Caring Medical and Rehabilitation Newsletters
Prolotherapy, The Hauser Diet, Chicago Sports Medicine, Woman's Health
Ross Hauser, M.D., Marion Hauser, M.S.R.D.
715 Lake Street, Suite 600 Oak Park, IL 60301
Caring Medical Appointment Information call 708-848-7789

Neurotransmitters, Amino Acids, and Your Health
Robert Filice, M.D.

Last week I discussed the effect that antidepressants and other similar drugs have on the brain, and how they can also ultimately further deplete already low levels of neurotransmitters (NT). I also discussed NT balance in an earlier article about weight problems. All effective appetite suppressing drugs work by manipulating NT levels. Today I would like to go into a bit more detail about the amino acid alternatives to these central nervous system drugs. 

I mentioned last week that the ideal therapeutic agent for disorders responsive to NT manipulation would be something which actually increased the NT levels in the brain neurons. In fact, only their amino acid precursors can do this.  I want to list for you some of the conditions which are rather clearly related to deficient or unbalanced NT. The list includes anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, depression, myoclonus, classic migraine, irritable bowel syndrome, PMS, anorexia and bulimia, impulsivity, obsessive compulsive disorder, sleep apnea, fibromyalgia, chronic pain, bipolar disorder, ADD, Autism and ASD, and finally, the master NT disorder of overeating. Also keep in mind that the wide array of medical complications of obesity and adult onset diabetes can be prevented and even reversed by adequate weight loss.

Clinic based research by Marty Hinz, MD in Minnesota has lead him to spearhead the use of amino acid precursors to NT, and urine testing of NT levels in the therapeutic management of these conditions. Most of the patients I have tested so far (about 30) have shown very low serotonin and frequently low dopamine levels as well. Marty does not claim that urine levels directly correlate with brain levels of neurotransmitters. One would have to measure spinal fluid NT levels directly with a spinal tap. One of the reasons he says there is no correlation is that some patients over-excrete NT so they may show high levels in the urine when in reality their brain levels are low. However I have yet to find one of these hyper-excretors. Basically if the baseline urine test of NT levels is low, there is little possibility that brain levels can be anything but low also. Therefore I conclude that baseline testing is valuable in the diagnosis of NT based disorders. Dr Hinz does conclude that increases in urine NT levels in patients on amino acid therapy correlates with clinical improvement in their conditions.

Through his clinical research, amino acid treatment of NT disorders is coming closer to being perfected. In years past I tried to get a read out on the clinical need for amino acids by measuring their levels in the plasma. Replacement therapy based on these results may have helped supplement the diet, but I never had much success resolving clinical conditions with this type of personalized amino acid formulations. With urine NT testing, it appears we now have the tool required to accurately monitor amino acid therapy and treat clinical disorders. What has been missing is data about the “inflection point”, that is, the amino acid dose which causes a sudden and rather dramatic increase in the levels of serotonin and dopamine. To explain further, the NT levels do not climb in a linear relationship with the gradually increasing amino acid precursor doses. Instead, the NT level line stays fairly flat over a range of amino acid intake, and then suddenly rises quickly to therapeutic ranges. It is only at this point that relief of clinical symptoms is likely to be achieved. Thus the value of repeat urine NT testing is to verify whether the patient has reached the inflection point on a given dose of amino acids, and secondly, once a response has been seen, to be sure that excessively high levels of neurotransmitters necessitating a reduction in amino acid dosing are not occurring.

Using this method along with computer databases, statistics demonstrate that the doses of the serotonin precursor 5-HTP required to reach the inflection point will vary between 200 and 1500 mg per day. These doses are much higher than previously thought to be safe and necessary. Furthermore, serotonin levels cannot be increased without reducing dopamine levels and the catecholamines epinephrine and norepinephrine. Therefore amino acid therapy must be balanced with the dopamine precursor L-dopa (in the herbal form of Macuna pruriens) and the catecholamine precursor L-tyrosine. There is also a possibility of unbalancing sulfur amino acid chemistry, so L-cysteine needs to be included in the program. This sounds complicated, and it is chemically, but the bottom line is that a wide variety of NT based conditions can be successfully treated using amino acid therapy guided by urine NT testing. As long as the proper physician prescribed protocol is followed (this is NOT a do-it-yourself type of therapy), this treatment is completely safe. There are no known drug or food contraindications or significant interactions with amino acid therapy. Any side effects that occur are mild and transient, and most of them arise from coincidental medications the patient may be taking. 

I would encourage any patient with any NT disorder as listed above to make an appointment. The statistical results from this therapy have been excellent. For overweight patients, the amino acids can help safely reduce the appetite and allow lower total daily caloric intake. For the few patients we occasionally see who have not responded well enough to Prolotherapy, amino acids offer a far better alternative than pain medications. Classic migraines that have responded in the past to true migraine drugs like Imitrex also do extremely well. Due to the NT depletion effect, all patients on anti-depressant drugs should be on amino acids.

Amino acid therapy opens up opportunities for treating a wide range of conditions in a safe and natural way that more closely approaches their root cause. 

All medical procedures have risks, these risks should always be discussed with your physician. There is no known cure for arthritis. Prolotherapy can help aleviate, reverse, or end arthritic pain by treating an underlying cause that contributes to degenerative disease, ligament laxity. Strengthening ligaments and other connective tissue can help prevent bone on bone arthritis from developing.