I've been reading Julia Ross (The Diet Cure, The Mood Cure).
She talks in the Mood Cure about several different amino acid deficiencies which can lead to mood disturbance. She talks about low norepinephrin causing lack of motivation and concentration. Her cure is Tyrosine. I've tried it and it seems to make no difference. It also comes with health warnings because it is a precursor to thyroid hormone - although since I have no discernable thyroid function that probably isn't a problem for me.
And when tyrosine doesn't cut it, she suggests D and L phenylanine which is the precursor to lots of other hormones, including tyrosine.
Has anyone tried these two? What were your results?
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Ruthi
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Hi I have been reading those books as well. I am reluctant to try L-tyrosine as Ive read a lot of cautionary notes about taking it with thyroid problems. Interesting that you didn't notice any difference .
I also read The Edge Effect ( a 'brain' book) which suggests L Theanine for if you have low dopamine levels and tyrosine for low serotonin levels (or the other way round, sorry got brain fog). It also mentions the phenylaline . I hope you get some replies from people who have tried this, I would be very interested.
I thought the Ross books made a lot of sense, anyway.
I find these books always seem to make a lot of sense. But it doesn't always hold up in reality.
She completely ignores the question of what to do if you are already on thyroid replacement, which seems a little odd, given that she is going on about thyroid problems. And she also doesn't give a warning about St John's Wort and sunlight. I might take it in winter, but in summer I would rather get my vitamin D up naturally. These two things worry me rather, because then you wonder about the rest of her advice!
L-theanine is said to increase dopamine, it would seem, as does L tyrosine (you need both). But L theanine doesn't seem to have any effect on thyroid, so a better bet. Tyrosine is the precursor to T4/3 etc. In fact, apparently the T stands for tyrosine! I imagine a deficiency might lead to a mildly underactive thyroid. So if it boosts T production, you would expect it to help hypo folk.
The one for Seratonin is L-tryptophan. Its made a significant difference to my sleep. I have some 5HTP on order too now, to see if that is more or less effective. The steps are tryptophan-5HTP-seratonin. So theoretically its more direct, but different people respond differently.
I might give L theanine a go then. Or at least read up on it more
"So if it boosts T production, you would expect it to help hypo folk."
Well, it's like iodine, isn't it. It may help if you are deficient, but if tyrosine deficiency isn't your problem, then how could it help? As I always say, if half your factory has burnt down, shovelling in more raw goods isn't going to increase production.
If there is indeed something called T0, it would be thyronine rather than tyrosine.
Tyrosine is an amino acid. The thyroid takes tyrosine and adds iodine to it to make monoiodotyrosine (MIT) and diiodotyrosine (DIT). It then puts two molecules of these together to form tetraiodothyronine (T4) and triiodothyronine (3). There might also be tiny amounts of diiodothyronine (T2) formed.
Also, just how much T0 do we think there might be in desiccated thyroid? Do we think there is likely to be enough to make any difference at all? I certainly don't know but would be surprised if it were present in sufficient quantity to be significant - if, indeed, thyronine has any significant effect at all. Again, I don't know.
Aha! That will teach me to read uncritically! It was Ms Ross again, who said Tyrosine was the T.
So now I have even less faith in her, even though it is reasonably clear that she is getting great results with some people.
BUT tyrosine is definitely counterindicated in Hashis, and did nothing for me anyway.
Which brings me to phenylalanine. Has anyone had any luck with it?
Basically I am looking at all this because despite having optimal thyroid levels on NDT, I still suffer brain fog and lack of oomph and concentration. And that is most certainly not who I am.
I have tried L-Tyrosine. The first time I took it was last year when I wasn't as far on with my quest to get better. I got dreadful headaches with it and gave up the experiment quite quickly. During that experiment I took it in the morning.
I tried it again this year, changed the time I took it to bedtime, and although I didn't feel great while on it, I didn't feel so bad that I felt I had to stop it quickly. I took it for about a month then stopped. After I stopped I did feel I was rather more motivated to do things than usual.
Since motivation to do things has been in short supply all my life I am prepared to take the L-Tyrosine again, but I would only take it in short bursts rather than continuously.
I also took L-Theanine last year. That gave me headaches too and didn't make me feel any better either during or after treatment. I haven't tried it again since because it was horrendously expensive.
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