5-htd

Hey there. Yes, 5-HTP IS safe to take while breastfeeding. I just strated taking 50mg and have the go ahead to take 100 if needed from my midwife. Also, in response to the other post St. John's Wort is okay to take alone per my midwife but NOT with 5-HTP. And she recommended the 5-HTP first.

The only real way to get a the tryptophan from dairy is through hot milk. The milk has to be heated in order to release it so unless you want to drink warm/hot milk all day I would pass on that being your main supply. But then again I don't touch dairy any more for many reasons, so that is just my personal preference

There is a thread here about taking inositol and 5-HTP in combination and a lot of the girls seem to have really good luck with that, but it was a lot of inositol which can be expensive. At least one of them was bfing while taking it. I believe it is the post about Natural cure or remedy or something.

5-HTP is not tryptophan. It is what your body makes from tryptophan (an intermediate). The pathway looks like this:

Tryptophan -> 5-hydroxy-tryptophan (5-HTP) -> 5-hydroxy-tryptamine (serotonin)

Tryptophan was banned as a supplement for a few years in the US because the manufacturing process used at the time resulted in the contamination of the supplements with a hazardous substance (detected but not identified by analysis). Tryptophan supplements were re-legalized after it was shown that they could be manufactured without the contaminant.

5-HTP has never been banned in the US, and has never had issues with contamination. 5-HTP is also more valuable to the body than tryptophan for these reasons:

- If your body has trouble doing the first conversion step (Trp -> 5-HTP), then giving supplements of 5-HTP will compensate for this problem, while Trp supplementation would not.

- 5-HTP is taken up into the brain (through the blood-brain barrier) at a much higher rate than Trp, so a smaller amount is needed to have the same positive effect.

5-HTP supplementation with vitamin B6 seems to have helped DH out a lot.

hth

DH (~200lbs) has been on 500 mg/day (200 in the morning, 100 midday, 200 at night) for a few weeks now after ramping up from lower doses. I would think that regardless of your daily amount, three doses per day would be better than one (for example, if you're taking 150 mg/day, then 50mg at a time, 6 to 8 hours apart, would be better than 150 all at once).

A really high dose of 5HTP can cause "serotonin syndrome," which is not aptly named because it is temporary and not injurious. Serotonin syndrome is caused by a brain overage of serotonin, and it causes mental symptoms of confusion and general loopiness, until the brain serotonin level lowers. I've read studies in which researchers were dosing 200mg at every meal, and serotonin syndrome was not observed in any subject or described in the study design as a concern, so it does not appear that doses up to 600 mg/day in healthy adults of typical stature and weight are considered too high.

I'd ramp up and stay at a level that seemed sufficient for my needs, though, rather than continuing to increase up to a suggested dosage, since it's a waste of money if you're taking more than you need.