Tryptophan and Mental Illness

Introduction

I feel that there is a strong connection between tryptophan, which is found in the diet, and mental illness. This is not the only factor in mental illness. I feel that stress also plays a role. It may be that a stress chemical goes haywire and causes the brain cells to be flooded with tryptophan. I have worked on this theory for years.

Orthomolecular Psychiatry

"Nutritional factors are neglected for a number of reasons. Much of the literature on nutritional treatments has yet to evolve beyond the early stages of scientific investigation. Physicians learn so little about nutritional medicine during their training that they feel too uninformed to include it in their practices." Melvyn R. Werbach, M.D.

Journal Of Orthomolecular Medicine Vol. 7, No. 1, 1995

"Deficiencies of several vitamins are known to be associated with irritability." Werbach

"In the conversion of tryptophan to serotonin, the intermediate step is its conversion to 5-hydroxytryptophan. Surprisingly, supplementation with 5-hydroxytryptophan may increase aggressive behavior, apparently because, while tryptophan appears to enhance the serotonergic system exclusively, 5-hydroxytryptophan also appears to enhance the catecholaminergic system." Werbach

"Despite the relative paucity of scientific evidence from controlled studies, clues from case reports, open trials, observational (correlational) studies and animal studies suggest that attention to nutritional factors may reduce overaggressive behaviors and the devastation resulting from them. Those clues, plus the safety of most nutritional interventions, argue that a nutritional approach should be considered in the treatment of the aggressive behavioral syndrome." Werbach

Some of Werbach's information came from the first five references. I believe that Werbach was correct.

Tryptophan in Food

The best website I have seen on this topic so far is called NutritionData. This site list food high in tryptophan, including meat, fish, dairy products, soy products, etc. However it does not list foods low in tryptophan.