By Ron Lidtke
Monitoring Trends in Medicine and the Nutrition Industry
A remarkable amino acid that promotes restful sleep, Improves mood & reduces carbohydrate cravings
Background: About Lidtke L-Tryptophan
It is well-known that European pharmaceutical standards for L-tryptophan are far higher than U.S. or Japanese standards. The Europeans take safety seriously. The European standard not only demands testing for known toxins - toxins that are ignored in the U.S. and Japan - but European standards have much lower limits on contaminants, overall.
In Europe, the finest producer of amino acids is Evonik/Rexim, which represents a collaboration of German and French technology. L-tryptophan from Evonik/Rexim far surpasses even European standards. Because of our very long-standing commitment to pure L-tryptophan, Lidke, in cooperation with Evonik/Rexim, now introduced finest L-tryptophan in the world to the United States.
Although L-tryptophan first became available In health-food stores nearly forty years ago, researchers even now, in 2010, are finding answers to health questions that have plagued us for centuries.
Some of these discoveries are driven by a firmer grasp of the fact that inflammatory processes, genetic expression, and dietary deficiencies can block the proper metabolism of amino acids, including L-tryptophan, and divert amino acids down Undesirable pathways.
Just as explorers map trails through the wilderness, medical researchers map the biochemical pathways that amino acids follow while doing their job. There are many directions that L-tryptophan can take, and each step in a pathway is like a toll-booth controlled by an enzyme.
These enzymes are the product of your individual genetics and can differ in efficiency from one person to another. Unlike digestive enzymes, though, you cannot take cellular enzymes in a capsule.
Furthermore, cellular enzymes cannot work alone. Enzymes are as useless as a car without wheels if they lack critical coenzymes and cofactors that allow enzymes to function.
Without these helpers, your most important biochemical pathways may function poorly or become a dead end, forcing the production of undesirable metabolites and provoking side effects.
As an example, once inside the cell, L-tryptophan can follow several pathways. The challenge is to encourage L-tryptophan to follow the one branch that leads to serotonin and to discourage L-tryptophan from converting into undesirable chemicals, such as kynurenine or quinolinic acid. (5)
Since the 1990's, scientists have known that infections in general have the potential to interfere with L-tryptophan metabolism. Altering biochemical pathways in the brain can have important and unfortunate consequences.
Dr. Susan Swedo, acting scientific director at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) discovered that muscle tics and repetitive, compulsive behaviors could sometimes be traced back to childhood infections. When she filtered her patients' blood, removing antibodies originally created to combat the infection, she found that the compulsive behaviors cleared.
What this demonstrated was that a person's own immune system plays an important role in brain health. Furthermore, your immune system can be activated by any number of factors, including infections, food allergens, or environmental toxins.
Although the exact mechanisms still are not fully understood, the symptoms studied by Dr. Swedo have been associated with excess kynurenine and/or quinolinic acid.
The process begins when infections, food allergies, or the exposure to toxins set off the release of cytokines. Cytokines are pro-inflammatory proteins that help your body fight infections - up to a point.
Cytokines, in turn, switch on an enzyme called IDO. An unfortunate consequence of IDO is that it degrades L-tryptophan and shuttles its metabolites into the production of kynurenine and quinolinic acid, thus diverting L-tryptophan away from the production of serotonin.
At this point, researchers report that one or both of these two brain chemicals, kynurenine and quinolinic acid, may act directly on serotonin to depress levels further.
By this series of steps, then, infection, allergies, or toxins may activate your immune system to produce inflammatory cytokines, which in turn may cause changes in the biochemistry of your brain, altering biochemical pathways and affecting mood and behavior.
Careful study of these pathways has identified a group of nutrients that support the healthy production and maintenance of serotonin. Most of these nutrients, as mentioned earlier, are referred to as coenzymes or cofactors.
Coenzymes typically are the enzymatic-forms of vitamins, such as pyridoxal 5-phosphate (the enzymatically correct form of vitamin B6), but sometimes coenzymes are biochemicals that few people have ever heard of. Yet, they are essential to life.
The concept here is simple: as a consumer, you are seeking to ensure that every bit of L-tryptophan you consume produces and sustains serotonin, promotes health, and gives you get the benefits you expect. To accomplish this, the job of researchers has been to identify the most critical coenzymes and cofactors to achieve the task. The job of formulators, on the other hand, has been to logically combine them in a single formula.
The logical combining of the right nutrients for the right job then provides your cellular enzymes with the tools they need to perform their job.
From our perspective at Lidtke, the quest for a thorough understanding of tryptophan metabolism was inspired by the fact that many people's around the Earth are so poorly nourished they may fail to thrive from whatever food or rations they receive. Donations of products to starving nations can be wasted for lack of a single nutrient.
Even in prosperous countries, genetic errors, unwise diets, and environmental contaminants can block the enzymes you need to metabolize essential nutrients, or activate enzymes that destroy them.
Serotonin / L-Tryptophan Link
As an overview, L-tryptophan is the essential nutrient from which serotonin is made. L-tryptophan is not a drug and works by feeding the biochemical pathways that keep you alive. In contrast to designer chemicals, L-tryptophan Occurs naturally in your diet, and a healthy body is born with the ability to process L-tryptophan without side effects.
Dozens of research papers demonstrate that supplemental L-tryptophan increases serotonin levels in the brain. Less well-known, though, is the fact that only a small percentage of ingested L-tryptophan - even under the best of circumstances - passes down your brain serotonin pathway. Increasing that percentage even a small amount can provide a dramatic boost to your brain serotonin levels. A simple boost in serotonin may help many of us to experience restful sleep and brighter, happier moods than we have enjoyed in years.
What goes on inside your cells?
Inside a serotonin-producing neuron L-tryptophan works with a coenzyme, abbreviated BH4, to form the well-known 5-hydroxy L-tryptophan (5-HTP). This is the first step in the L-tryptophan-to-serotonin pathway.
Well-funded researchers in university laboratories have found that BH4 actually increases the flow down the serotonin pathway. Although it doesn't take much BH4, the astronomical cost of $4 million per kilogram (when purchased as a research biochemical) keeps BH4 far out of the reach of nutritional supplements. Fortunately, research shows that a combination of precursors can provide the building-blocks for BH4 at a far more affordable price.
The second step to serotonin production requires vitamin B6, but here we should make a distinction. Not any common chemical-form of vitamin B6 can do the job. Serotonin-producing enzymes can only use the natural form of vitamin B6, pyridoxal 5-phosphate (P5P).
And while pure P5P costs far less than $4 million per kilogram, P5P still is twelve (12) times more expensive than the pyridoxine HCl that often is found in supplements. Instead of $25 per kilogram for pyridoxine HCl, P5P from a top-drawer manufacturer costs $350 per kilogram. This added expense, though, helps to ensure your supplements work the way they were designed to work.
To be exact, there is a process that takes place in the liver called phosphorylation. Phosphorylation can convert limited amounts of the chemical-form of B6 to the natural form of vitamin B6. Knowledgeable researchers have voiced concern, however, that pyridoxine HCl may actually block the benefits of the true form of vitamin B6, possibly leading to vitamin B6 deficiency symptoms.
As we see, the right combination of cofactors and coenzymes drives the conversion of L-tryptophan to serotonin. But, scientists always believe we can do better. In fact, very recent research shows that the widely used herbal extract, curcumin, a bright yellow extract from the turmeric root that is used in curry, also helps to spare serotonin and slow its breakdown into inactive metabolites.
This is not the entire picture, and there are other nutrients and pathways that have been thoroughly explored. In order to experience the benefits of L-tryptophan, however, two things need to be true. The first is that you consume a full spectrum of nutrients designed to ensure the proper metabolism of L-tryptophan - and all other amino acids that you consume during the day.
The second is that you carefully select your diet to maintain a healthy gastrointestinal environment. Healthy intestinal bacteria may help to control an over-zealous immune response that can profoundly disrupt your metabolism and brain chemistry.
A word about Quality
A point that rarely receives much notice is the cosmetic reworking of amino acids to make them appear "pure". There are milling and whitening procedures that often are applied just to make amino acids and other nutritional ingredients sparkle and have that bleached, pure look.
Manufacturers know that consumers often judge by appearances, but what they do not know is that reworking a nutrient to improve appearance can actually degrade the quality of an ingredient.
If a crystalline ingredient has never been "flattened" to give that shine, you end up with a fluffier material that takes up more space in a capsule. In turn, this makes the encapsulation process much slower and more labor-intensive. In the end, though, by taking your time, you have not introduced contaminants into a product simply for the cosmetic effect.
Do I need L-Tryptophan?
Because L-tryptophan is essential, no other amino acid, vitamin, mineral, herb or designer chemical can take its place, and L-tryptophan is routinely added to baby food and hospital IV solutions, where it is essential for growth and life.
Furthermore, blood amino-acid profiles of patients, along with the extensive analysis of foods common to the American diet done by Dr. Charles Jarowski, former Director of Research and Development at Pfizer, Inc., and colleagues, demonstrate that L-tryptophan typically is the essential amino acid most lacking in our diet.
Whether you are worn out by the common stresses of this world, or whether you suffer from an amino-acid imbalance that seems to be depleting your serotonin, consider trying the essential amino acids - beginning with the one in least abundance.
Feel better, sleep better. Be at peace in body, mind and spirit.
About the Author:
L-Tryptophan from Evonik/Rexim far surpasses even European standards. Lidtke has a very long standing commitment to pure
L-Tryptophan, Lidtke, in cooperation with Evonik/Rexim, has now introduced the Purest L-Tryptophan in the world to the United States.
