5-HTP

A Natural Way to Unwind

It’s usually pretty easy to raise one’s hand. One thinks about it, and it happens. It’s not so easy to raise the temperature of one’s hand. Willing it doesn’t make it so. The part of the nervous system that does what we tell it to is called voluntary. The part that usually does whatever it wants to is called the autonomic nervous system. It’s automatic.

There’s two parts to this automatic nervous system: part of it makes us hyper-alert and stressed; another part of it slows us down, making us relaxed and easy. The part that wakes us up is called sympathetic. When we perceive a threat, the hypothalamus in the oldest part of our brain gives a hormonal kick to the pituitary. The pituitary delivers its own neuroendocrine kicks to nerve endings throughout our bodies which secrete norepinephrine (aka noradrenaline) and to the adrenals which dump epinephrine (aka adrenalin into our bloodstream. These hormones create the nervous “jump” we feel when startled or threatened, the hyper-aroused state called fight or flight.

The part of the autonomic system that slows us down is called parasympathetic (PNS: the Parasympathetic Nervous System). The parasympathetic gets going when we’re enjoying ourselves, digesting our food, relaxing. One of the PNS’s principle neurotransmitters is serotonin. The body makes serotonin from tryptophan, an essential amino acid. 5-HTP is an intermediate step in the conversion of tryptophan to serotonin, and so it’s a way of activating the parasympathetic, feel-good-and-take-a-load-off part of our nervous systems.

You can think of the sympathetic system as the gas pedal, parasympathetic as the brake. The body’s designed so that it’s difficult for both to be going at the same time. They inhibit each other. You wouldn’t want to step on the gas and the brake of your car simultaneously. The body thinks that way, too.

This means if we can turn up the parasympathetic nervous system (relaxation, fun) then the sympathetic nervous system (stress, anxiety) gets quiet.¹

5-HTP is used to boost the parasympathetic and calm us down. Most commonly taken to induce or improve sleep, it also brings a gradually increasing sense of relaxed well-being as serotonin levels build up and stress-filled sympathetic neurotransmitters are inhibited.

Increased levels of serotonin help with more than sleep. There’s evidence that one reason some of us crave carbohydrates is because serotonin levels rise when we overconsume carbs, especially low-protein high-carb treats like candy.^2,3,4 While it’s true that even small amounts of protein in a high-carbohydrate meal can interfere with tryptophan’s ability to through the blood/brain barrier, it’s also true that this competition is reduced by insulin surges responding to the glycaemic load high carb meals create.⁵ There’s also good evidence that this boost in serotonin is what makes many people so sleepy after a high-carb meal.⁶

A lack of adequate serotonin has been implicated as a cause of at least some cases of depression.⁷ While there’s some debate about the precise mechanisms involved (caused in part by the 2-3 weeks it takes increased serotonin levels to affect many people’s moods⁸) what’s not in question is that for most people more serotonin means a better mood.

There’s more. For the last ten years researchers have been able to take pictures of the brain while it’s at work. One of the foremost researchers in this area is a psychiatrist named Daniel G. Amen, M.D. He’s taken literally thousands of pictures of the activity in the brains of people presenting themselves for treatment at his clinic. He’s convinced that by calming overactivity in the hypothalamus and the cingulate gyrus, two brain structures involved in mood stabilization and flexible thinking, increased serotonin levels make us more adaptable to change and stress. In essence, 5-HTP and its metabolite serotonin help us change our minds. Dr. Amen feels that people who get stuck on a thought and can’t release it, who see the world in black and white, who hold grudges; those who get stuck in obsessive patterns of thinking and behavior—all would benefit from higher serotonin levels.⁹

(Important note: if you’re pregnant, nursing, or taking prescription anti-depressants check with your physician before taking 5-HTP as it can have adverse interactions with some medications and its effects in pregnancy are still being investigated by researchers.)