5-Hydroxytryptophan! This Just Might Be What Is Missing!

5-Hydroxytryptophan is an intermediate neurotransmitter between tryptophan and serotonin.

Tryptophan is an amino acid that is broken down from proteins we eat in our intestines and absorbed. It can be made into serotonin. However if this conversion takes place outside of the blood-brain barrier, it has negligible effects.

Tryptophan crosses the blood-brain barrier by way of a transport protein that also transports other amino acids. When the ratio of tryptophan to the other amino acids is low, very little gets across to the brain to be made into serotonin.

This is an important consideration when thinking about what foods we crave!

High protein diets, which result in many different amino acids in our blood stream, lead to lower levels of tryptophan crossing the blood-brain barrier. This leads to low levels of serotonin!

This causes our brain to sense we are starving and increase hunger!

We crave carbohydrates in this situation because more tryptophan is absorbed when other amino acids are not present to compete.

When we eat high carbohydrate diets, we have increased production of serotonin. However, high carbohydrate intake results in MANY different problems!

Conditions associated with low serotonin levels include

1. Obesity

2. Bulimia

3. Depression

4. Anxiety

5. OCD, or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

6. Insomnia

7. Narcolepsy

8. Migraine Headaches

9. Tension Headaches

10. Sleep Apnea

11. PMS

12. Fibromyalgia

13. Carbohydrate Cravings

We can see how very important it is to have adequate levels of serotonin.

Luckily, 5-HTP taken as a supplement passes easily across the blood-brain barrier and is converted into serotonin.

90 Vegetarian capsules

5-Hydroxytryptophan by Thorne Research, learn more here.

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