histamine & aminos, EPA & Depression

[Guest guest]

Dear Bill,

your scholarly mail is stunning. Thanks. But allow me

to raise doubts in it. Please respond to them at your

convenience. Also, I invite others---George,

Phil----to add on.

Now please take time to read me below and between the

lines of Bill Walsh reproduced below.

Ratan.

Bill: Tyrosine and/or phenylalanine supplements can

enhance dopamine & norepinephrine synthesis,

especially in malabsorbers or persons with low protein

intake. These supplements can be beneficial in cases

of low catecholamine levels. However, it is

contraindicated for persons who are overmethylated,

low-histamine, low-folate individuals.

>My son is very very low on basophils. I conclude

therefore he is a low histamine type. Histamine

estimation facility is not available to us. Other

picture is that he is definitely having adrenal

exhaustion and hypo-thyroid because his body

temperature is way way down checked by me using

different protocols and he comes high on three or four

items on the symptom list of low thyroid function. But

his Free T3 and Free T4 are in normal range and TSH is

also normal.

>Now, tyrosine should be contraindicated for my son as

he is a low histamine type. But past 10 days or so,

his symptoms worsened much on the days I did not give

him tyrosine and started improving when I resumed

tyrosine. I did not discontinue tyrosine

intentionally. But I just ran out of my stock.

Therefore it became an N=1 research design of " ABA "

type. I am forced to conclude in the case of my son

that tyrosine helps. I don't know about

L-Phenylalanine.

>But I am scared because Bill has used the word

" contraindicated " . Bill, what terrible will happen if

I continue to give high dose tyrosine to my son?

Tyrosine will not help is ok but, Bill, you say it is

" contraindicated " . You are using a strong word. So

please expand the consequences of my wrong step.

>Bill, do you make a distinction between phenylalanine

and tyrosine such that tyrosine is ok but

phenylalanine is not ok because according to you, in

the synthesis of DA (I assume you mean Dopamine?) and

NE...., tyrosine is required, not phenylalanine. So

you mean tyrosine is ok?

The rate-limiting step in DA and NE synthesis is the

tetrahydrobiopterin step, which requires tyrosine, but

not phenylalanine. The nutrient therapy selected

depends on a patient’s individual biochemistry.

Tyrosine & phenylalanine can help some patients, but

harm others.

Bill: Omega-3 supplements appear to benefit many

bipolar patients, but certainly not all of them. My

preference is to first define methylation and pyrrole

status and act accordingly. Recent studies indicate

that DHA is effective for depression and EPA effective

for combating mania.

>It is just the other way round, that is, EPA is to

remove depression and DHA to combat mania. The fact

that EPA relieves depression is born out in the paper

by Dr. Basant Puri in the Archives of General

Psychiatry (Eicosapentaenoic Acid in

Treatment-Resistant Depression, Arch. Gen. Psychiat.,

2002, Vol. 59, No.1) and Stoll has been quoted as

saying the same. Dr. Basant Puri used pure EPA without

DHA in his patient of chronic and drug resistant

depression.

Bill: Together, they may level out a bipolar patient’s

tendency for these problems. If depression is the

primary symptom, I would emphasize DHA; for mania or

hypomania -- EPA. Usually the best way to help a

mentally-ill patient is to normalize methylation,

folates, pyrroles, etc. The fatty acids can help, but

usually aren’t decisive for extended periods.

>In my one patient the EPA DHA combination has worked.

He was a case of chronic depression not responding to

psychiatric drugs. But my two other cases, after

initially responding to the EPA DHA combination,

relapsed. There seems to be hypo-thyroid in them.

Don't you think tyrosine with relevant vitamins and

minerals will help in such a depression both due to

its conversion into DA and NE and due to its

conversion into the thyroid T3?

>As regards Bill's point of pyroles, if lab test for

the pyroles is not available, its no harm starting B6

and Zinc anyway.

Thanks for contributing.

Ratan. ratans

 

 

 

 

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