I maintain a list of topics, mostly related to Parkinson’s Disease (PD), that I use to keep track of what I’ve already posted about, and to store ideas for future posts. It’s a big list. Yesterday, I was talking with a fellow Rock Steady Boxer about the anxiety that so many PD sufferers have to deal with, when I suddenly realized my topics list had a glaring omission: 5-HTP.

As the bulk of my readers already know, PD does not always start with (and CERTAINLY is not limited to) tremors. In my case, I started to experience anxiety before I had noticeable tremors. At that time, I was very reluctant to start medication for anxiety – I had always felt that I never wanted to be dependent on medications. Seems ironic, given the number of pills I take every day now, but I seriously wanted to find a “natural” alternative. So, I wandered into the local GNC store and asked the guy at the counter if they had anything to soothe the nerves. He recommended 5-HTP. In retrospect, I realize this was an incredibly lucky encounter, because I’ve asked for 5-HTP at other GNC locations since then, and they often don’t have any idea what I’m on about.

So, what the living bowl of snot is 5-HTP? In case it means anything to any of you, the HTP stands for Hydroxytryptophan. According to the label on the first bottle I bought, it’s an extract from safflower seeds, and it’s converted into serotonin during the digestive process. Serotonin is a compound that creates happy feelings in the brain. This is, of course, a vast oversimplification. But you get what you pay for, and so far, this blog is free. So far…

On that initial GNC visit, I bought a bottle of the lowest dosage they had: 50 mg. (Note: that’s 50 mg, not 50 MG – we’re talking about milligrams, not MegaGoats.) The next Monday, I took one 50 mg capsule of 5-HTP before starting work. All morning, I was still just as anxious as usual, but starting around lunch time, the anxiety disappeared. In fact, when I was out running errands that evening, I found myself thinking up goofy shit and actually laughing out loud – feeling a genuine happiness that I had feared I would never experience again. In the years since then, Levodopa has proven that it, too, is a worthy anxiety fighter. But I have found that I still need my 5-HTP; in fact, I’ve even needed to increase my dosage over time. I am now taking a 200 mg capsule of 5-HTP every night at bed time.

Speaking of which, Good Night!