Shake the winter-blues with 5-htp, a natural (legal) mood booster!

If you feel like you might need something to brighten up your mood, but you are a bit skeptical of conventional “anti-depressants” like ssri’s, you should look into 5-htp, (short for 5-hydroxytryptophan). 5-htp is an amino acid and a precursor to serotonin: the amazing neurotransmitter of well-being and love! 💖

5-htp is a natural supplement, sold in most health food stores in most countries. The supplement is usually made from an extract of the seeds from the African plant Griffonia simplicifolia and sold in capsules, the normal dose is 50 mg. But you can take up to 300 mg during a whole day, like three 50mg capsules in the morning and three more in the afternoon.

I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice, but I have tried supplementing with 5-htp several times during periods of my life. So I am writing from personal experience I am not trying to sell anyone “snake-oil”, this is just my humble opinion a personal "unsponsored" supplement review, and remember everyone reacts different to supplements.

Taking a 5-htp supplement can help you increase the amount of serotonin in your body, and this might help you shake that horrible "seasonal blues" or at least temporarily help to improve your mood a tiny little bit.

Initially 5-htp sounds very promising, but it is not that simple to just “make the brain happy”. The brain has a filter called the blood brain barrier (BBB), the blood brain barrier stops too much 5-htp from entering your brain as serotonin, so taking a mega-dose of 5-htp will not get you “high” or something like this, but a small dose every now and then might promote a healthy “serotonin balance”.

Some people say it might help with sleep, but I never felt sleepy from taking 5-htp, but from my personal experiences I can say that it did help me feel a bit more optimistic about life in general.

I recommend taking 5-htp on an empty stomach (or at least 10 minutes before your meal), take it with some lemonade or a sweet snack like a tangerine and a vitamin-B6 supplement, vitamin B6 is very important it will help your body to metabolize the 5-htp, and I noticed adding B6 makes a huge difference, I actually got the best results using about half a teaspoon of raw yeast (yeast is a natural source of vitamin B6).

I would not recommend taking 5-htp for extended periods of time, because it might disturb the balance of dopamine and serotonin, but used in moderation for a few weeks it should be all right. Some people use another supplement "Mucuna Prurensis" together with 5-htp to balance dopamine and serotonin, (I might write more about this soon).

Griffonia simplicifolia in the wild, photosource: http://www.scacqc.net

I personally believe the best way to take 5-htp is occasionally, like the week after you attended a crazy festival and burnt yourself out, or maybe for that time when you have that one problematic relative over for a really long visit… 😉

Some people say 5-htp helped them lose weight, I never really noticed that, but I felt it helped against cravings for sweets, so it might help you loose weight, or at least help you control your sugar intake.

This is not a commercial or sponsored message, I just wanted to share my personal experiences with you people here on Steemit, in hope that you might find it beneficial, 5-htp helped me a little bit and maybe it could help you, anyway I am a bit of a “supplement-freak” and I enjoy writing about my experiments with different supplements.

If you want to try 5-htp, I recommend that you read some more about it first, (anyone can write anything online you know), and if you have a medical condition and you are on medication consult your doctor beforehand, and take some time to find a reputable 5-htp source.

Even though I mainly have positive experiences with 5-htp, it did give me some weird chest pains at one time, (but I think I might have taken a bit to much that time), anyway if you feel discomfort from taking 5-htp, just stop taking it , 5-htp it is not for everybody and it could have some negative side-effects.

One thing that you need to remember about 5-htp is that whilst it might not overflow the brain with serotonin completely, it still increases the amount of serotonin in the body significantly and there for it could be dangerous to combine it with another serotonin-releasing agent, possibly causing something called “serotonin syndrom”, so if you are on any type of anti-depressant don’t use 5-htp!

Serotonin syndrom is not a joke, it could make you very very sick or in extreme cases even be lethal. 💀

Some people use 5-htp to recover from a hard weekend of partying, but remember that you should never combine alcohol or recreational drugs that release serotonin with 5-htp,
never take them at the same time!

More information:

5-HTP at webmd.com:
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-794-5-htp.aspx?activeingredientid=794
5-Hydroxytryptophan: a clinically-effective serotonin precursor:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9727088
Using 5-hydroxytryptophan and alcohol:
http://www.progressivehealth.com/using-5-hydroxytryptophan-and-alcohol.htm

• Please do upvote this post
• Resteem (you can do it!)
• Also please don't forget to follow me and write a comment