Ronald B. Keys, JD, PhD
Free Initial Consultation Call: (954) 448-1515 E-mail: rkeysphd@brainlink.com |
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Free Initial Consultation - Call Now (954) 448-1515 Low Serotonin Syndrome This response submitted by Ronald B. Keys, JD, PhD on 5/22/99. If you are bothered by depression, anxiety, OCD, insomnia, weight gainor migraines, you may have a deficiency in serotonin. Capsules containing 5-HTP have been found as effective as or better than a state of the art antidepressant drug in treating patients with clinical depression. Although both 5 HTP and SSRIs work their antidepressive effect in different ways, the end product of both is the same, a rise in the amount of 5 HTP that is available in the synapse. See: Poldinger W et al. A Functional-Dimensional Approach to Depression: Serotonin Deficiency as a Target Syndrome in a Comparison of 5-Hydroxytryptophan and Fluvoxamine. PSYCHOPATHOLOGY. 1991;24:53-81. 5 HTP is an intermediary step in the conversion of tryptophan to 5 HT. Tryptophan is converted to 5 HTP and 5 HTP is converted to 5 HT. Just as increasing tryptophan leads to a rise in 5 HT, so does increasing 5 HTP, but more directly. SSRIs, by contrast, increase available 5 HT by preventing nerve endings from soaking up recently released 5 HT molecules that have been floating around in the synapse.This SOAKING UP PROCESS, is known as RE-UPTAKE, which explains why the drugs are called RE-UPTAKE INHIBITORS. And of course, if you don't have dietary sources of tryptophan, there is nothing to re-uptake!!!!!!!!!! Please remember this. Besides depression, 5 HTP, SSRIs, along with other, older types of antidepressants, have been used with some success to treat all the disorders associated with a serotonin deficiency. But directly supplying new HT molecules or SUBSTITUTION THERAPY is probably a better solution than trying to enhance the re-recycling of old 5 HT molecules. And I repeat, if there is no dietary sources of trptophan, there is nothing to re-uptake. On the otherhand, direct substitution of 5 HT is not feasible because most of the amino acid is destroyed before it reaches the synapse. So the Polinger Approach is to take the closest precursor crossing the blood brain barrier and let the brain itself do the finishing touches. Two precursors of serotonin readily lend themselves to this purpose, tryptophan and 5 HTP. This is why I have been recommending amino acid profiles in psychiatric disorders---to demonstrate and baseline existing deficiency states in the neurobiochemical precursors to treat patients rather than to just apply drugs. In the Poldinger Study, the clinical effects of 5 HTP and the SSRI Fluvoxamine in people with depression were virtually indistinquishable. Unfortunately, common side effects to the SSRIs include anxiety, insomnia, nausea, diarrhea, mania, asthenia (weakness), dry mouth, anorexia, headache, rash, dizziness, sexual dysfunction, bronchitis or flu symptoms, yawning, drowsiness or fatigue and even tremor. I don't get these side effects with 5 HTP and 5 HTP works even better when combined with pyridoxal-5-phosphate, inositol hexonicotinate, magnesium, St. Johns Wort as well as more tryptophan enriched foods (i.e. turkey, cheese, etc.) Patients may be carefully weaned off of the SSRIs if substitutions are made with a proper diagnosis AND management of low serotonin syndrome. I hope that a few of you find this helpful. A more detailed view of this approach on neurobiochemical precursor deficiency treatments as a non-drug approach may be found in my posting under DEPRESSION, early January, 1999, entitled OPTIONS: TREATMENT RESISTANT DEPRESSION, ARTICLES 1-6. This is a 60 page report (names, locations, etc. changed) to a physician and a mutual patient who as we speak is emerging from a 10 yr period of depression as a result of DIRECTLY treating precursor deficiency states, creating a huge safety net for the patient who was FINALLY weaned off of 80 mg/day of prozac and related medications with substitutions. Now, what will you do with this information? How will you handle it? What choices will you make, if any? Free Initial Consultation - Call Now (954) 448-1515 RONALD B. KEYS, JD, PhD CLINICAL & OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Ronald B. Keys, JD, PhD 4047 Peters Road Plantation, Florida, 33317-4537 USA 954-448-1515 primary email: rkeysphd@brainlink.com secondary email: rkeysphd@gmail.com secondary email: rkeysphd@yahoo.com by pre-arrangements for voice/text chat: Mostly, Dr. Keys works as a Consulting PhD Doctor, usually from a distance, with and through a proper local anchor physician to order blood work. Advanced treatment protocols may develop from the advanced blood chemistries he requests. If you have no local doctor, Dr. Keys finds one through an affiliate physician network. His work is global, oftetimes involving patients from other countries as well as all over the continental USA. There are many tests and treatments to help people; Oftentimes, anchor physicians are not familiar or comfortable with them. Dr. Keys teaches and helps to direct individual patients AND their physicians with laboratory-work for these treatment options. This is measured work and clinical biochemistry. Opinion evidence standards are not employed here since this is a measured and laboratory-based or empirical study of the patient. Numbers are sought from the results of these tests that, usually, "...jump up and grab you..." that dictate what is needed and how much. Patient-advocacy is frequently involved to get advanced and necessary clinical biochemistries ordered and to help interpret them in filed reports..Chat room capabilities in voice or text, besides email, may be employed. This may include conference calls online. In a perfect world, if your physician knew everything, people like Dr. Keys would not exist. Physicians themselves are caught frequently in the traps of their own standards of care that may be very limited in many cases. Methods used by Dr. Keys are rational, scientific and disciplined. IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER Ronald B. Keys, JD, PhD is not a Florida mental health counselor nor a physican. Dr. Keys is an actively licensed attorney in Michigan and New York. Dr. Keys was ordained by the Church of Spiritual Humanism under ordination registry number 174197, on 10/13/07. Additionally, he graduated from The Interfaith Seminary in Cooper, Texas after completion and testing for a Basic Minisitry Course For The Church Of Seven Planes, and was formally ordained as an interfaith minister by this church on 11/19/07 under ordination registry number 200706176. He served as an officiating Senior Reverend for the BLESSED ASSURANCE PRAYER MINISTRY INTERNATIONAL CHURCH and gave/published sermons, some of which may be forwarded, if deemed relevant. He has also organized and heads in Hollywood, Florida, the HOLLYWOOD TAOISM CENTER (HTC), which to date, has had 65 meetings and reports a membership of 100 people. This Center was created in October, 2007, for adults, family and children and is available for anyone to see on the internet. Besides this, in addition to all of this, he acts here, when hired, only as a consulting PhD. Any information offered on this site is intended for your uplifting spiritually, personal cultivation and development, prevention and education. While Dr Keys has served as a scientific director,including teaching and training physicians, for two separate private companies, dealing with laboratory administration, blood and urine testing, it is and remains the responsibility of your anchor doctor or chosen physician to diagnose and treat diseases through their medical licenses. By using this web site you agree that you will seek professional medical advice from your doctor before using any of the information presented on this web site. All tests are ordered through your physician, only, and not Dr. Keys. Most jurisdictions require that an attending physician is required by law to take patient and family history, conduct a physical examination of the patient and to order tests appropriate and necessary. As an online consultant, he cannot do these things required together, as a whole, as a practice of medicine. Any emergencies should only be handled in a hospital emergency room or by your physician. |