Acetyl Tyrosine — a different approach for improving mood, color, blood pressure, and Parkinson’s symptoms
There are lots of mood enhancers on the market, and there are
also various skin- and hair-coloring agents, blood pressure
reducers, and a few treatments for controlling the symptoms of
Parkinson’s Disease. Many of them work well for some people
and poorly for everyone else. It would be nice to have
alternatives.
And we do have alternatives! One of them is Acetyl Tyrosine.
Why does one simple substance have such an unusual spectrum of effects? Because it is a derivative of the amino acid L-tyrosine
— and L-tyrosine is the body’s raw material for making
neurotransmitters that are needed by people with depression or Parkinson’s Disease;
melanins, the pigments responsible for skin and hair color;
thyroid hormones that help to regulate blood pressure.
N-acetyl-L-tyrosine, which is converted in the body to
L-tyrosine, is 20 times as soluble in water as tyrosine itself. For
this reason, it serves as an efficient supplement for raising
tyrosine levels in the body, since undissolved substances are
not absorbed from the digestive tract. LifeLink’s Acetyl
Tyrosine also contains vitamin B-6 — a required cofactor for
neurotransmitter
synthesis.
Read N-acetyl-L-tyrosine Monograph
The amino acid L-tyrosine is a precursor for several substances made in the body:
neurotransmitters such as dopamine and norepinephrine1
melanins, the pigments largely responsible for skin and hair color2,3,4
N-acetyl-L-tyrosine,
which is converted in the body to L-tyrosine, is 20 times as soluble in
water as L-tyrosine itself. For this reason, it serves as an efficient
supplement for raising tyrosine levels in the body, since undissolved
substances are not absorbed from the digestive tract. Our product also
contains vitamin B-6 — a required cofactor for neurotransmitter
synthesis.
What we can’t tell you
In
the U.S. and some other industrialized countries, government agencies
like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have adopted censorship as a
method for intensifying their control over the supplement industry and
its customers. Thus, FDA regulations prohibit us from telling you that
any of our products are effective as medical treatments, even if they are, in fact, effective.
Accordingly, we will limit our discussion of acetyl-L-tyrosine to a brief summary of recent tyrosine research, and let you
draw your own conclusions about what medical conditions it may be effective in treating.
Most
of the medical research relating to tyrosine supplementation has been
conducted using L-tyrosine itself, not acetyl-L-tyrosine. It is logical
to assume, however, that the conclusions reached will apply to
acetyl-L-tyrosine as well, since the latter is converted to L-tyrosine
in the body. The following discussion therefore draws from studies of
L-tyrosine.
Mood and depression
Chronic mild stress can cause neurotransmitter deficiencies, leading to depression or sullen moods.6,7 Tyrosine supplementation elevates neurotransmitter levels, cures certain kinds of depression,8 alleviates others,9 and can improve mood.10
Hair and skin color
Although, in theory, tyrosine supplementation should promote melanin production in human skin, no clinical studies have been
performed to test this concept directly.11 On the other hand, the closely related amino acid L-phenylalanine has been shown to restore skin pigment in cases of vitiligo — a localized loss of skin pigment.12 In the body phenylalanine is converted to L-tyrosine, which suggests that L-tyrosine supplementation would have produced
similar results.
Tyrosine has been tested In cats as an oral supplement in combination with phenylalanine and found to be an effective hair
darkening agent.11
Melanin production in the human body can also be stimulated by certain antioxidant supplements. For example, either of the
following two antioxidant regimens have been found to increase melanin in skin without UV exposure:13
13 mg of beta-carotene, 2 mg of lycopene, 5 mg of vitamin E and 30 mg of vitamin C
3 mg of beta-carotene, 3 mg of lycopene, 5 mg of vitamin E and 30 mg of vitamin C.
Such
combinations of antioxidants may therefore be considered candidate
regimens for enhancing the effects of tyrosine supplements on skin and
hair pigmentation. Another supplement with a reported ability to darken
the skin is piperine.14
Blood pressure
Stressful conditions often raise blood pressure. Such rises have been experimentally suppressed by L-tyrosine supplementation.10 On the other hand, chronic high blood pressure does not appear to respond to this treatment.15
Parkinson’s Disease
Acetyl-L-tyrosine is sometimes used by Parkinson’s patients to boost concentrations of the neurotransmitter dopamine
in the brain, while avoiding the side effects of taking such dopamine
precursors as L-dopa. A small clinical trial in the 1980s compared the
use of L-tyrosine to L-dopa, and the researchers concluded that “For
some patients, 3 years of L-tyrosine treatment was followed by better
clinical results and many fewer side effects than with L-dopa or
dopamine agonists.”16 This approach has not been followed up with further clinical studies.
Conclusion
Are acetyl-L-tyrosine supplements useful for the conditions and purposes mentioned above? We aren’t allowed to tell you, so
you should take a look at some of the references cited here, and then decide for yourself.
