Amino Acids
 

Wondering if any of you have luck with augmenting amino acids like L-Cysteine, L-Tyrosine and 5HTP to enhance L-dopa supplementation and balance mood? If so, has this helped you with depression? Finding a balanced, beneficial range is not so easy but, when friend Jan recently increased her L-Tyrosine level, anxiety loosened its grip and she seems to be experiencing a hopefulness she's been missing long on her PD trail. These aminos seem to help the efficacy of L-dopa, Jan's original goal. We're not sure how many eggs to put in this basket, especially how tenable it'll be to work with aminos long term. Would be good to hear from others on this.

Thanks,
Trisha

some suggestions
 

I have experimented a little with amino acids. Not enough to reach firm conclusions but I will offer some tentative ones.
Probably the most important is to take a wide-range mix rather than just zeroing in on one, particularly at first. Some aminos compete for receptors with varying degrees of competiveness ("affinity") and by supplying a wide range you dilute the chances of, say, glutamate monopolizing the show. Also, there is too much emphasis on dopamine in PD and this approach gives you the raw materials to produce what your particular needs are.

Once that is in place, however, you can test adding in others. One that I am interested in is theanine, found only in green tea and one mushroom species. It purportedly is an NMDA antagonist which means that it partially blocks glutamate interference with normal function.