Huge Dopamine Deficiency

[StephCurryFtw]

Hey all. 

I have been able to take rather large doses of Tyrosine and NALT up to like 5-6 times the recommended dose or more and I've been feeling just fine on those doses.  I took around 3300 mg of NALT in one day and noticed each capsule of like 350 mg each was only lasting like 30 mins in my system. 

I am super down-regulated to dopamine and I've had a long history of amphetamine abuse, but I've been trying NALT because I have felt anhedonic for weeks now. 

My doctor didn't know jack about supplements or herbals when I asked, so I just said whatever and started testing things out on my own because he was taking forever to get back to me and I didn't want to wait for his own ADHD self to finally remember to contact me back just to say "I don't know." 

So I became the scientist and the participant in my own experiment so-to-speak. 

[Cataceous]

That's an interesting result. I wonder if concurrent use of levodopa and/or an MOA inhibitor would allow for a reduction in dose/frequency of tyrosine.

[Mr.L]

The down regulation will correct itself over time, may take a while depending on how long you abused amphetamine. Was it prescription or street meth? How long and how much did you use?

[Kierkegaard]

IIRC, phenylalanine (which directly precedes tyrosine in becoming dopamine) has higher bioavailability and/or cross the blood-brain barrier better than tyrosine.  I also seem to notice that unless my B6 levels are supplemented with a healthy dose of P5P/active B6 (25 mg) that the dl-phenylalanine I take doesn't seem to do anything.

So you might look into trying DLPA/phenylalanine and/or taking P5P to help conversion from l-dopa to dopamine.

[StephCurryFtw]

That's an interesting result. I wonder if concurrent use of levodopa and/or an MOA inhibitor would allow for a reduction in dose/frequency of tyrosine.

I've had a really good response to EMSAM.  That is totally consistent with that.  It's just not reasonable to take that much tyrosine a day, so I'd much rather look for alternatives even if that much tyrosine worked it would be expensive long-term since it's OTC. 

[StephCurryFtw]

IIRC, phenylalanine (which directly precedes tyrosine in becoming dopamine) has higher bioavailability and/or cross the blood-brain barrier better than tyrosine.  I also seem to notice that unless my B6 levels are supplemented with a healthy dose of P5P/active B6 (25 mg) that the dl-phenylalanine I take doesn't seem to do anything.

So you might look into trying DLPA/phenylalanine and/or taking P5P to help conversion from l-dopa to dopamine.

I've never tried P5P or B6 with it.  Doesn't B6 help with serotonin and dopamine conversions for phenylalanine to l-dopa to dopamine?  I know Vitamin C apparently helps somehow with dopamine chemically, but I already am getting plenty of Vitamin C so that is a non-issue for me. 

What does P5P do or is that Rx?  I've not heard of it..

[Kierkegaard]

IIRC, phenylalanine (which directly precedes tyrosine in becoming dopamine) has higher bioavailability and/or cross the blood-brain barrier better than tyrosine.  I also seem to notice that unless my B6 levels are supplemented with a healthy dose of P5P/active B6 (25 mg) that the dl-phenylalanine I take doesn't seem to do anything.

So you might look into trying DLPA/phenylalanine and/or taking P5P to help conversion from l-dopa to dopamine.

I've never tried P5P or B6 with it.  Doesn't B6 help with serotonin and dopamine conversions for phenylalanine to l-dopa to dopamine?  I know Vitamin C apparently helps somehow with dopamine chemically, but I already am getting plenty of Vitamin C so that is a non-issue for me. 

What does P5P do or is that Rx?  I've not heard of it..

Yes to your question, spot on. P5P is what B6 gets converted into, but there can be conversion problems so it's usually better just to take P5P. People typically refer to it as "active B6" for this reason.