Detoxil Omega Formula
We must understand that tryptophan is required in only trace quantities Detoxil Omega Formula Reviewby the body. The RDA value for it is set at 0.2 grams. Our meals on an average provide us anything between 1 to 1.5 grams every day. Yet only a small fraction of it reaches our brain where it is needed most. Let us see how the scarce tryptophan can play truant in the various stages of its metabolisation
Tryptophan is first broken down by the enzyme Tryptophan Hydroxylase with the help of Vitamin B3 (or Niacinamide) into 5HTP. Here is Catch #1 It might so happen that you are deficient in Vitamin B3 which will spin into action a whole new string of events in the body. When the liver encounters the dietary tryptophan in the absence of adequate levels of Vitamin B3 it will use the scarce tryptophan to manufacture Vitamin B3. It does so at a very steep ratio of 60mg of tryptophan to produce 1mg of Vitamin B3!!
Here another enzyme called Decarboxylase converts 5HTP to 5HT with the help of Vitamin B6. Catch # 2 In the liver tryptophan is metabolised using the enzyme tryptophan pyrrolase. However if you are even mildly deficient in Vitamin B6 this tryptophan will be converted to toxic metabolites such as hydroxikynurenine xanthurenic acid and hydroxyanthranilic acid by the liver.
Now assuming that tryptophan was successfully converted to the 5HT compound without being lost as Vitamin B3 or toxin metabolites or both it now faces competition with 5 other amino acids (tyrosine valine leucine isoleucine and phenylanine) to reach the blood-brain barrier. 5HT is carried to the barrier through carbohydrate transport molecules. What can be done at this stage is to make more carbohydrate available so that the chances of tryptophan transportation increase. A migraineurs preference should be a mild increase in the intake of complex carbs (wholemeal grains cereals lentils pulses etc). This makes free buses available to carry the tryptophan to the brain.
