How To Decrease Serotonin? I'm A Little Confused

[alexander101]

Okay, So going through Dr. Peat's material this is what I came up with as things that will lower serotonin levels:
- one raw carrot per day
- gelatin --> glycine content can counteract? serotonin - (but i love the idea of glycine as an inhibitory anti-anxiety agent)
- caffeine

So I bought i glycine supplement (15g), because I assumed this would be useful - but after taking it i feel extremely nauseated.

How do I incorporate glycine from gelatin? What foods do I eat that are high in gelatin (and therefore glycine)?
Does a cup of JELL-O contain a decent amount of glycine? What else can I eat (and if you say bone broth, please go into a bit more detail because I don't quite comprehend the concept... sorry I'm just new to everything here lol)

My end goal is to reduce serotonin and cortisol, because I'm dealing with anxiety.
I drank coffee today and it gave me a sense of calm (ironic because caffeine is supposed to be bad for anxiety).

 

[tara]

Welcome alexander101 :)

The idea with gelatine is that it has little or no tryptophan in it. Tryptophan being the amino acid that is required for the body to synthesise tryptophan. We need a little tryptophan, but not much, and muscle meats have quite a lot of it. So eating gelatine can help provide useful protein without too much of the tryptophan. Glycine, which gelatine has a lot of, has lots of useful roles in the body.

I find coffee calming too (but I get messed up if I get too much caffeine) - it varies a lot from person to person. Coffee provides some good nutrients, and can help stimulate cellular energy production. Low cellular energy production is the root of many health problems, and can make us feel anxious.

I make jelly out of gelatine, sugar, and orange juice. I would think a cup of ordinary jello will have some gelatine in it (I'm guessing ~ 5 grams? does it say on the packet? - it's probably most of whatever protein is listed), but you might want more than that. I make mine stiffer - 400ml gelatine: 300ml sucrose: 1600 ml OJ, and then cut it into pieces with knife for snacks for a few days.

I buy soup bones/bones with a little meat on them, and boil them for a couple of hours, and then use the stock for soup. I enjoy chewing the gristly bits off the bones, too. Gelatine is basically cooked collagen, and collagen is a major part of connective tissues and skin. A whole animal has lots of collagen, but if you just eat muscle meats you don't get much.

Another key thing for lowering serotonin is to figure out if there are foods that are particularly bothering your digestion. Most of the serotonin in the body is produced in the gut, from stretching, friction, etc, So foods that are rough on it result in more serotonin. Peat encourages eating a grated carrot salad between meals to help move toxins out from the gut, but he doesn't otherwise usually recommend a high fibre diet.

Sugar is good for keeping cortisol down. Preferably from fruit, milk, honey, if they agree with you, but some pure sucrose is OK too. Many of us snack often to keep blood sugar up through the day, and have a sweet supper to help load the liver with glycogen to last us through the night. If glycogen storage is strong, fewer meals can work. This is really helpful for me for keeping stress down, along with getting enough protein etc.

People vary in which tactics they find most useful, but most people here make it a priority to minimise polyunsaturated fats, for lots of reasons. PUFAs tend to amplify the body's stress responses, while saturated fats tend to limit them.

There's lots more to find if you keep reading. And asking questions.
Good luck.

I think there

 

[alexander101]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to write that informative response!
So buying powdered gelatin from the grocery store, and making my own jello with it (+ sugar and orange juice) is a good source then?
And yes I will try to make some soups from boney meats.
How much coffee do you drink if I may ask? I had one cup today and felt pretty good!

So the carrot salad is intended to move toxins out from the gut (thereby also removing serotonin)?
I've been eating mine first thing in the morning on an empty stomach because i thought that was the rule..
but you're saying i should eat it between meals to continuously remove toxins?
(I'm guessing in the morning there's not much toxins there in the first place?)

 

[tara]

Quite a few people get Great Lakes gelatin, on the basis that it is recommended as high quality. Personally, I'm using local supermarket stuff, and I don't know whether there is a problem with quality or not, but I enjoy the end product.

I drink 1-2 litres of coffee milk spread through the day. I make up ~2 litres of milk with ~10-15 grams of instant decaf powder and a bit of sugar. What suits people varies a lot. For me I think problems arise if I get coffee withdrawal through the night (or possibly run out of glycogen quicker through the night). On the rare occasions when I've drunk full caffeine coffee, I've tended to sleep long and deep, but be more prone to waking up with migraine under-way - that's my key issue. I haven't heard of anyone else having this problem.

Any fibre will help sweep out endotoxin and estrogen from the gut (good). This works best when the digestive tract is not full of food. But many fibres feed intestinal bacteria well (maybe not so good, according to Peat) and also can sometimes just be physically rough and/or bulky in there (friction/stretching ->serotonin). Raw carrot and cooked bamboo shoots don't feed the bacteria as much.
A lot of us try to get food into us, particularly sugar and usually a bit of protein, pretty soon after waking, to help lower stress hormones like cortisol that for most of us have risen during the night-time fast. I usually eat my carrot salad either in the afternoon or between dinner or supper.

 

[tara]

Also, high cortisol means breaking down your on muscles, which contain tryptophan, to make glucose for energy supply. So I think keeping cortisol down can also help limit tryptophan and serotonin.

 

[Blake]

What type of Great Lakes gelatin does everyone use? Which color?

 

[Hiwatt]

What type of Great Lakes gelatin does everyone use? Which color?

I use the green now cause it dissolves nicely in any liquid. The red turned into a ball of goop. That's my $0.02

 

[Blake]

I use the green now cause it dissolves nicely in any liquid. The red turned into a ball of goop. That's my $0.02

Is it the collagen hydrolysate?

 

[Hiwatt]

Is it the collagen hydrolysate?

Great Lakes Gelatin Collagen Hydrolysate Kosher, 16 oz https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005KG7EDU/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_qV9XAbZCZXH4X

I bought this and I like the pork rinds. They are expensive but a nice snack.

4505 Chicharrones (Fried Pork Rinds) (Jalapeno Cheddar), 4 Pack https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N65DDW1?ref=yo_pop_ma_swf

I hope the green gelatin is acceptable it dissolves nicely in espresso or coffee.

 

[teds]

Is it the collagen hydrolysate?

Yes you want the hydrolyzed if you want it to mix in and NOT turn into jelly.. I add this to my coffee for example.. but if you want to make the jelly he you need the other one- red for Great Lakes

 

[Blake]

I got this one before I seen the comment Great Lakes Gelatin Co., Beef Hide Gelatin, Collagen Joint Care, Unflavored, 16 oz (454 g) should I return it and go get the green one? I want to mix it in drinks?

 

[Blake]

Yes you want the hydrolyzed if you want it to mix in and NOT turn into jelly.. I add this to my coffee for example.. but if you want to make the jelly he you need the other one- red for Great Lakes

I got this one Great Lakes Gelatin Co., Beef Hide Gelatin, Collagen Joint Care, Unflavored, 16 oz (454 g) they had the green one at the store but the woman said it was gelatin collagen? Should I return it and get the green one?

 

[teds]

I got this one Great Lakes Gelatin Co., Beef Hide Gelatin, Collagen Joint Care, Unflavored, 16 oz (454 g) they had the green one at the store but the woman said it was gelatin collagen? Should I return it and get the green one?

No you can use that but it’s for making jelly.. it won’t dissolve into soups/coffee etc but still a good product.

 

[teds]

No you can use that but it’s for making jelly.. it won’t dissolve into soups/coffee etc but still a good product.

I use both for the record.

 

[Blake]

I use both for the record.

Does the green one have 12g of gelatin in it

 

[Hiwatt]

Does the green one have 12g of gelatin in it

Yes. It's clean here's the label. 2 tbsp a serving.

 

[Jerimy Brown]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to write that informative response!
So buying powdered gelatin from the grocery store, and making my own jello with it (+ sugar and orange juice) is a good source then?
And yes I will try to make some soups from boney meats.
How much coffee do you drink if I may ask? I had one cup today and felt pretty good!

So the carrot salad is intended to move toxins out from the gut (thereby also removing serotonin)?
I've been eating mine first thing in the morning on an empty stomach because i thought that was the rule..
but you're saying i should eat it between meals to continuously remove toxins?
(I'm guessing in the morning there's not much toxins there in the first place?)

Just a general warning... I found gelatin to be too hard on my system, and it really wrecked my gut after using it for a while. I have found natural bone broth to be the best source of low tryptophan protein. I am a working professional and don't really have the time to make my own bone broth, but I have found some really great ones at some local stores, if you are located in the US...

See my post on this other thread where I mention some of the best purchasable bone broths I have found so far, as mentioned in the following post, one of them is super cheap and super clean, but doesn't taste as good, and I found another one that's super delicious, but pricy and more ingredient(could be less effective if you react to something in said ingredients), but they make a mushroom flavor, and from what I understand mushroom is supposed to be beneficial too... Side Effects Of Too Much Serotonin

One other quick note, maybe I mention it in the above post, but be careful to get protein and carbs in each meal... I was wrecking myself pretty good in beginning by not understanding that carbs by themselves could raise serotonin, and protein by itself can cause a stress reaction. I also personally found that caffein made me more anxious when my symptoms were at their worst, but it could have also been that I was drinking black tea with sugar, and not including any protein with it in the beginning, because I didn't understand my bodies need to have both of those items at each consumption. I have since found caffein to be super helpful, but I drink black tea without sugar now, or if I put sugar in it, I make sure to have a cup of broth with it, so the protein counters the carbs.

Oh, and I also found glycine really wrecked my gut too, so each person is a little different, and there is some trial and error for everyone I think, but I recommend keeping a food/supplement log, so you can go back and make sense out of what's working for you and what's not... I can't tell you how invaluable my log has been in tracking down the source of issues that arise, especially if your symptoms are bad enough you're experiencing confusion like I was in the beginning.

See a small sample of my simple log here:
Side Effects Of Too Much Serotonin

Just realized that the post I was replying to was from 2014 LOL... But, leaving this here in case it's helpful to someone else