Fibromyalgia: Alleviating Its Depression, Sleep Disorders & Overeating -Tryptoph

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Fibromyalgia: Alleviating Its Depression, Sleep Disorders and Overeating.

By: Dr. William Wong, ND, PhD.

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Fibromyalgia is a physiological and not a psychological disease; but in time

deep psychological symptoms do develop. Not being able to work. Not having

the energy to care for family and home. The unrelenting pain coupled with the

disbelief of doctors' family and friends, all these things combine to create

a seeming psychological disease. Depression sets in as inability and

inactivity become the daily routine. Daily worry and depression combine with

pain,

spasm and stiffness to upset the sleep pattern and create sleeping disorders.

The brain chemistry itself becomes off balanced and with that the patient

seems of become mentally off balanced.

For those who have been on the usual round of pain killing and anti

depression medication and have experienced no change or relief, always to the

disbelief of the medical community; I offer this hope for feeling better,

sleeping

better, and improving ones outlook - the amino acid L Tryptophan.

" Tryptophan you say! That was banned in years ago - wasn't it " ? Well yes and

no.

First lets go over what L Tryptophan does. Tryptophan is an essential amino

acid, a building block of protein our bodies cannot do with out. When

tryptophan is missing from our diets we die, and die badly. Tryptophan is the

only

thing that can create serotonin, the brain chemical that produces sleep and

fights depression.

Anti depression drugs don't produce serotonin, they merely recycle it. You

can only recycle something so many times before it goes bad! If you took a

piece of nice clean paper and put it through a copy machine over and over and

over and over again, in time that piece of once clean smooth paper would be

crumpled, dirty and not fulfilling it's function. So it is with recycled brain

chemicals. Nature depends on replenishing these chemicals not recycling them.

That's why the side effects of the anti depression drugs are so severe and

include: suicide, murder and mania (violent uncontrolled behavior). The two

doctors who developed Prozac were sent to federal prison for falsifying its

test

data. Prozacs' manufacturers know that 10% of patients who take the drug

will have episodes of mania. With only one exception all of the school killings

from 1993, when they started prescribing antidepressants for children, until

now have involved Ritalin, antidepressants or both! Yet there is so much

money involved with selling the #1 selling drug in the world that you've likely

never heard of those facts until today!

Many folks due to poor food choices, a low protein diet, intestinal

malabsorption, poor circulation or other factors don't get enough tryptophan

from

their eating to adequately feed their brains. Most of us know the familiar

feeling of being cozy and sleepy after Thanksgiving supper; that's from the

tryptophan producing serotonin in your brain. Depression and insomnia patients

can

eat the whole turkey and a gallon of warm milk to boot and not get that lazy

warm sleepy feeling that other folks do!

In the late 1980's the main tryptophan producer in the world, Showa Denko of

Japan, accidentally on purpose dumped a tainted batch of tryptophan on the

US market. The contaminated batch contained 30 to 60 different bacteria and

many folks who were taking doses of 5000 mg. a day or more of the tainted

product got sick, some even died of the bacteria. The FDA banned and

confiscated

the Showa Denko product from the market. Then in a surprise move the FDA

announced an import restriction on all tryptophan except for pharmaceutical

grade

tryptophan meant for baby formulas, senior IV feeding, animal use and when

prescribed by doctors for human use. So in other words tryptophan was still

legal to buy but it was almost impossible to get into the country! Up to that

time the US tryptophan market had totaled some $60,000,000. It was just a few

weeks after the import restrictions when the depression patients,

orthomolecular psychiatric patients, and chronic insomniacs began really

missing their

tryptophan that Prozac was introduced with many flourishes and highly paid for

publicity. Coincidence, I think not!

Getting back to Fibromyalgia; what can tryptophan do to help? In peer

reviewed scientific studies it had been repeatedly proven that tryptophan:

1. Reduces or eliminates depression. (1).

2. Relieves insomnia. (2).

3. Reduces the tendency to overeat. (3).

4. Reduces pain. (4)

5. Reduces the impulse to commit suicide. (5)

6. Reduces the tendency towards angry or violent outbursts. (6).

 

These days to get around the supposed " ban " on tryptophan an analogue of it

called 5-HTP is being widely used. While it has some of the serotonin

producing properties of full l-tryptophan, the 5 HTP lacks many of

l-tryptophans

beneficial actions such as pain control and muscular relaxation. These

additional actions are important in reducing many of the complaints

Fibromyalgia

patients have.

As a patient deals with the myriad of concerns that Fibromyalgia produces,

tryptophan can clear and calm the mind and also, allow for a longer more

restful period of sleep at night! Tryptophan helps to control muscle stiffness

and

spasm, the twitches that tend to wake a patient up at night are greatly

reduced! When used in lower doses during the day, tryptophan can smooth out the

rough spots, lower tempers and frustration providing for a better sense of

well being.

It's been said that eating is the last pleasure. Fibromyalgia patients not

finding relief from medication or support from family and friends tend to over

eat " comfort foods " which are high in carbohydrates and therefore fattening.

Combine the over " carbing " with the sedentary nature of Fibromyalgia and one

has the recipe for obesity. Raising serotonin levels and increasing delivery

of blood sugar to the brain increases the sense of comfort and well being

and decreases the appetite. Both of those effects are done by tryptophan!

Fibromyalgia patients have enough to feel badly about without adding being

overweight to the list!

Pure pharmaceutical grade tryptophan has no side effects. Remember it is

essential to brain function and to life.

Pharmaceutical grade tryptophan (the purest form) is currently available for

both veterinary and human use. The products are identical, except for the

label. Veterinary products actually have higher standards of purity than

pharmaceutical products made for humans! The liability issues are higher if an

animal dies than if a person does. It sounds crazy but that's how the insurance

companies have worked it. For example: with aspirin and ibuprofen, 20,000

Americans die each year! Have you heard of anyone suing Bayer or Motrin for the

death of a loved one? No. Yet if a product kills someone's prized Arabian

horse or favorite pet poodle the owner of that animal may likely wind up owning

the supplement company as well!

Dosage? Usually one 500 mg. capsule for each 50 pounds of your bodyweight

when taken before bed. You can freely experiment in taking less than that

amount and work your way up to the full dose if needed. During the day you may

try

one or two capsules in-between meals to maintain a higher production of

serotonin during your waking hours.

If used by itself tryptophan will provide you with all of the benefits a

higher level of serotonin brings. When added to a comprehensive program to

overcome Fibromyalgia, such as is detailed in my book " 10 Natural Treatments

you

Haven't Heard of Until Now " , the road to wellness, and to a fuller more pain

free life will be much much smoother.

 

References:

 

1.Farkas, T.,Dunner, D.,l. And Fieve, R.,R.,L.: L - Tryptophan in

depression. Biol. Psych., 11(3), 1976.

2.Hartmann, E., Spinweber,C., L: Sleep induced by L-Tryptophan: effect of

dosages within the normal dietary intake. J. Nervous and Mental Disease,

167(8),1979.

3.Wurtman, R., J., et al: Composition and method for suppressing appetite

for calories as carbohydrates. United States Patent, 4,210,637. July 1, 1980.

4.Liberman, J., et al; Mood, performance and pain sensitivity: changes

induced by food constituents. J. Psychiat. Res., 17(2): 135-145, 1982-83.

5.Braverman, E.,R., Pfeiffer, C., C. : Suicide and biochemistry. Biol.

Psych., 20: 123-124, 1985.

6.Mawson, A., R. : Corn, tryptophen and homicide. J. Ortho. Psych., 7(4):

227-230, 1978.