Tryptophan And White / Grey Hair

haidut

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jyb

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haidut said:
So, tryptophan depletion would be beneficial not just for lowering serotonin.

Depends what's causing the whiting and at what amount of tryptophan intake. If the whiting of the hair is due to a metabolic problem, and one would need to keep tryptophan intake to an extremely low level, then you may start having trouble conserving muscle mass by reducing it too much? My understanding is that the main problem is serotonin in the brain, but that is taken care of with sufficient gelatin which diverts tryptophan away from the brain. Also, I'd find it tough to get a good amount of quality protein daily without a lot of dairy (or muscle meat).

Note that RP also made a connection between white hair and copper deficiency.
 
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haidut

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jyb said:
haidut said:
So, tryptophan depletion would be beneficial not just for lowering serotonin.

Depends what's causing the whiting and at what amount of tryptophan intake. If the whiting of the hair is due to a metabolic problem, and one would need to keep tryptophan intake to an extremely low level, then you may start having trouble conserving muscle mass by reducing it too much? My understanding is that the main problem is serotonin in the brain, but that is taken care of with sufficient gelatin which diverts tryptophan away from the brain. Also, I'd find it tough to get a good amount of quality protein daily without a lot of dairy (or muscle meat).

Note that RP also made a connection between white hair and copper deficiency.

I agree with your points. However, the high levels of tryptophan in grey / white hair does seem to be a problem on its own. Ray said that typically, in a high calcium diet like milk/cheese, tryptophan will be steered towards metabolism into niacin. So a high calcium diet would presumably have less tryptophan floating around for keratinization, and keratinization itself is a problem I think according to Ray. A high protein diet (especially one low in tryptophan) would either incorporate tryptophan into muscle synthesis and/or in case of also high calcium intake will divert most remaining tryptophan into niacin conversion.

Finally, there seems to be some controversy as to whether tryptophan is really essential for the organism in the sense that without it the organism would develop pathology. Here are two links that claim that tryptophan is actually NOT needed for muscle protein synthesis, so I am beginning to wonder what is it needed for other than producing a little serotonin which has physiological function for blood clotting and intestinal motility:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serotonin

"...Muscles use 12 of the 13 amino acid groups (not using tryptophan), allowing more muscular individuals to produce more serotonin."

http://books.google.com/books?id=nbR80w ... is&f=false

"...In recent studies [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12217881], L-tryptophan was not included in the amino acid mi because it (along with tyrosine) has
negligible effects on skeletal muscle-protein synthesis, and in fact, because of its effects on hepatic protein
synthesis, is counterproductive if your goal is to maximize muscle protein synthesis. Increasing liver protein
synthesis is robbing Peter (muscle) to pay Paul (liver)."

Animals on tryptophan-free diets don't die as long as they receive niacin as supplement or from food. So, it looks like aside from producing serotonin and niacin there is little use for tryptophan in the body.
Finally, if tryptophan does stimulate liver protein synthesis mostly does that imply it causes liver enlargement???
 

Peata

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I have since read that it lowers serotonin, but wondered if it does this by lowering the precursor, tryptophan, if anyone knows. I am trying to figure out if caffeine/coffee would help reduce grey hair.
 
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haidut

haidut

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Peata said:
I have since read that it lowers serotonin, but wondered if it does this by lowering the precursor, tryptophan, if anyone knows. I am trying to figure out if caffeine/coffee would help reduce grey hair.

The studies are mixed, and the ones I have seen are for tryptophan in the brain. For the brain, most studies report increased tryptophan but lower serotonin. Not sure what to make of this, but caffeine is also a dopamine agonist so if it has dopaminergic effects it should help with grey hair.
 
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"...Muscles use 12 of the 13 amino acid groups (not using tryptophan), allowing more muscular individuals to produce more serotonin."

:jawdrop:
 

Richiebogie

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I compiled the below figures from nutrition data.

It is not very useful as it does not compare total protein - fruit is very low in protein. (You need to eat a lot of mango to match the total protein you get from eating 100g beef or 250ml milk).

However it is believed that eating potato (and possibly fruit) recycles protein due to keto acids, so maybe a high fruit and potato diet is best for minimizing tryptophan, and keeping away the grey!

Certainly drinking 2 litres of milk every day will give you a generous dose of tryptophan!

***

Orange juice protein is 0.3% tryptophan, 1.3% glycine
Banana protein is 0.8% tryptophan, 3.4% glycine
Raspberry not available
Mango protein is 1.6% tryptophan and 4% glycine
Potato protein is 1.5% tryptophan and 3% glycine
Carrot not available
Instant Coffee protein is 0.3% tryptophan, 4% glycine
Chocolate not available
Yeast extract not available
Milk protein is 2% tryptophan, 2% glycine
Parmasan cheese protein is 1.3% tryptophan, 2% glycine
Pacific Oyster protein is 1% tryptophan, 6% glycine
Tuna protein is 1% tryptophan, 4.5% glycine
Whole egg protein is 1% tryptophan and 3.5% glycine
Chicken breast protein is 1% tryptophan, 5% glycine
Lamb protein is 1% tryptophan, 5% glycine
Beef protein is 0.5% tryptophan and 6.5% glycine
 

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