cron-web.org

[A1CR]

[posted on behalf of CRON4healthyfuture]

Taking 5-HTP is just like drinking DAIRY; 5-HTP causes a leptin spike

Hah! This one comes out of left field, but it makes sense!

Milk has tryptophan. The "T" in 5-HTP is tryptophan. It makes sense that the body would transduce the presence of both of these substances into the same endocrinological signal.

This is why I am not a big fan of trying to "fake out" your body. You may succeed too well for your own good.

=-=-=-==-=-==-

http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/bpb/29/3/29_557/_article

=--==---=-=-==

"Serum leptin levels in fasted mice treated with 5-HTP were similar to those control mice after milk intake." - PMID: 16508167

[MR]

A CRONie noted:

> What an interesting study! 5-HTP increases leptin, which dramatically
> decreases appetite. Sounds like an ideal supplement for people
> wishing to reduce their calorie intake,

While I think that CRON4healthyfuture exaggerates both the magnitude of the
isolated effects under unphysiological conditions of specific
biochemical pathways, and greatly exaggerates our confidence in their
involvement in specific pathology and in 'normal' aging and CR, I do
agree with him that the negative effects of leptin make intentionally
raising levels thereof a poor gamble at this time.

Moreover, in this particular effect, we already can be pretty confident
that this won't work: drug companies were working for many years on
leptin-stimulating drugs and/or leptin "replacement" therapy in the
obese, and in humans it's pretty clear that the effects on weight loss
in them is pretty darned minimal. (OTOH, it might well be much more
effective in folks of normal weight or even slight overweight, as the
obese tend to be leptin-resistant, this being a big part of the reason
the strategy doesn't work in them).

Additionally, while my confidence in its safety has slightly increased
over the years, the possibility that 5-HTP may induce right mitral valve
abnormalities:

http://groups.google.ca/group/sci.med.pharmacy/msg/25ff931c5b3cd941?dmode=print

http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.drugs.smart/msg/a529b87c96be136b?dmode=print

The lack of report of this in clinical trials is unsurprising, as like
most nutraceuticals the 5-HTP trials have been small and of brieff
duration; the disorder was not detected in trials of phen/fen, despite a
much larger cohort size & longer duration, but were caught in followup.
Alas, supplement companies in the USA are STILL not required to actively
document and report reported side-effects, and there is no established
gov't reporting system for them; combine with the fact that physicans
are often unaware that their patients are taking supplements and that
consumers AND docs often just assume tht supps are harmless, PLUS the
smaller cohort using it in the population as in the trials, and a very
real effect could be happening invisibly.

-MR

1: Yamada J, Sugimoto Y, Ujikawa M.
Involvement of Leptin in Hypophagia Induced by the Serotonin Precursor
5-Hydroxytryptophan (5-HTP) in Mice.
Biol Pharm Bull. 2006 Mar;29(3):557-9.
PMID: 16508167 [PubMed - in process]