There’s the turkey/drowsy myth: Eating a lot of juicy turkey is said to make people feel tired because it contains an amino acid called tryptophan. This molecule travels into the brain, where it is converted into a neurotransmitter called serotonin, which is then converted into a hormone called melatonin. That’s it! Asleep.
This tryptophan/mood connection is an area of research. And while some are captivated by tryptophan’s potential, it’s not clear if the excitement is guaranteed.
Looking for Tryptophan Link to Mood
There is some scientific evidence that eating tryptophan can change your mood.
For example, in 2000, researchers found that when people ate a protein isolate that was high in tryptophan, they
feel less stressed when doing math problems.
However, placebo-controlled clinical trials have generally not shown much of an association. Several studies have found that
pure tryptophan supplement offers little or no benefit to people with depression. Some studies have even looked at what happens when you
remove tryptophan from everyone’s diet, but also saw little or no effect.
So what accounts for the mixed results?
Serotonin itself still holds mysteries
Along with human studies, the biology of tryptophan has been well studied in rodents. Research in the early 1970s showed that taking
Tryptophan supplements can increase serotonin, a neurotransmitter that has historically been linked to feelings of well-being and well-being.
Since then, scientists have learned a lot of interesting facts
about serotonin. for example
14 distinct receptors for serotoninand they are found throughout the brain.
Researchers have learned to act on this system with drugs, but not very precisely. For example, drugs such as the antidepressant selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors – more widely known as SSRIs – do not target individual receptors and they do not limit themselves to brain regions. specific. Instead, SSRIs,
the most famous of which is Prozac, serotonin booster everywhere.
This non-specificity is why, in my mind, it’s hard to believe that SSRI works. Here’s a similar example: Let’s say you’re Jeff Bezos and you want to increase Amazon’s revenue by speeding up your deliveries. So you decide to increase the speed on all delivery vehicles. From now on, each truck will increase its speed by 5%. It could have been a stroke of logistical genius, or perhaps, more likely, ended up in chaos. Like increasing serotonin throughout the brain, this blunt approach may not be ideal.
Analogies aside, whether SSRIs affect people’s mood is an experimental question, and several studies have supported the idea that these drugs do. However, especially recently, their effectiveness has been
under close supervision. Several recent analyzes cite 30 years’ worth of research and
question the clinical value of SSRIs, while others claim that these drugs
Improve symptoms of depression.
It is complex and there is still some disagreement, but most psychiatrists agree that SSRIs are
Doesn’t work for everyone. These drugs are not a cure for mental illness.
More chemical tuning for mood
Because of all this, I often wonder if psychiatrists need
73 studies see if tryptophan depletion affects mood.
When it comes to understanding the link between gut bacteria and the brain, or the greater challenge of understanding and treating mental illness, should researchers really still be thinking about tryptophan?
It seems true that, similar to SSRIs, increased tryptophan
Has a broad effect on serotonin. It is certain that increasing serotonin can affect mood, and so increasing tryptophan can too. But it’s also possible to manipulate something as complex as human emotions, requiring a little more nuance.
Psychiatric research has long since abandoned the notion that
Your brain is a bag of chemicals; Modern neuroscientists are asking for a little more detail. From this perspective, I am skeptical of the notion that tryptophan is the depression cure needed by psychiatry. Not only has empirical research shown rather weak results, but the theory itself is not very appealing.
Serotonin, seemingly full of psychiatry possibilities, has long fascinated psychiatry researchers. But what the past half-century seems to have proved is that the neuroscience of human emotions is far from simple. To drive lasting changes in mental health, scientists may need a little more reverence for the complex emotional creatures we all have.
So no, a big turkey dinner, filled with delicious tryptophans, probably won’t be the neurochemical booster for your Thanksgiving mood.
Andrew Neff is an assistant lecturer in psychology at the University of Rochester in New York. Neff does not work for, consult, own shares of, or receive funding from any company or organization that could benefit from this article and does not disclose any related affiliates beyond his academic appointment. surname.
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