Phenylalanine- D? Or L? Misinformation
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the DL form costs much more than the L form. What gives? Usually the most expensive form is the one that turns out to be the worthwhile one. Drug companies aren't stupid. Why would the resolved > form cost less than the racemic?
Answer:
The only study I've seen used LPA+ deprenyl 5mg/day and it was extremely successful. If you want a good laugh, ask your general practitioner about the differences between the types of Phenylalanine and about the efficacy of dopamine and phenylethylamine in the treatment of depression. Ten bucks says he'll dodge the question and robotically chant "paxil is good." Perhaps I'm a little bitter from personal experience and a little pissed that I took his recommendation (which was cutting edge medicine 8 yrs ago) seriously. Around most of the 'health-food' stores ( now supplement-enriched zones ), the DL form is most common. A 'pure' L-form generally is harder to come by, costs more. I have never seen a 'pure' version of the D form. Basically, each of these precursors appears to be an effective antidepressant for some people for (presumably) varying psychopharmacologic reasons. Tyrosine (which certainly DOES cross the blood-brain-barrier) probably works by boosting norepinephrine (NE) and/or maybe, to some extent, dopamine. D-PA (not availiable commercially, but used successfully in a few clinical trials years ago) may do little but boost the amphetamine-like neuromodulator phenylethylamine (PEA) and impair the destruction of enkephalins/endorphins. L- PA, which may not be as effective a precursor to NE as tyrosine (there's even some unconfirmed evidence from the 80's that large doses may lower NE and dopamine, perhaps by interfering with the brain's uptake of tyrosine, which is more readilly converted to these neuros); but it certainly boosts PEA, though it doesn't preserve enkephalins. Milligram for milligram, DLPA boosts PEA better than LPA and it also preserves enkephalins; but in its usual therapeutic dose range (a few hundred milligrams to a gram or two a day), it may have little effect on NE. Oh yes tyrosine does cross the BB barrier. In fact, for normal functioning (or to even continue to be alive) it is essential. If tyrosine couldn't cross the BB there would be no way for neurons to synthesize any dopamine and noradrenalin within the CNS whatsoever. No other dietary amino acid will substitute as a precursor for normal catecholamine synthesis in the brain (including l-phenylalanine, which [when supplementing with it], feels subjectively similar to l-tyrosine only because of the fact that it becomes metabolized, by the liver, to _tyrosine_).
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