3 replies to this topic

[sonshoku]

Does L tryptophan causes tolerance and downregulation of serotonin receptors?

 

It cant be like that right? that would mean eating protein foods would cause tolerance

[Gerrans]

In my opinion, for a healthy person everything balances out. Protein does not oversupply tryptophan to the brain because it provides competition for tryptophan's transport into the brain.

[640ng]

An enzyme regulates how much tryptophan is converted to 5htp which turns into serotonin. So you can take shitloads of tryptophan but the enzyme will only convert as much as your brain requires for homeostasis.

Edited by 640ng, 25 June 2015 - 10:53 PM.

[niner]

The first time or two that I took 500mg of L-Trp, I had a pretty big effect from it; I slept well.  Subsequent doses had less effect.  Part of the regulation of Trp to 5htp is simply the expression level of enzyme, and that might respond to the level of substrate.  If there is a high level of substrate, maybe that down-regulates expression.  That's a common biological scenario.