5-hydroxy-tryptophan (5-HTP)
 

Has anyone tried this product? I've been using prescription anti-depressants (prozac, then effexor) so far and they always seem to make me gain weight and seem to slow my losses on Atkins.

5-HTP is a precurser to serotonin that you can get at healthfood/vitamin stores, and I've heard that it is AS good if not better than prescription drugs. It's also supposed to help you lose weight.

My depression is moderate (not severe), and I was wondering if anyone had any good experiences with 5-HTP and would recommend me trying it.

-Ambrea

hi Ambrea,

there is only one way to know whether 5htp will help you: to try it. it produces wide range of responses in both healthy and depressed subjects, from creating or deepening depression to doing nothing, to alleviating it; sometimes immediate response, sometimes 2-3 weeks of delay. if your sleep is affected (insomnia), 5htp will most likely improve it because 5htp affects levels of melatonin.

there was a fair amount of discussion and testimonials about 5htp on Dr.Bob's Psycho-Babble, including issues of weight loss/gain. if you are unfamiliar with this site, take a look at it. it is probably the best support and discussion board for mood disorders in the world.

you could go there and do an advanced search for 5HTP (several years worth of posts) and/or post a new message about 5HTP, weight loss, and depression.

http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/xv/search.pl

I never had to try 5htp myself, got cured with SSRIs and CBT.

mila

:wave:

I did try it. Unfortunately, it gave me a migraine aura.

5htp user
 

I also suffered from moderate to sever depression, and 5htp helped me tremendously. In my husbands words " I have the person I married back". 5htp gave me my life back, it helped me get to a place where I could actually work on the problems in my life. 5htp restored the serotonin deficiency in my brain with only a mild side effect of being tired, and just in the beginning. I took a high dose 500 mg per day. 250 mg in the morning and 250 mg in the afternoon. I also talked to a therapist, read many books about depression, prayed, meditated, exercised, increased my vitamins, and listened to uplifting music. I did NOT loose weight on 5htp, it is suppose to cut carbohydrate carvings, which I think it does, but I am an emotional/compulsive eater. After 2 years of that regimen, I can say I am depression free. Now it's time to loose the weight!! I have read that LC can cause depression in some people so I am watching out for that, and have my 5htp near. I have noticed that I am more irritable, but I think that will subside once I get use to this way of life.

A snippet from an objective site that reviews supplements:



You can read the whole review here: Supplementwatch.com's review of 5-HTP

HTH
Nat

Why?
 

Just like the low carb diets there are "professionals" out there who have strong opinions on why is does or does not work.

Here is a better link for more information on 5htp:
http://www.smart-publications.com/books/5htp/toc.html

I am POSITIVE that 5htp has worked for me and no article is going to change that fact.

It was not a negative review, perhaps you might want to re-read it. It suggested that while 5-HTP didnt work for everyone, some people did respond well to it. The same can be said for our LC WOL.

Nat