearing that EAAs competes with tryptophan and could lead to serotonin deficiency. I've always used 5-HTP as a relaxer or sleep aid but now considering it as a foundational supplement of 100 mg's a day?

 

[mr.cooper69]

Tryptophan is an EAA. If you're eating a high protein diet then you're getting enough

 

[kissdadookie]

Tryptophan is an EAA. If you're eating a high protein diet then you're getting enough

Doesn't it lose out to the other aminos though and lead to possible serotonin deficiency? From what I understand tryptophan -> 5-htp -> serotonin.

 

[aaronuconn]

Doesn't it lose out to the other aminos though and lead to possible serotonin deficiency? From what I understand tryptophan -> 5-htp -> serotonin.

If this were the case, I would think anybody eating a high protein diet would suffer from insomnia, anxiety, depression, and other symptoms of low serotonin.

I wouldn't consider 5-HTP/Tryptophan a necessity to supplement with. Maybe worthwhile if you're supplementing with something like L-Dopa, but even then I think you should be fine if you're supplementing it responsibly.

 

[kissdadookie]

If this were the case, I would think anybody eating a high protein diet would suffer from insomnia, anxiety, depression, and other symptoms of low serotonin. I wouldn't consider 5-HTP/Tryptophan a necessity to supplement with. Maybe worthwhile if you're supplementing with something like L-Dopa, but even then I think you should be fine if you're supplementing it responsibly.

I've heard mention serotonin deficiency from high protein and BCAA diets from two individuals. One person is known in the AAS community whilst the other is a biochemist. It's also supposedly not readily evident if one has serotonin deficiency (so I heard). One way one can supposedly see if one is serotonin deficient is to dose 100 mg of 5-htp. People with acute effects from that are supposedly serotonin deficient.Thus I made this thread. To see if there's any truth in what I've heard or if it's not a tryptophan issue at all and the serotonin deficiency is caused by some other factor of a typical bb regimen.

 

[mr.cooper69]

I've heard mention serotonin deficiency from high protein and BCAA diets from two individuals. One person is known in the AAS community whilst the other is a biochemist. It's also supposedly not readily evident if one has serotonin deficiency (so I heard). One way one can supposedly see if one is serotonin deficient is to dose 100 mg of 5-htp. People with acute effects from that are supposedly serotonin deficient.Thus I made this thread. To see if there's any truth in what I've heard or if it's not a tryptophan issue at all and the serotonin deficiency is caused by some other factor of a typical bb regimen.

Again, your concern is totally overblown. Learn to put things in physiological context.

I'm sure you've heard of phenylketonuria. These people can't metabolize PK and have MASSIVE amounts floating around in their bloodstream if they eat a normal diet. These people get neurologic deficiencies because tryptophan is blocked out of the BBB, among others.

Now contrast this disease state to a normal person eating a high protein diet. There is no issue.

 

[Young Gotti]

Good idea or bad idea? Been hearing that EAAs competes with tryptophan and could lead to serotonin deficiency. I've always used 5-HTP as a relaxer or sleep aid but now considering it as a foundational supplement of 100 mg's a day?

not sure if you want to be dr rhonda patrick was recently on the joe rogan podcast talking about this exact thing...how drinking a bolus amount of bcaa's could cause serotonin defiency and cause some problems

i love supplementing with 5htp at night, i take lights out....but after hearing what she had to say i don't think that supplementing with 5 htp is a bad idea

 

[kissdadookie]

not sure if you want to be dr rhonda patrick was recently on the joe rogan podcast talking about this exact thing...how drinking a bolus amount of bcaa's could cause serotonin defiency and cause some problems

i love supplementing with 5htp at night, i take lights out....but after hearing what she had to say i don't think that supplementing with 5 htp is a bad idea

Yup, heard that episode. It basically made me recall a AAS podcast where the well known AAS guy (forgot who) a whiles back also mentioned how bbers were serotonin deficient.

So from what I gather, these are subtle deficiencies which may or may not be noticeable and definitely would not manifest into any serious symptoms but I guess this comes down to optimum vs non-optimum but not life threatening.

I do take 5-htp, but my concern with 5-htp is that long term use might not be good as well. I cycle it, but after hearing that podcast, it made me wonder if just taking it daily would be a good idea or not. Oh well, this stuff is a bit over my head

As for that BCAAs experiment, I highly doubt that anybody would take such a large bolus dose as to cause serotonin depletion in a matter of hours but makes me wonder if the BCAA between meals protocol is a very good idea or not (not that this protocol is all that significant to begin with unless you are on a severe caloric restriction or have a diet lacking in BCAAs).

 

[FireRescue]

FWIW - I am finding this to be an interesting discussion and at least it gets me thinking about things that sometimes do not often get considered. However I don't know that I would agree it to be a staple simply based on high protein/BCAA ingestion.

 

[kissdadookie]

FWIW - I am finding this to be an interesting discussion and at least it gets me thinking about things that sometimes do not often get considered. However I don't know that I would agree it to be a staple simply based on high protein/BCAA ingestion.

Me neither, but I brought it up as a question of if one wants to be optimal, would it be a good idea. The consensus is that 5-HTP should be cycled or it may lead to something like serotonin syndrome, but I was wondering if due to a typical bb lifestyle, serotonin ends up being depleted at a higher rate than usual, then would it in turn be ok or a good idea to not cycle low/modest daily dosing of 5-HTP.

So my inquiry wasn't really if anything negative would come from not supplementing with 5-HTP, but if one wishes to have serotonin at an optimal level, would it be a good idea to counter whatever depletion may come from high protein/BCAA diets. Though I believe that with a proper workout routine on a regular basis, some of the competition tryptophan has is negated as muscles protein synthesis would utilize the BCAAs thus reducing concentration of them to compete with tryptophan.