Ok, I have posted before about the benefits we see from the 5-hour energy drink. Within ten minutes, we can be back "on". It is very strange. I've looked and researched into why that might be, scrutinizing the ingredients on the list (lots of B vitamins), but still dont' get it.

It can't be the caffeine, there's not that much in it (they say the equivalent of a cup of coffee). It can't be the B vitamins: we have done a trial and taken those independently without the same effect. And we don't think it's the other ingredients, since we have supplemented with those in the past as well and not experienced anything close to the benefits seen with the 5-Hour drink. The effects had to come from something else in the drink.

Then today I looked deeper: it contains l-phenylalanine, which I knew already. But I didn't really research what all LP, as I call it, can do. LP is a precurser to tyrosine which is a precurser to dopamine. LP readily crosses the BBB. LP was studied quite a bit in decades past for its effect on depression. LP effects not only dopamine, but most of the other neurotransmitters as well, and apparently in a good way.

The best part: you can buy this stuff OTC. Here's a link to one place that sells it (no doubt there are others, I just found this one first and have no ties to it whatsoever), note the text discussing LP. http://www.healingedge.net/store/product1401.html

I even read on another site that LP has been used to treat vitiligo, which several people here have noted they deal with as well as PD. Oh, and LP is related to the production of melanin, which relates to sleep (and probably vitiligo as well?).

Has anyone tried supplementing with LP and if so, how did it work? We are considering trying this. In my view, we are already taking one form of manmade dopamine (sinemet) which doesn't really work all that well, and takes forever to take effect. What harm could come from trying another?

Anyone already been there, done this?