Agent207 said:post 112698Nicholas said:post 111046 it seems the reasons to take Lysine would be: you have a diagnosed deficiency, you are using it as an antiviral, or you are using it to antagonize HGH in situations like cancer. Using it to combat serotonin seems a bit more vague i am feeling. Do people who use Lysine have diagnosed high serotonin? If not, is a benefit from taking Lysine the *suppression* of serotonin or could it also be relief from a virus or even lowering nitric oxide? And does antagonizing HGH (or NO) or a virus also play a part in the serotonin suppression. Suppressing serotonin seems kind of odd now that i think about it....suppressing the thing which is causing a diagnosed case of high serotonin makes more sense. Many people eat the carrot as an anti-serotonin therapy - this is actually less vague in that you're targeting endotoxin (and the negative hormones associated). I'm not saying taking Lysine for the express purpose of lowering serotonin is wrong if it makes you feel better....just questioning for myself a more refined approach to supplementation.
Couldn't agree more. I suspect this serotonin depletion is one of the most misunderstood peat concepts. Peat advices about serious adverse effect of high serotonin levels (opposed to the mainstream beliefs). And then you see people here calling for lowering serotonin AT WILL FOR EVERYONE no matter what, not even considering their levels. Calling for depletion, the more the better!! Seriously, you think the brain chemistry is that simple? you read an article of Peat/whoever and think you can understand all?
And don't be wrong.. this is not a Peats issue, not at all.
People with obesity have "normal" serotonin levels yet several pharma companies are investing heavily in drugs that suppress peripheral serotonin synthesis as a way to cure obesity, osteoporosis, kidney failure, etc. Peat has said many times that he advocated gelatin as the major source of protein in the diet. He has also said that tryptophan requirements in adults are close to zero. The same has already been confirmed for methionine - i.e. restricting intake to under 200mg daily cured obesity in type II diabetics. If tryptophan is as unessential as methionine and you follow the advice of Peat, your serotonin will be quite low. If you want high metabolism, serotonin should be as low as possible. I would not worry too much about it - with the amount of stress the average person faces every day serotonin is not in danger of dropping too low any time soon.
Bottom line is this - what is the optimal level of serotonin? We don't know, since there is no objective standard to derive optimal levels. If you trust animal studies, serotonin levels of wild rats when well fed are almost zero while those of lab rats are quite similar to humans' and (proportionally) fall into the "normal" range defined for humans by the "divinely wise" Merck Manuals. We don't know what is normal anymore, but we do know that Western health is rapidly deteriorating and serotonin plays a BIG role in the metabolic diseases, which so far look like to be all there is. Oh, and even the viral and bacterial conditions require a serotonin "receptor" to be able to take hold in a host and develop. No tryptophan, no serotonin, no infection.
If you have a study that discussed how elevating serotonin is beneficial for health please post it here. On my end I will post these two.
viewtopic.php?f=178&t=6451
viewtopic.php?f=98&t=8745
What more do you need to convince you?? "Normal" serotonin shortens your lifespan by about 8%, SSRI drugs shorten it by up to 80%, and antiserotonin drugs increase it by 30%-40%. Again, these were not animals with "high" serotonin levels. They were lab animals with serotonin levels quite similar to the average Joe walking down the street.
Just my 2c.
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