Serotonin — also referred to as 5-hydroxytryptamine or 5-HT — is often known as “the happiness hormone” and deficiency is considered the supply of melancholy. That’s why melancholy is routinely handled with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) that increase serotonin ranges in your mind.
The issue is, serotonin is NOT accountable for melancholy, and elevating your serotonin is the very last thing you wish to do, because it destroys empathy, love and knowledge. Elevated serotonin additionally impairs thyroid operate, reduces your metabolism, and contributes to untimely getting older by growing reductive stress.
SSRIs Linked to Persistent Fatigue Syndrome
SSRIs have additionally been linked to persistent fatigue syndrome (CFS), in any other case often called myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or ME/CFS. As reported by bioenergetic drugs researcher Georgi Dinkov,1 elevated extracellular 5-HT has been proven to trigger many of the CFS signs, together with debilitating bodily and psychological fatigue.
“I’m truly shocked it took researchers so lengthy to make that connection,” he writes,2 “contemplating the well-tested so-called ‘central fatigue speculation’ (CFH), which stipulates that many of the notion of fatigue is brain-derived and infrequently isn’t peripherally biochemically justified.
Extra particularly, it’s the accumulation of serotonin within the mind, which leads one to understand extreme fatigue even when the bioenergetic state of their muscle tissues don’t show indicators of fatigue (e.g. lactate buildup, creatine kinase and LDH leakage, ammonia accumulation, and so on).
Conversely, decreasing serotonin ranges within the mind normally results in abolishing the sentiments of fatigue. The truth is, there are a number of animal research demonstrating that tryptophan depletion within the mind (which ends up in decrease 5-HT ranges within the mind) is a dependable mechanism to delay and even abolish emotions of fatigue even in animals whose muscle tissues are biochemically fatigued …
One other truth implicating 5-HT as a causal agent in CFS is the truth that most CFS sufferers appear to develop the situation on account of viral an infection … [M]ost viral infections require activation of particular 5-HT receptors (by elevated serotonin) to ensure that the an infection to take maintain, and blocking these receptors both prevents the an infection altogether or can deal with an already established one.”
One Month of Prozac Induced CFS Signs in Mice
In a single 2024 examine,3 researchers had been capable of induce the classical indicators and signs of CFS in mice by giving them Prozac (fluoxetine) for 4 weeks, albeit at dosages which are two to 5 occasions increased than what’s utilized in medical observe for depressive sufferers. Science Alert reported:4
“Based mostly on medical clues, Jin-Seok Lee, a ME/CFS researcher at Daejeon College in South Korea, and colleagues hypothesized {that a} spillover of serotonin might result in ME/CFS. Identified to play a task in governing moods, declining ranges of the neurotransmitter serotonin have lengthy been thought to trigger melancholy.
Though that concept is now disputed, remedies that focus on serotonin pathways — similar to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) — are among the mostly prescribed antidepressants. By blocking receptors that bind and take away serotonin from the signaling pathway, the medicine artificially maintains the next stage of the temper messenger.
In keeping with a number of decades-old research, some sufferers with ME/CFS seem to have fewer serotonin transporters than wholesome volunteers and might also have receptors that solely weakly bind serotonin.
Lee and colleagues thought that if such individuals had coincidentally been handled with serotonin-based remedies for melancholy earlier than they developed ME/CFS, they might have had extreme ranges of serotonin of their mind. This might have triggered ME/CFS by throwing off a suggestions mechanism designed to maintain a lid on the immune system and irritation …
After 4 weeks, animals handled with fluoxetine had increased ranges of serotonin in two elements of the mind, the hypothalamus and dorsal raphe nucleus.
In addition they developed behaviors that resembled the principle signs of ME/CFS seen in people, together with unrefreshing sleep, PEM and orthostatic intolerance, however not cognitive impairment. These behaviors disappeared six weeks after the drug was stopped.
Mice whose serotonin receptors had been depleted through viral knockout additionally confirmed ME/CFS signs, additional confirming the mechanism. One other experiment confirmed inhibiting serotonin manufacturing might alleviate their signs.”
In keeping with the authors:5
“Our examine offers the primary translational [animal] proof for the involvement of 5-HTergic [serotonergic] hyperactivity within the pathophysiology of ME/CFS. With our novel animal mannequin for ME/CFS, this examine helps to make clear one of many potent pathophysiological mechanisms of this syndrome.
As well as, we offer diagnostic clues (excessive central serotonin) that can be utilized to distinguish ME/CFS from comparable illnesses, similar to fibromyalgia and depressive issues.”
Serotonin Inhibitors
The serotonin inhibitor used within the featured examine was fenclonine, however there are a number of over-the-counter choices as effectively, together with Benadryl and the H2 blocker Pepcid (famotidine).
Aspirin also can decrease extracellular serotonin by inhibiting the absorption of tryptophan out of your gastrointestinal tract,6 whereas progesterone inhibits serotonin synthesis straight. Progesterone is certainly one of solely 4 hormones I imagine many adults can profit from. (The opposite three are thyroid hormone T3, DHEA and pregnenolone.)
As a common suggestion, I like to recommend most adults to take 25 to 50 mg of bioidentical progesterone per day, taken within the night one hour earlier than mattress, as it may additionally promote sleep. For optimum bioavailability, progesterone must be combined into pure vitamin E. The distinction in bioavailability between taking progesterone orally with out vitamin E and taking it with vitamin E is 45 minutes versus 48 hours.
One other good cause for taking progesterone with vitamin E is as a result of it binds to crimson blood cells, which permits the progesterone to be carried all through your physique and be distributed to the place it’s wanted probably the most.
Merely Progesterone by Well being Natura is premixed with vitamin E and MCT oil. It’s also possible to make your personal by dissolving pure USP progesterone powder into one capsule of a high-quality vitamin E, after which rub the combination in your gums. Fifty milligrams of powdered progesterone is about 1/32 teaspoon.
Don’t use artificial vitamin E (alpha tocopherol acetate — the acetate signifies that it’s artificial). Pure vitamin E will likely be labeled “d alpha tocopherol.” That is the pure D isomer, which is what your physique can use. There are additionally different vitamin E isomers, and also you need the entire spectrum of tocopherols and tocotrienols, particularly the beta, gamma, and delta sorts, within the efficient D isomer.
I don’t suggest transdermal progesterone, as your pores and skin expresses excessive ranges of 5-alpha reductase enzyme, which causes a good portion of the progesterone you take to be irreversibly transformed primarily into allopregnanolone and can’t be transformed again into progesterone.
GABA Is a Far Higher Selection Than SSRIs
It’s a travesty that the first treatment for melancholy is a drug that not solely comes with a laundry checklist of uncomfortable side effects similar to CFS, but additionally doesn’t handle the underlying drawback within the first place. Once more, melancholy isn’t the results of low serotonin.
A much more widespread drawback in melancholy is GABA deficiency, and growing GABA can certainly be a part of the answer. As defined by Dr. Scott Sherr, director of integrative hyperbaric drugs and well being optimization at Hyperbaric Medical Options and an knowledgeable on neurotransmitter balancers like GABA:
“GABA deficiencies are related to anxiousness, with concern, with melancholy, with a brief mood, phobias, impulsiveness, disorganization, addictions. It’s even related to schizophrenia and OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder].
It’s also possible to have issues like IBS and diarrhea, hypertension, tinnitus, persistent ache, migraines, allergic reactions, frequent urination, flushing, sweating, salt cravings, muscle rigidity. These are all issues that could possibly be indicators of GABA deficiency. Many have been prescribed an SSRI for a few of these signs, however … we all know that melancholy isn’t associated to serotonin deficiency.”
For my part, GABA is among the best options for melancholy, anxiousness and insomnia, both alone or with progesterone. I like to recommend a dose of 500 mg to 2,000 mg (2 grams) each day. This vary has been proven to alleviate anxiousness and insomnia in people who find themselves already taking SSRI medication.
Nonetheless, in response to Sherr, as little as 100 milligrams of GABA has been proven to decrease the evaluation scores of sufferers with anxiousness and melancholy issues. Results will be additional amplified by combining it with the amino acid L-theanine, which is a pure GABA agonist.
Simply watch out utilizing GABA merchandise that comprise magnesium. Whereas magnesium could be very useful, when you take excessive doses of GABA, you’ll get far an excessive amount of magnesium, which might have a laxative impact.
Curiously, when you take an excessive amount of GABA, a few of it is going to get deaminated and convert into succinic acid, an intermediate of the Krebs cycle. As such, GABA additionally helps enhance mitochondrial operate at excessive doses. So, from a toxicity perspective it seems to be very secure.
To Handle CFS, Be Certain to Eradicate LA
As for CFS victims, the No. 1 treatment can be to drastically decrease your each day LA consumption, as extra LA acts as a mitochondrial toxin and severely inhibits mobile power manufacturing. Naturally, in case your mobile power manufacturing is low, you’re going to wrestle with fatigue and a bunch of different well being issues. PUFAs like LA additionally disrupt your physique’s hormonal equilibrium, imitating the results of estrogen and cortisol whereas counteracting androgens and progesterone.
Contemplating the profoundly critical injury they trigger, eliminating seed oils out of your food regimen can go a good distance towards bettering your well being. This consists of soy, canola, sunflower, grapeseed, corn, safflower, peanut and rice bran oil.
Additionally, be aware of olive oil and avocado oil, as each are generally adulterated with cheaper seed oils. That mentioned, even pure olive and avocado oil are loaded with LA. If, like me, you’re within the behavior of consuming olive oil, I might strongly encourage you to restrict your consumption to 1 tablespoon per day or much less. For my part, olive oil isn’t a magic bullet and if you’re already consuming 80 grams of LA per day, it is going to solely worsen, not assist, your well being.
To keep away from these oils, don’t prepare dinner with them, after all, but additionally keep away from processed meals, condiments, quick meals and restaurant meals. If you happen to eat out, you’re undoubtedly consuming unhealthy quantities of seed oils, as most restaurant meals are loaded with it.
Fried meals, dressing and sauces are typically key culprits. Your finest wager is to organize most of your meals at house, so you already know what you might be consuming and, within the case of seed oils, what you’re not. Rooster and pork are additionally excessive in LA and are subsequently finest averted. Since these animals, even wholesome organically grown animals, are usually fed grains, they’re loaded with omega-6 fat and will have 10 occasions the LA content material that beef, lamb or buffalo do.
How A lot Linoleic Acid Is Too A lot?
Ideally, contemplate slicing LA all the way down to beneath 5 grams per day, which is near what our ancestors used to get. If you happen to’re undecided how a lot you’re consuming, enter your meals consumption into Cronometer — a free on-line vitamin tracker — and it’ll give you your complete LA consumption.
The important thing to correct entry is to fastidiously weigh your meals with a digital kitchen scale so you may enter the burden of your meals to the closest gram. Cronometer will let you know how a lot omega-6 you are getting out of your meals all the way down to the tenth of a gram, and you may assume 90% of that’s LA. Something over 5 grams is more likely to trigger issues.
