Tryptophan vs 5-HTP (question)

[comfortable_niche]

Has anyone had experience using both tryptophan and 5-htp?

How do they compare? Which one is better for what (eg. mood elevation, anxiety, insomnia)?

Please tell me any experiences you may have had.

[orlando]

I tried both. 5-htp made me dull, depressed and kind of "wired". A friend had great result with it though; she became content and happy. L-tryptophan was another story though: it made me happy and quite relaxed for 24 hours. All feelings of anxiety and fear were gone. Really nice "drug". In my box, L-tryptophan wins.

[Rainier]

Guys...don't forget that many foods have L-Tryptophan in them. However, to maximize absorption you kind of need to minimize the amount of protein you ingest at the same time as the L-Tryptophan. For example, many meats are full of L-Tryptophan, but these are not always the best sources. The key is to eat foods loaded with L-Tryptophan together with some complex carbs and not with a meal full of protein. If you check out Sprirulina (seaweed) it's probably the best and most dense natural source of L-Tryptophan. It does have some protein, but much less than other L-Tryptophan dense sources such as cottage cheese, etc. Soy nuts are also dense with L-Tryptophan and other nutrients important for optimizing neurotransmitters, but again they have quite a bit of protein (not to mention fat). For an easy to find food in the supermarket that is fairly loaded with L-Tryptophan and not as high as meat on the protein spectrum there is frozen Spinach (not the canned kind). If you eat a 10 oz package it has about 222mg of L-Tryptophan. The good thing is that there is no risk to eating natural foods loaded with L-Tryptophan and if you did this every day you would definitely increase the production of serotonin in your brain naturally. Another tip would be to eat A LOT of complex carbs, but limit the sugar. CARBS MAKE YOU HAPPY!!!!!! The reason you don't want the carbs to come from sugary foods is that they will cause an initial spike in serotonin followed by a crash.

If you are going to take an L-Tryptophan supplement I would make sure to keep it to a low dose, as L-Tryptophan in high doses is the most toxic of the amino acids and all the factors involved in the outbreak of EMS are still not well understood.