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THE
BLOOD BRAIN BARRIER |
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The most difficult
challenge we were up against was the
literature. There was very little and in
retrospect, a lot of what was written
was not true when applied to the
clinical setting. People were claiming
that serotonin, dopamine,
norepinephrine, and epinephrine crossed
the blood brain barrier. They stated
that serotonin and dopamine urinary neurotransmitter
molecules were simply
filtered by the kidneys and ended up in
the urine. This misinformation led to
claims that urinary serotonin and
dopamine neurotransmitter
testing was a good assay of central
nervous system status. In addition,
claims were made that 1 or 2 pills,
twice a day could control depression and
ADHD disease
symptoms in people.
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Science has pushed
forward and we know that
serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitters
do not cross the blood brain barrier.
This means that peripheral
administration of the serotonin and
dopamine
neurotransmitter molecules has no value in
treating neurotransmitter related
diseases such as depression and ADHD. This is most evident in the
Parkinson patient who has a dopamine
drip started in the hospital. If
dopamine crossed the blood brain
barrier, you would expect marked
improvement in the Parkinsonism symptoms, but there is none. Radio
isotope tagging of
5-HTP, tyrosine, and dopa and
serotonin or dopamine neurotransmitter
molecules has proven that
urinary serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitter
molecules are not
serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitter
molecules filtered by the kidneys then excreted into the urine.
They are serotonin and dopamine neurotransmitter
molecules that are
synthesized by the kidneys and very
little systemic serotonin and dopamine
neurotransmitter molecules end up in the
urine. We now know that the approach of
using 1 or 2 pills of
5-HTP, tyrosine, and dopa
twice a day is
ineffective with most depression or ADHD
people in group treatment. The
shear volume of
5-HTP, tyrosine, and dopa
needed for optimal group treatment could
not fit into one or two pills |
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