Yes Fish. Books are generally sold in book stores, if you've ever heard of that. They are pretty popular places, alot of people seem to enjoy reading and shopping there.

Fish, you need to do more research before trying to turn people against natural, non chemical, non synthetic substances.

He's not gonna get serotonin syndrome from taking 5-htp. On the other hand he could get it from a wildly irresponible pdoc, like I had once who TRIPLED mydosage of Effexor, with no mood stablizer, knowing I was on vicoden and muscle relaxers and complaining of fever, exhaustion, nightsweats, worsening mood(which was already constant crying).

Rob, a natural substance that your body is lacking is not going to kill you. The thing is you don't mix it with the chemical antidepressants you get from pdoc. And good luck finding one that will help you mix natural with chemical dosages.
5htp gives your body what it needs to create the serotonin, whereas chemical anti-depressants stalll the serotonin from goi g through it's normal process thus "upping" the amount in your brain.

I'm not saying amino acids are the right choice for you. And the book discloses that they are not able to "cure" bp. It is mostly for people who are having a case of the "blues" and for temporary use until you build up the depleted amino acid in your body.

It is much like eating healthy food and taking your vitimins. Then, the vitimins community said oh, we need minerals also. Well this is a step further. Oh, we need amino acids.

Fish, I thought u were telling him it would mess up his body processes, then I rearead. So sorry on that note.
I also thought u were the o e saying about the serotonin syndrome.

But the bookstore comment stands. ;-)

My point was, the author did have a financial incentive. Are they also a practitioner? I believe they are. A second reason.

My research started with my degree in biochemistry and has continued since then.

I stand by what I originally said. I found research from other sources that suggested it was a hazard, I merely pointed to that.

Basically either things work or they have an effect which means they are as potentially safe or dangerous as any other medicine. However the purity and process control on pharmaceuticals tends to be higher. the number of tests required are higher too.

it's up to Rob. And you, I won't make any further comment and I don't appreciate your sarcasm.

Fish,
you didn't read the book, so howcan uoumske such assertive statement on something you didn't even read.
You are also giving the impression that pharmaceuticals are somehow this pure, non chemical substance. That is very misleading.

Amino acids on the other hand are natural substances obtained from food that our body needs to function properly.
unfortunatly our food system has been so screwed with and depleted of healthy natural substances that we have a hard time nourishing our bodies. I think we can agree on that.

Oh, and no. I don't believe anyone who recommends vitamins, minerals and amino acids, are called practitioners.

I will say it again and this time I did research it - yes 5htp can make you manic. Our brains work differently than the general public so things written praising it may not take the fact we have bipolar disorder and therefore a little bit of a different chemistry.

my pdoc told me to avoid it due to it affects seratonin. i tried it one time and thought it was making me a little hypomanic and then tried it another time and thought it might have been making me more depressed. in reality it may have had nothing to do with those moods.

but I agree that they tend to warn against taking things like 5-htp and st. john's wort with antidepressants due to seratonin syndrome, which I nearly gave myself a number of years ago messing around with prozac and st. john's wort. There is also SAM-E, which is more expensive but I have also read that it can cause that same problem.

See what u started rob. (kidding)

almaz, not sure where u've said it before or if ur were the one who brought up serotonin syndrome. But 5HTP is not some nasty dangerous product. Sure, I suppose it could cause manic symptoms, just as an anti-depressent could cause manic symptoms. although I would guess it more likely that an anti-depressent would cause it.

To Catwings - oh yes definitely SAM-e can make you manic.. I know from experience. I would think it would be great for normal unipolar depressed patients not on antidepressants though.

Catwings, yes! You've made the point. It's not to be mixed with anti-depressents, it is in place of them! That is why I went off, so I could go on prescribed meds to satisfy social security. Also, it may not be enough for severe depression or BP. I was on SAM-E also, and noticed more of a mood improvement than with the 5HTP. The 5HTP in the book I read, was to bring your level back to normal, if it had been depleted by prolonged or re-occuring stress.

The only reason I heard about 5-htp was all the MDMA users I knew who used it. I couldn't figure that out. Why make yourself potentially depressed when you don't have to? But they didn't suffer from depression, so it was worth it to them to feel like crap. But some of them went overboard and ended up with a serious depression and one committed suicide. Amazing.

This thread has given me the idea to maybe give SAM-E a try. It's expensive but then so is mental illness in the long run. But I would not mix it with an AD.

WHat is MDMA?
"they" say SAM-E has been used for many years in Europe.

Ecstasy, basically. I think it started out that MDMA was used by psychologists to help people break through issues and then it became a night club type party drug. It made a comeback in the '90s and became a popular club drug. It is mostly cut with other things and amphetamines but can still be obtained in it's more pure form.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMA

But I guess people somehow found out that 5-htp would bring their seratonin levels back up and they said it helped them.

I am reading a book called. "Depression-Free Naturally" by Joan Mathews and she talks about the amino acids we might benefit by such as someone mentioned in a previous post. Tyrosine, etc.

I swear I could go broke trying to treat my depression naturally.

Speaking of natural things - magnesium is good for migraines and I like theanine for anxiety