Guest guest Posted December 9, 2002 Report Share Posted December 9, 2002 The ban on tryptophan was 2 weeks prior to the introduction of Prozac. HSI - Jenny Thompson <hsiweb wrote:NODDING OFF Health Sciences Institute e-Alert December 9, 2002 ************************************************************** Dear Reader, Last month, just before Thanksgiving, I opened the subject of l-tryptophan ( " Zzzzzz Inducing " 11/27/02), a natural chemical that is most famous as the sleep-inducing component of turkey meat. We dismissed that myth easily enough, but it raised the subject of using dietary supplements of l-tryptophan as a natural sleeping aid, and the subsequent FDA ban of l- tryptophan in 1990. In response to that e-Alert I received this comment from an HSI member named A.D., " Please tell your readers that 5-HTP (5-hydroxy-tryptophan) works very well to induce sleep. It has solved a decade-old problem for me. " HSI Panelist, Allan Spreen, M.D., used to prescribe l- tryptophan as a safe and effective sleep inducer, so I asked him to tell us how the FDA came to ban the supplement, and how l-tryptophan compares to 5-HTP. And as always, I found Dr. Spreen's comments to be both informative and entertaining. Let's listen in, shall we? ----------------------------- What the doctor tried to order ----------------------------- There was a rash (all of a sudden) of serious allergic reactions to l-tryptophan (EMS, or Eosinophilic Myalgia Syndrome, which is no small thing and actually killed a few people, causing neurologic deficits in others). The problem was tracked down to a manufacturing short cut taken by one Japanese producer (Showa Denko), which introduced a contaminant they didn't know about. Tryptophan had been used for years (available at ANY health food store) in very high doses (gram amounts) without difficulty, so nobody could quite understand it when the FDA outlawed the stuff after it was known why the problem occurred (Denko settled after epidemiological evidence tracked the problem down to a single lot number responsible). Then it was discovered that psychiatrists had been using l- tryptophan as a sleep inducer to replace sleeping pills, (because a number of depressed patients had been saving up their prescription sleeping pills and taking them all at once to commit suicide, which doesn't make a shrink look good). They found the tryptophan worked as well as sleeping pills, but you can't kill yourself with it. The use took tryptophan to a $75,000,000/year industry. Imagine what that number would be in terms of the retail cost of Rx sleeping pills...maybe half a billion or so? So, that's the prevailing theory of its removal from the market (though you can't prove it, of course). 5-HTP works very well, and at doses lower than those required for l-tryptophan. My problem with it is due to the opinion of the late biochemist Dr. Brian Leibovitz, who staunchly maintained that 5-HTP sequesters itself in a different cellular compartment than l-tryptophan, causing an abnormal biochemical situation. He was afraid of it over the long haul. Since tryptophan is so amazingly non-toxic (not counting contaminated lots from one producer), I very much preferred it. ----------------------------- An important note about 5-HTP ----------------------------- I also learned that there's more to 5-HTP than just sweet dreams - it may also help raise serotonin levels in the brain. This is why it's sometimes recommended to treat a variety of health problems associated with sleep disorders, such as insomnia, fibromyalgia, depression, sleep apnea, and migraine headaches. And of course it also has the obvious advantage over l-tryptophan of NOT being banned by the FDA. (Not yet, anyway.) Nevertheless, if you should decide to use 5-HTP, I strongly suggest that you discuss its use with your health care provider first - especially if you're currently taking other medications. As always, my thanks to Dr. Spreen for his insights and lively commentary. ************************************************************** ************************************************************** ....and another thing I'm still getting quite a few responses to last week's e- Alert ( " Protection Money " 12/2/02) about the vaccines for children that contain the mercury-based preservative thimerosal. One of the concerns that many of these e-mails address is the question about protecting the makers of smallpox vaccines from litigation. But comparing the smallpox issue with the thimerosal issue is an " apples and oranges " comparison. The congressional provision that derails 150 lawsuits against Eli Lilly & Company (the maker of thimerosal) was added to the recently passed Homeland Security Act. Judging from the e- mails I've received, there is still a misconception that this provision was intended to protect the makers of smallpox vaccines from litigation. This misconception holds that the thimerosal fallout was simply an unavoidable sacrifice that had to be made in order to help protect Americans from a smallpox bioterrorist attack. Discussing the dire side effects that some will suffer from a smallpox vaccine, Bill Frist, a Republican senator from Tennessee and the author of " When Every Moment Counts, " a book on bioterrorism, stated, " Of every million people who receive the vaccine, two to four people will die from its complications. Five times that number will become seriously ill from the vaccine. " Because these risks have been well understood for some time now, the President has already issued an executive order that grants smallpox vaccine manufacturers immunity from liability. Furthermore, the smallpox vaccine does not contain thimerosal. So the Homeland Security Act provision that protects the maker of thimerosal from litigation is entirely unrelated to the smallpox vaccine issue. Did vaccines containing thimerosal cause autism in some children? That question has raised a heated debate, with both sides offering evidence to support their positions. But whatever the answer to that question may be, the law provides the parents of those autistic children their day in court. That law has been subverted now by the 11th hour provision to the Homeland Security Act. And without question, the one and only winner from that provision is Eli Lilly. To Your Good Health, Jenny Thompson Health Sciences Institute ************************************************************** ************************************************************** Sources: " 5-HTP Combination Therapy for Fibromyalgia " Holistic Online Copyright ©1997-2002 by www.hsibaltimore.com, L.L.C. The e-Alert may not be posted on commercial sites without written permission. ************************************************************** ************************************************************** If you'd like to participate in the HSI Forum, search past e-Alerts and products or you're an HSI member and would like to search past articles, visit http://www.hsibaltimore.com ************************************************************** To learn more about HSI, call (508) 368-7494 or visit http://www.agora-inc.com/reports/HSI/WHSIC313/home.cfm. ************************************************************** Gettingwell- / Vitamins, Herbs, Aminos, etc. To , e-mail to: Gettingwell- Or, go to our group site: Gettingwell Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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