Topic Title: 5-htp (unfortunately) stopped working
| |  "5-htp (unfortunately) stopped working"
, Fri 17 Jun 10:05
After 3 years of daily use, I no longer even feel anything when I take it, even in a large dose. It worked very well at first but now it does nothing. Changing brands, taking a 1 month break, or taking different dosages did not help.
Posts: 13 | | Registered: Thu 7 Apr 2005 15:17 |
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| | "Re(1):5-htp (unfortunately) stopped working" , Thu 17 Nov 14:29
Jamshyd, Michael Murray in his book "5-HTP : The Natural Way to Overcome Depression, Obesity, and Insomnia" (p.78-79) explained that the antidepressant benefits of 5-HTP wore off after a few weeks in certain patients.
Giving the patients precursors L-Tyrosine or phenylalanine restored the effect of 5-HTP. Those two substances also improved the mood of the patients when given alone.
Posts: 2 | | Registered: Mon 21 Jun 2004 13:2 |
| | "Re(1):5-htp (unfortunately) stopped working" , Wed 6 Jul 18:13:
This could be becase of a physical effect called down-regulation. Basically your brain thought there was too much activity being sparked by the serotonin receptors, and so it decreased the present number of serotonin receptors.
This is a common occurrence in the brain, and the same reason people can get truly addicted to caffeine. Caffeine blocks adenosine, and so the brain up-regulates adenosine receptors (adds more receptors) when people chronically use caffeine because it senses too little adenosine-sponsored activity.
You normally should be able to overcome this by upping your dose, but be aware it is only a matter of time before your new higher dose becomes ineffective for the same reason (further down-regulation of serotonin receptors). Also be aware that this means you should only come off of the supplement slowly, so as to give your brain time to up-regulate to it's target level. Otherwise you could potentially have serious withdrawal symptoms.
[this message was edited by treatment on Wed 6 Jul 18:15]
Posts: 1 | | Registered: Wed 6 Jul 2005 18:5 |
| | | "Re(2):5-htp (unfortunately) stopped working" , Wed 21 Sep 08:44
Hi Jeremy -
sorry to hear it stopped working for you. I may have some experience that is useful. I've been using 5htp on and off for around 4 years, various brands, and the first year I used 300mg daily eventually I found it made my depression worse/or stopped working.
Continually seeking alternatives, I eventually started taking high dose fish oil with a little evening primrose oil. There is evidence that fish oil prevents poop-out from ADs, and I believe it. It took about 6 months of taking 3g EPA/DHA to get full AD effects from fish oil alone, and if not balanced with an appropriate amount of GLA (a rare type of omega-6 oil) it can add to anxiety. Recently I returned to taking 5htp - but a much lower dose - 100g daily and the results are MUCH stronger than ever before. Note I also take vitamins, but the fish oil is the most potent thing ever for your brain. It seems to potentiate anything else taken, and there is evidence it can 're-grow' those parts of your brain shrunken by depression and anxiety, over time.
Most people take fish oil but give up on it early, or don't take enough, or take poor quality rancid oil.
Loops
Posts: 172 | | Registered: Tue 15 Apr 2003 8:24 |
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