# just started 5HTP & Mucuna Pruriens Extract, BUT...



## obsolete (Feb 25, 2011)

i'm new to this forum, and well, pretty much new to supplements as well. (i'd love to say it's because i prefer organic or don't trust doctors, etc... but it's really just because i can't afford professional help  and don't really know what else to do anymore)
i'm finally just at my wit's end with the anxiety/depression/extreme fatigue, so i'm finally trying the supplement route.
i started taking 5HTP about a week ago, and i will say that already, although it doesn't seem to be doing much yet, it DOES feel like it has potential. but it makes me really tired, and being that i suffer with chronic fatigue, that's not good! 
after doing some research online, i decided to pick up some Mucuna Pruriens (i also did a "test" a while back that said i possibly had a dopamine deficiency).
i was thinking of starting a regimen of the Mucuna and a multi-vitamin in the morning, and 5HTP at night, but i'm not quite sure exactly how i should go about this.

i don't really know anything about interactions (and of course find conflicting stories online) or when i should take certain ones and with what.

these are the supplements i'm going to be taking:
-Mucuna Pruriens Extract (400mg caps, 15% L-Dopa) 

-5-HTP (100 mg caps)

-Women's One Daily multivitamin/multimineral supplement
(vitamin A
vitamin C
vitamin D3
vitamin E
vitamin K
Thiamin (B-1)
Riboflavin (B-2)
Niacin
vitamin B6
Folic Acid
vitamin B12
Biotin
Pantothenic Acid
Calcium
Iron
Magnesium
Zinc
Selenium
Copper
Manganese
Chromium)

those are the only three that i hope to take, but one of my questions is definitely if there is something else i need in order for either of the 5HTP or Mucuna to work correctly.

since i plan on taking the mucuna in the morning/mid-day, should i take the mutli-vit with it? and if so... the mucuna says to take it on an empty stomach, while the multi-vit says to take it with a meal. ???
also the mucuna says to take 6 to 8 capsules daily at bed time, but i plan to take it during the morning and daytime. would it be alright to start off with just one or two, and if i need a "boost" throughout the day, to take more?
and if i do take more later on throughout the day, is there a such thing as taking it too close to the 5-HTP?

i know i've got a lot of questions, but of course i'm a bit ignorant on vitamins and supplements (not to mention some of the terms and threads on here have boggled my brain, lol) and want to make sure i'm taking them safely, right, and getting the most i can out of them.
so if anyone has any info, answers, or even any recommendations or anything, i would LOVE to hear them, and any kinda help would be much appreciated!!!!


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## jagmusic (Oct 18, 2010)

I stopped taking 5HTP because I could sleep for like 18 hours prob more. You can just literally not wake up all day. Normally you get to the point of waking up, feeling awake and get up, but with this supplement you can just keep going back to sleep for hours and hours. I was staying at my parents house at the time and I had to explain that I was sleeping entire days away because of the supplement, and that I'm really not just a lazy mooch. lol 

I guess it is just Tryptophan (sp?), but for me the long sleeping was really all it did for me. I mean I guess your not having mental problems while sleeping, maybe that is how it works. Just sleep your troubles away.


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## LALoner (Dec 3, 2008)

I took Macuna for a while and it didn't do anything more for me than tyrosine did though I understand the technical reasons why it is considered stronger.

Anyway, one day I decided to take a HUGE MEGA dose of Macuna to see what would happen. The next day was one of the most painful of my life, I would have gone to the emergency room if I had health insurance. My theory is it led to a short term spinal infection. Just throwing that in as a warning. But I never had problems when I followed the directions on the bottle.


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## dutchguy (Jun 8, 2009)

5-htp Gave me heart palpitations for 2 days. I never take it anymore.


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## obsolete (Feb 25, 2011)

@ LALoner, how much did you take? that's crazy, and does scare me a little =/
the bottle i got says to take 6 to 8 capsules daily (at bed time, but i'm taking it during daytime), and i've been taking them 1 at a time, up to about 4 or so throughout the day. which doesn't seem like a lot compared to the recommended dose, but i still wanna make sure i don't over-do it! & i've taken 2 at a time only once, but it didn't seem to have any negative effects.

i'm still up in the air about the 5-htp though. it does make me sleepy, but WITH some palpitations, and although it makes me sleepy, i still can't seem to get to sleep very well. (i take the 5htp before bed. and of course, i've always suffered with insomnia)...
i think i just feel like the 5htp is necessary... maybe for the "anti-depressant" qualities? or possibly feeling like i'm balancing out, since the mucuna is working on my dopamine levels... feels almost like i should be working on the serotonin levels as well?

the mucuna pruriens seems to be promising though. it's making me more positive and motivated. it sucks to still not have the energy to really carry out that motivation, but maybe it'll get better. who knows.

@ jagmusic, yeah, although i still have trouble getting to sleep, it definitely seems to make me sleep a bit deeper/harder, and i could sleep for hours on end if someone or something doesn't wake me up, and i have to force myself to get up, still feeling sleepish for the first 30 minutes or so. i can totally see your problems with it! if it wasn't for somebody or something waking me up, i could probably sleep the entire day away without realizing it.


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## lifechanger (Jul 10, 2011)

*so far so good..*

I've been taking mucuna pruriens and 5-htp to boost neurotransmitter activity for the past 4 weeks now. I take 50 mg mucuna on Monday & 50 mg 5-htp on Tuesday, and nothing on Wednesday & Thursday and then repeat Friday & Saturday, nothing on Sunday. At this point, it has been a really nice change to my daily existence: better mood and satisfaction with life, along with positive sexual changes. I'll keep monitoring, don't foresee ever increasing the dosage and planning to take a week off each month, maybe more. I started doing this after being sober for 6 months, and I was a big stoner before that, not to mention a social drinker and chronic user of nicotine. I feel great!


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## DLB (Nov 19, 2012)

*5HTP and Mucuna Pruriens*

I hope there are some more people out there that can contribute to this thread.

I should comment that I seem to be extremely sensitive to all antidepressants and other migraine prevention medications that I have tried. I think I am what the experts call a "poor-metabilizer."

I had tried 5HTP back in 2011 with a 200mg time release capsule. I think I made it 2 or 3 days and then slept for like 20 hours and quit taking it.

This time, I bought the smallest does I could find, which is 50mg. On the third consecutive day, I got pretty tired, but also started taking Dopa Mucuna standardized to 60mg L-DOPA one day after I started 5-HTP, so not sure if it was the 5-HTP or the Dopa Mucuna or both that was making me so tired.

I stopped taking both and two days later, I am back to normal, or maybe slightly better than normal as I got a lot done at work today and am in a relatively good mood despite some impending deadlines that are going to cause me to work over the weekend.

The other interesting thing is that I didn't get a migraine until this afternoon, so for about 5 or 6 days, which is pretty good for me. It makes me curious about whether one or both supplements is responsible for the migraine prevention. I took the Dopa Mucuna with an OTC pain releiver this afternoon and headache cleared in an hour, which is also unusual for me.

I will plan on trying the Dopa Mucuna every other day or every 3rd day for a while and see how I do. Once I think I have a good feel for how it is working, maybe I will go back and add in the 5-HTP every other or every 3rd day for a while and see how I do.


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## lonelyjew (Jan 20, 2010)

Triptans are very effective drugs for preventing migraine and are serotonin agonists, but they are specific to certain receptors, which limit their side effects. The 5HTP could work in a similar way, but I'd imagine it'd be a lot "dirtier" and if you could get it to the right doses needed, you'd probably get more side effects. 

The Dopa Mucuna is a different story, and I would have serious doubts you could get any decent effect from it without nasty side effects. People never just take L-Dopa, they take carbidopa with it, which prevents dopamine conversion outside the CNS.


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## cookcaptain (Oct 27, 2013)

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