Tyrosine (L-Tyrosine) by NOW helping me! Would love input. (long)

[CAcfs]

So I have been taking L-Tyrosine, 500 mg per day. I actually saw it on the Dr. Oz show (of all places), and figured, if it can give normal people energy, it might give me energy. From what I gather, 500 mg is a moderately low dose. I have searched "tyrosine" on this site, and found some people that said they take it or it helps, but it didn't seem like anyone's experience was as good as mine.

Before the Tyrosine, I was doing better with my CFS than at some points since this whole thing began (sudden and drastic onset).....but I am still very disabled by it.

But Tyrosine has honestly helped my energy and ability to do things more than any pill or supplement I've ever taken. What does this mean? That is my real question. Was I just deficient in that amino acid, or does this lead to the conclusion that I had some kind of hormone deficiency, etc, since Tyrosine supposedly supports endocrine function? (I have had hormones checked out, but nothing like T3, T4, etc, ever seemed to help, and no labs were ever remarkably off).

Basically, I take it on an empty stomach, and it gives me the strength to go do things. It is like the energy boost from strong coffee, without the jitteryness.

You would be amazed at what I'm actually doing. Before, I was well enough to maybe take a mile walk with my husband, but I'd crash quickly, even during the walk, and start getting irritable and weak and snippy with people as I spiraled downward. Getting out of bed everyday is a struggle for me, but I was technically well enough to force myself to do things a couple times a week, even though it didn't feel good at all (it was torture). Now, I leave the house for a walk, and I feel great, like I have energy to burn.

I feel more alive too with my personality. The only thing is that sometimes I will feel more combative, or I will "snap" if someone says something that makes me mad, but I try to use self-control to deal with it, in exchange for the energy. I am thinking I'll maybe add L-Theanine to what I'm doing, to see if that helps the occasional anger/impatience.

I have really been getting away from trying to treat the exact "causes" like viruses, bacteria, mold, parasites, etc etc etc......and just researching things that help the symptoms. I have spent WAY too much time trying to treat causes, and it has only gotten me so far. So I made the decision to move on, and just try to help myself get a bit of energy for exercising, which, while not fun or easy, might slowly increase my overall health (stronger muscles helps POTS, exercise helps immunity, etc).

So that philosophy is what pushed me to find Tyrosine. Then I also found NOW brand DMAE, with the help of this site. That does seem to help my concentration somewhat. Now I am thinking of adding Theanine to make it a trifecta. I am recommending NOW brand because I have found that their supplements actually work (so if something doesn't help, I know it's not the brand), they are cheap, and normally it's just the main ingredient, without other added stuff. I buy them all from iherb.com. I am not affiliated with any of this!!!! Just trying to help.

I have also been drinking about 6 6oz cups of strongly brewed coffee daily. I know some of us can't tolerate coffee, but it helps me, so I'm not letting people who say it's bad scare me off from using what helps. It does help the blood vessels constrict.

I started out as someone incredibly ill with CFS, so ill I couldn't have been on this site. I was only awake for about 6 hours in a 24 hour period some days. So I hope people will see this as a positive post. It has taken me 10 years to get here. I would say I'm now at about 30-50% of my old self. Sometimes I can push through a day like a wedding and seem to be about 80% to people.

The other thing I'm doing is using a sleep apnea machine (CPAP), even though my apnea was right on the mild/moderate border. I do feel that has helped my stamina a little, and the dark circles under my eyes aren't quite as bad, because of the machine.

My remaining symptoms: extremely hard for me to get up in the mornings on my own (turn off alarm and go back to sleep), I am tired during the day, feel like my eyes don't always focus well, but the pills and coffee help...., I get really stressed and overwhelmed when people expect anything of me (so that is one reason I don't work from home on the computer for a few hours), I stay up late and have a messed up sleep schedule that I can't seem to control


Any input is greatly appreciated! This post was meant to let everyone know what is helping, but also to see what you guys think this actually MEANS, for what could be the cause of my fatigue. I would like input! Thanks. Also, I won't be looking into XMRV until I feel more positive it's a solution, because in the last 10 years I've followed too many of those elusive infections.

PS--- The other things I've noticed about the Tyrosine, is that I seem to be loosing body fat (I was normal weight before, but could stand to loose 15 lbs for optimal weight/health/appearance), and my legs, arms, stomach seem to be more muscular (I am female). It is sooooo strange. I feel like I'm on some kind of performance-enhancing drug, haha. I don't know if it's just the little bit of jogging I've been doing, or if it's the Tyrosine. I think it's the pill. I swear that this stuff seems like the benefits of adderall without the burned out feeling afterwards.

 

[Mij]

I tested very low on my amino acids test for Tyrosine so I took it several years ago, I didn't feel any boost of energy such as yourself but after about one month I started feeling very jittery/uncomfortable so I discontinued. I'm not able to drink coffee but since you can then perhaps we are different in some areas. You mentioned that caffeine "helps" constrict blood vessels but I'm not sure this is a good thing, not for me anyways- makes me dizzy and my heart races.

I say if you are feeling better than continue doing what you are doing, but I feel if you get too much energy boost in the long run you might crash?

 

[richvank]

Hi, CAcfs.

Tyrosine is used in the body to make catecholamines: dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine (aka adrenaline). Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain. Norepinephrine is a neurotransmitter in the brain and in the sympathetic nervous system, as well as a hormone in the body as a whole. Adrenaline is also a hormone, and is made only in the adrenals, but is secreted into the blood stream and affects the entire body.

The fact that taking tyrosine gave you so much benefit suggests that your body was low in tyrosine. This might have been due to low phenylalanine and tyrosine in your diet, or slow converson of phenylalanine to tyrosine, such as because of low tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4). BH4 can be low when there is a partial block in the methylation cycle, coupled with the folate cycle.

The book "The Mood Cure" by Julia Ross, and the book "The Ultra-mind Solution" by Mark Hyman both have quizzes in them that give an indication of whether the various neurotransmitters and hormones are low, and which amino acids and other supplements will help in each situation. Tyrosine is one that is discussed in both books as a supplement that will help if certain things show up in the quizzes.

Rich

 

[CAcfs]

Mon ame,

Yes, sounds like we are different in terms of what helps us (so we are thus different in what we need). The only thing I'd suggest to everyone is to be sure to take the Tyrosine on an empty stomach, but if you got the jitteryness, than you probably were absorbing it.

About crashing.....that is the interesting thing. It just seems to HELP me, as in, make me more normal the day I take it. So I don't crash. I just feel better, then it wears off and I need my Tyrosine again the next day. But I don't seem to be getting any worse. That is how it's different than Adderall or coffee......it seems to be just helping, but not giving any kind of crash or sense that I am burning something I don't have. Rich, does this seem right to you? I have been wondering if this could, in any way, be bad. Bad like pushing my body to do something it shouldn't....like secrete too much adrenaline, etc. But so far, I haven't gotten that sense, because I don't feel worse the next day. Thoughts?

Rich, Thank you so much for your insight. I will be sure to check out both of those books! I eat a pretty complete diet, so I will check out BH4, because that may be the problem.

I have tried your simplified protocol for lifting the methylation cycle block, but I didn't see too much progress, and didn't pursue it further since I was persuing many things at the time. I was on antibiotics at the time too, which I believe were dragging me down somewhat (not that I regret taking them, because I think they have their place in this).

Another thing I should add about myself is that I crave tons of water and am always thirsty, like some CFS patients. I drink an insane amount of water daily. So not sure if that gives clues as to what chemicals, neurotransmitters, vitamins, etc I could be deficient in. Could just be low blood volume, but maybe it's that my body isn't doing something right on a chemical level. I take electrolytes but it doesn't really help. Salt/C helped somewhat, but I think the potential health risks are too great since it is such an excess of sodium.

 

[richvank]

Mon ame,

Yes, sounds like we are different in terms of what helps us (so we are thus different in what we need). The only thing I'd suggest to everyone is to be sure to take the Tyrosine on an empty stomach, but if you got the jitteryness, than you probably were absorbing it.

About crashing.....that is the interesting thing. It just seems to HELP me, as in, make me more normal the day I take it. So I don't crash. I just feel better, then it wears off and I need my Tyrosine again the next day. But I don't seem to be getting any worse. That is how it's different than Adderall or coffee......it seems to be just helping, but not giving any kind of crash or sense that I am burning something I don't have. Rich, does this seem right to you? I have been wondering if this could, in any way, be bad. Bad like pushing my body to do something it shouldn't....like secrete too much adrenaline, etc. But so far, I haven't gotten that sense, because I don't feel worse the next day. Thoughts?

Rich, Thank you so much for your insight. I will be sure to check out both of those books!

Hi, CAcfs.

I don't think you can go wrong by taking tyrosine at reasonable dosages, and you can probably figure out what a reasonable dosage is for your body by your response to it. It is, after all, the body's normal substrate for making these neurotransmitters and hormones.

I think it's always better, if possible, to try to help the body to carry on its normal biochemistry by giving it a little support with orthomolecular supplements where it needs them, than to come crashing into the biochemistry with a drug that blocks something in order to try to compensate for a deficiency elsewhere, sort of with the philosophy that two wrongs might make a right.

Unlike natural amino acids like tyrosine, drugs are foreign substances to the body, and the body's normal detoxication system views them as toxins (which they are at high enough concentrations), and it works to eliminate them. For acute or emergency situations, drugs can be invaluable and lifesaving, but for chronic disorders, they are really not the best answer.

They are not designed to cure. They are designed to lessen one or more symptoms enough that chronically ill people will want to continue to use them. They have to be patentable in order to give the company a monopoly for a few years, so that they can hold the price up. That's the basis for the business plan for drugs that treat chronic disorders. Unfortunately, in order to be patentable, they can't be natural substances, but must be foreign to the body. Therein lies the conundrum of our system of dealing with chronic disorders.

So long as the incentives are set up as they currently are, there is really no financial motivation to try to understand basic causes of the chronic disorders or to develop real cures. If a patient is cured, he or she ceases to be a customer. Of course, if they die, they also cease to be customers. So the optimum situation from a business standpoint is to keep them alive, but sick. Does this sound cynical? Well, take a look at how many chronically ill people we have in our society. Intentional or not, that's the outcome we have from a system like this.

How do we change the incentives? I wish I knew. There is a lot of financial interest in keeping it just the way it is. But I do think that the internet is a hopeful thing, because it allows people to obtain information from sources that are not commercially controlled, as the media sources are, because of their need for advertising support. I hope freedom of speech will be preserved on the internet. As people become more informed, their choices as customers change, and the market economy does respond to changes in market demand. So I think there is hope in that.

Sorry I got off on a rant.

Best regards,

Rich

 

[CAcfs]

Thank you, Rich! No prob on the rant.

 

[*GG*]

I take a product called CraveArrest by Designs for Health. The bottle cost $46 and contains 120 capsules and a serving size is 2 capsules, so there are 60 servings/bottle.

I am taking this as prescribed (3 capsules, 2 times/day) by my Dr. FYI

GG

here is a website where you can find all the other ingredients in this product besides 1,000mg of Tyrosine.

http://www.rockwellnutrition.com/CraveArrest-caps-by-Designs-For-Health-DFH_p_872.html

PS Luckily I have a friend Dr who gets it for me at their cost (1/2 of regular price!)

 

[CAcfs]

Thanks! Anyone else tried Tyrosine? What were your results? Just curious to know.

I have been feeling realllllly achey lately in the muscles, for the past 5 days or so, which is a symptom I never get. I'm wondering if it's some kind of side effect of the Tyrosine. My body feels super sore, like I just ran a marathon.

 

[Wonko]

I've tried tyrosine with no effect - however iodine gave me similar results/effects to what you've experienced. The achey/fluey feeling in your large muscles is probably a result of the extra activity you've been doing, the fact that your body isnt used to it re disposing of toxins etc or quite possibly inflamation from simply using the muscles more. I came to the conclusion it was a bad thing once it became enough of a problem to bring back brain fog to an uncomfortable level and am treating it primarily with GABA and a reduction in activity levels.

Oddly I also started drinking significant amounts of coffee once I started with the iodine - which is odd as I normally dont touch the stuff (I only have it here for the rare guest)

 

[Lala]

I tried tyrosin with no effect, I only felt jittery, that was very uncomfortable, so I discontinued it after few days. I took 1000mg.
I was also helped by Iodoral, like Wonko I felt energized.

 

[Sherlock]

Although I am not anywhere near bedbound, I had some tyrosine powder on hand; and so, in the spirit of co-operation, I did try some on the suggested empty stomach. Result: nothing. But I'd expected that.

I'd tend to agree that you had a profound deficiency. I remember reading a case where a CFS person had a profound carnitine deficiency, to the point of being nearly paralyzed, and taking carnitine supplements helped tremendously. (But bodybuilder-types who tried carnitine for supposed muscle-building effects actually got zero effect, which is also demonstrated in some studies.)

Are you perhaps a vegetarian? Meat and cheese, etc, have lots of tyrosine.

In fact, tyrosine is named after the Greek for cheese. I'd been craving cheese a lot in the past few months, never having been that way before in my life. But cheese also supposedly has lots of histamine, which I haven't verified.

Speaking of histamine (which I believe accounts for a lot of my symptoms), the enzyme DAO is used in the body to break down histamine. DAO is made from, among other things: tyrosine.
Metabolism of histamine
Hubert G. Schwelberger

It's possible, but certainly not certain, that that's what produced the effect.

Congratulations on your great results. It's interesting about the muscle gains.

Btw, Wonko and Lala both mention iodine, and thyroid hormone is essentially iodinated tyrosine. But I don't know if that tie-in means anything

Also btw, you might be surprised that tyrosine is also talked about for an anti-anxiety effect:
https://ixquick.com/do/metasearch.pl?query=tyrosine+anxiety

 

[Grigor]

I took Tyrosine today for the first time. Split a capsule of 500 in half. Let's see what happens. I do have low epinephrine and norepinephrine and low cortisol in the morning. But hormones knock me out I feel.
Feel a bit jittery I must admit. But also a bit energized.

 

[heapsreal]

I took Tyrosine today for the first time. Split a capsule of 500 in half. Let's see what happens. I do have low epinephrine and norepinephrine and low cortisol in the morning. But hormones knock me out I feel.
Feel a bit jittery I must admit. But also a bit energized.

They generally say take it on an empty stomach. Also there another version acetyl tyrosine which is suppose to be better absorbed and need less of a dose. From memory normal tyrosine i needed like 2000-3000mg, with the acetyl version they came in 350mg pills of which 1-2 was enough. try to take regular breaks from it so u dont get use to it eg 2days on and 2 days off or save it for when u need the boost.

Also if it interests u, look into macuna dopa, not by itself but with acetyl tyrosine it gives a nice energy boost. I think the dopa macuna brightens the mood and is more cleaner or smoother i guess??

good luck, hope it all helps.

 

[LisaGoddard]

I'm thinking of trying tyrosine. 'd seen that it is one of the supplements for adrenal fatigue. But I've been worried that it would it boost adrenaline too much and make the adrenals exhausted.

 

[Grigor]

@heapsreal

You're taking huge amounts lol
I barely manage 200 mg.

Why do you suggest to take it every other day?

For the moment I don't feel that energised anymore but I do feel happy on it. Which counts for something I guess ;-)

 

[heapsreal]

@heapsreal

You're taking huge amounts lol
I barely manage 200 mg.

Why do you suggest to take it every other day?

For the moment I don't feel that energised anymore but I do feel happy on it. Which counts for something I guess ;-)

I use acetyl tyrosine, so doses used are lower then straight tyrosine, better absorbed. I use 1-2 x 350mg tyrosine. I use it every few days as i think one can get a tolerance to it. But if your feeling happy on it then thats great

Have u tried dopa macuna?? also used with a small dose with acetyl tyrosine can be good.

 

[Grigor]

Sorry for the late response . But can you just take Dopa Mucuna. I mean contains L Dopa. Won't it exhaust your dopamine reserves or something?