Last month, just before Thanksgiving, I opened the subject of l-tryptophan ("Zzzzzz Inducing" 11/27/02), a natural chemical that is most famous as the sleep-inducing component of turkey meat. We dismissed that myth easily enough, but it raised the subject of using dietary supplements of l-tryptophan as a natural sleeping aid, and the subsequent FDA ban of l-tryptophan in 1990.
In response to that e-Alert I received this comment from an HSI member named A.D., "Please tell your readers that 5-HTP (5-hydroxy-tryptophan) works very well to induce sleep. It has solved a decade-old problem for me."
HSI Panelist, Allan Spreen, M.D., used to prescribe l-tryptophan as a safe and effective sleep inducer, so I asked him to tell us how the FDA came to ban the supplement, and how l-tryptophan compares to 5-HTP. And as always, I found Dr. Spreen's comments to be both informative and entertaining. Let's listen in, shall we?
There was a rash (all of a sudden) of serious allergic reactions to l-tryptophan (EMS, or Eosinophilic Myalgia Syndrome, which is no small thing and actually killed a few people, causing neurologic deficits in others). The problem was tracked down to a manufacturing short cut taken by one Japanese producer (Showa Denko), which introduced a contaminant they didn't know about.
Tryptophan had been used for years (available at ANY health food store) in very high doses (gram amounts) without difficulty, so nobody could quite understand it when the FDA outlawed the stuff after it was known why the problem occurred (Denko settled after epidemiological evidence tracked the problem down to a single lot number responsible).
Then it was discovered that psychiatrists had been using l-tryptophan as a sleep inducer to replace sleeping pills, (because a number of depressed patients had been saving up their prescription sleeping pills and taking them all at once to commit suicide, which doesn't make a shrink look good). They found the tryptophan worked as well as sleeping pills, but you can't kill yourself with it. The use took tryptophan to a $75,000,000/year industry. Imagine what that number would be in terms of the retail cost of Rx sleeping pills…maybe half a billion or so?
So, that's the prevailing theory of its removal from the market (though you can't prove it, of course).
5-HTP works very well, and at doses lower than those required for l-tryptophan. My problem with it is due to the opinion of the late biochemist Dr. Brian Leibovitz, who staunchly maintained that 5-HTP sequesters itself in a different cellular compartment than l-tryptophan, causing an abnormal biochemical situation. He was afraid of it over the long haul. Since tryptophan is so amazingly non-toxic (not counting contaminated lots from one producer), I very much preferred it.
I also learned that there's more to 5-HTP than just sweet dreams - it may also help raise serotonin levels in the brain. This is why it's sometimes recommended to treat a variety of health problems associated with sleep disorders, such as insomnia, fibromyalgia, depression, sleep apnea, and migraine headaches. And of course it also has the obvious advantage over l-tryptophan of NOT being banned by the FDA. (Not yet, anyway.) Nevertheless, if you should decide to use 5-HTP, I strongly suggest that you discuss its use with your health care provider first - especially if you're currently taking other medications.
As always, my thanks to Dr. Spreen for his insights and lively commentary.
To Your Good Health, Jenny Thompson
Health Sciences Institute |
