A small part of my take on Tryptophan + Ray Peat extract on his article entitled "Tryptophan, serotonin, and aging"

Tryptophan is important for people. Its an amino acid found in foods such as seafood, chicken, turkey, & spinach (yes spinach). We need Tryptophan as it helps make other chemicals/neurotransmitter's in the body. It goes like this:

Tryptophan > 5-HTP > Serotonin > Melatonin

So you can see you need Tryptophan to make your Serotonin and Melatonin (which is your sleep hormone). problem is that many people don't have enough quality, grass fed meats in their diet (or spinach) and become low on Tryptophan. You see, thats a problem for me as it can help you feel good and i've worked with numerous clients who need a lot more quality meats in their nutrition.

But there a slight catch........

While Tryptophan is important, an over adundance by consuming too many crappy Tryptophan supplements, can cause problems in the body. I'll let the one and only, Ray Peat explain

"Malnutrition, and specifically protein deficiency, produces an inflammatory state that involves extreme serotonin dominance. Stress or malnutrition prenatally or in infancy leads to extreme serotonin dominance in adulthood. Other functions of tryptophan are reduced, as more of it is turned into serotonin"

"The fatigue produced by “over-training” is probably produced by a tryptophan and serotonin overload, resulting from catabolism of muscle proteins and stress-induced increases in serotonin. Muscle catabolism also releases a large amount of cysteine, and cysteine, methionine, and tryptophan suppress thyroid function (Carvalho, et al., 2000). Stress also liberates free fatty acids from storage, and these fatty acids increase the uptake of tryptophan into the brain, increasing the formation of serotonin. Since serotonin increases ACTH and cortisol secretion, the catabolic state tends to be self-perpetuating. This process is probably a factor influencing the rate of aging, and contributing to the physiological peculiarities of aging and depression"

Here is a link to Ray's page http://raypeat.com/

Fantastic extract from Ray Peat on Tryptophan and Serotonin. I won't be posting loads of stuff about nutrition as there's so much info out there already but people who know a lot more than me. But, you (my advid reader) may not know where to look and who to trust.

Ray Peat is brilliant. God he's deep, and his articles take 100 times to read due to length and detail, but he's really ahead of his time and knows his stuff inside out... and backwards... and probably in Zulu!

This article (which isn't owed by me nor my own work) details how taking Tryptophan supplement can cause a lot of problems.

Bottom line, get your Tryptophan from the proper nutritional sources and you will look and feel a load better!