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Extreme trauma spans a great range-from natural disasters like floods, car accidents, or fires to man-made suffering such as physical and mental abuse, torture, and war. Any of these exposures can subsequently trigger post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.
The core symptoms and diagnostic criteria, according to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, are the re-experience of the trauma, numbing of responsiveness and avoidance, and hyperarousal. The condition is highly prevalent, and it may coexist with other psychiatric disorders, such as major depression.
Natural Agents for Mood Disorders
Natural therapies that use a combination of vitamins, herbal extracts, and amino acids have shown clinical success in patients diagnosed with PTSD or other anxiety disorders, as well as depression. Sample constituents of such a formula include 5-hydroxytrophan (5-HTP), Mucuna pruriens (velvet bean), 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (5-MTHF), vitamin B6, L-tyrosine, Melissa officinalis (lemon balm), and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA).
These individual substances have been researched for years to determine their effects on human physiology. Preliminary observations using a combination of these naturally occurring substances in a specific ratio suggest dramatic reductions in stress and anxiety in human subjects, as well as an extremely high safety profile.
5-HTP vs. L-Tryptophan
The serotonin precursor, 5-HTP, is extracted from the seeds of a plant called Griffonia simpicifolia, which is found mainly in West Central African thickets. The plant is usually associated with mounds of giant termites on plains, in forests, in secondary vegetation, and on old farms.
In the serotonin synthesis pathway, 5-HTP is an intermediate metabolite of the amino acid tryptophan. The advantage of supplemental 5-HTP is that it bypasses the conversion of tryptophan to 5-HTP via the enzyme tryptophan hydrolase, which is the rate-limiting step in the synthesis of serotonin. Tryptophan hydrolase can be inhibited by numerous factors, including stress, vitamin B6 deficiency, insulin resistance, and low magnesium. These same factors can also increase the conversion of tryptophan to kynurenine via tryptophan oxygenase, thereby rendering tryptophan unavailable for serotonin production.
The metabolite 5-HTP functions as an antioxidant, unlike L-tryptophan (LT), which can actually promote oxidative damage. An oral dose of 5-HTP is well absorbed, with about 70 percent ending up in the bloodstream. Furthermore, absorption of 5-HTP is unaffected by the presence of other amino...