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| tryptophan |
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What is it? |
| One of the nine essential AMINO
ACIDS. Tryptophan is also a precursor of NIACIN
(a vitamin B3) and of serotonin, a brain neurotransmitter that regulates
appetite, pain, mood and sleep. Because of tryptophan's mood-elevating,
sleep-inducing capabilities, it is prescribed in Canada, Germany and
other European countries as both a sleeping pill and an antidepressant. Until recently, the United States considered this amino acid a food SUPPLEMENT and as such it was exempt from the rules governing drugs. This meant megabucks for health-food stores and supplement manufacturers who touted their L-tryptophan supplements as "nature's own sleeping pills." Insomniacs began popping L-tryptophan pills, powders and potions as if there were no tomorrow. For some, alas, there was none. In 1989, an outbreak of eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome (EMS), a rare and incurable blood disease, felled more than fifteen hundred people and killed nearly forty (the FDA now puts the total number affected at five thousand). While tracking the source of the illness, biomedical researchers discovered that all victims had one thing in common. They'd been taking high doses of L-tryptophan supplements manufactured in Japan, supplements, it turns out, that were contaminated. Were the contaminants responsible? Or was tryptophan itself dangerous? The FDA wasted no time ordering recalls of all tryptophan supplements. It now aims to study tryptophan carefully to determine its efficacy and safety and to make it available only by prescription. |
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