Impervious to Stress: Modern Day Invincibility

Modern Day Invincibility

Have you ever wanted to be a Zen master at dealing with stress, have laser-like focus when under pressure, faster reflexes and increased tolerance to the cold.

Is it even possible to accomplish such superhero feats? Will I not need to train hard, meditate daily, be bitten by a radioactive arachnid and become an Inuit?

These are questions you may ask yourself, and the answer is a relieving no.

These abilities are realised with the ingestion, digestion and assimilation of:

Let me introduce you to your new best friend, L-Tyrosine – the ‘L’ is for Love.

First discovered in 1846 by German chemist Justus von Liebig, it is a precursor to the neurotransmitters and hormones L-Dopa, Dopamine, Adrenalin and Noradrenalin. These promote drive, focus, linear thought, increased metabolic activity and have a bronchodilating effect.

What Can It Do For Me?
L-Tyrosine is an adaptagen. An adaptagen is a substance that aids adaption to environmental, physical and mental stresses. This amino acid may be your sidekick in all trying times, including situations of increased work load, shift work/jet lag, sleep deprivation and cold weather.

L-Tyrosine has been used by the Canadian, U.S and Dutch armed forces as well as the Chinese Air Force in combating the intense physical, emotional, environmental and psychosocial stresses of operations training. I think the challenges of military life put civilian life in perspective. (1,2,3,4)

Cold Exposure
L-Tyrosine has been successfully used to combat the working memory, psychomotor, mood and performance decrements associated with cold exposure. (4,5,6,7)

Possible use: I’d say this is mighty useful during winter, especially if you work outside.

Can’t Take the Heat…

I only found one reference to L-Tyrosine being tested on humans to heat exposure and no benefits were noted. However, rats that ingested Tyrosine and then exposed to heat, fared much better in stress tests. The doses were the highest i’ve seen, 400mg per kg of bodyweight as opposed to 100-150mg per kg of bodyweight. Perhaps a higher dose for humans would yield a similar result. (8,9)

Faster Reflexes
A study at Leiden University, Amsterdam, observed that Tyrosine has a positive effect on reflexes. The experiment involved a computer program that has transferable skills to driving.

It is interesting that the improvement in reflex speed when compared with a placebo was noted during a comparatively neutral setting. You will notice in most of the studies referenced Tyrosine worked at attenuating the effects of a stressful situation by keeping an individual at baseline. This study suggests that maybe in some instances it can improve the individual beyond ‘normal’.

Eating to stop

Possible use: Anytime reflexive speed is important – driving and sports involving rapidly changing variables (football, rugby, tennis). (10)

Lean and Strong
I found little research on fat loss and exercise performance in humans. It should be noted that this does not mean it doesn’t work to improve fat loss or performance just that the research hasn’t been carried out to any conclusive degree, yet!

Tyrosine is a precursor to the dopaminergic-adrenergic systems and Thyroid hormones and maybe stimulatory to both. This stimulation MAY indirectly cause appetite reduction, a higher resting metabolic rate and increased fat oxidation. Combine the aforementioned with increased focus under pressure and altered perception of stress it may prove useful before an intense training session.

Coaches such as Nick Mitchell, Charles Poliquin and Joe Defranco have written about using Tyrosine before training session as a means to a more focused training session.

Possible use: pre training sessions to enhance focus and motivation

Depression
The current thinking among the medical community is that depression results from psychosocial stresses and/or neurobiological disturbances. Regarding the neurobiology, depression has been linked to interruptions or imbalances in the brain with the neurotransmitters serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine.

In his book ‘Optimum Nutrition for the Mind’, Patrick Holford highly recommends a combination of Tyrosine and 5-HTP to help with depression. Tyrosine and 5-HTP are amino acid precursors to serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine.

‘Physicians at Harvard Medical School have pioneered the use of a daily dose of up to 6g of tyrosine to decrease symptoms of medication-resistant depression with good results.’ ~ Dr Braverman, The Edge Effect

In forums on depression and anxiety, a combination of Tyrosine and 5-HTP have had good reviews.(11,12,13)

Sleep Deprivation
When compared to subjects administered with a placebo the Tyrosine group exhibited less of the psychomotor decline that is expected with prolonged wakefulness.(14)

Possible use: jet lag, sleep deprivation and maintaining your dance skills on a night out.

Neuroprotective
Keeping the brain young and functioning is much desired. With mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s on the rise, the maintenance of our brain is of prime concern.

In the book ‘Optimum Nutrition for the Mind’ Patrick Holford writes: “There is little doubt that dopamine deficiency is the major cause of the symptoms of Parkinson’s” and goes on to write “The neurons can die off or be damaged, for example by oxidants”.

Catecholamines (adrenaline, noradrenaline and dopamine) might act as scavengers of oxidants and Tyrosine may increase catecholamine synthesis, specifically when catecholamines synthesis is disrupted from stress.(11,15,16)

Considerations
Make sure you eat a varied diet and take your multivitamin supplement as vitamin B6, magnesium, manganese, zinc, vitamin C, folic acid, and copper are necessary for conversion of L-tyrosine into L-Dopa.

High Tyrosine foods
Eggs, chicken, pork, cottage cheese and wild game are good sources of Tyrosine.

Supplementation
L-Tyrosine can be bought in supplement form and is relatively cheap when compared to other adaptagens such as Rhodiola Rosea.

To achieve a noticeable effect, L-Tyrosine supplement is advised over foods.

Take 100-150mg per kg of body weight on an empty stomach per day split between morning and afternoon.

Side effects
Tyrosine seems to be acutely safe at high doses (150mg per kg of bodyweight) but not a lot is known of chronic use. It may have possible contraindications for people with Graves disease, Hyperthyroidism and Bipolar as it may possibly induce mania.

Taking Tyrosine whilst on hypothyroid medication such as Thyroxine may increase Thyroxine levels too much.

Conclusion
Tyrosine appears to be a reliant, non-toxic and flexible adaptagen. Situations ranging from high altitude to prolonged wakefulness are helped by the ingestion of Tyrosine. It is dependable in maintaining normal faculties under stressful situations.

Personal Recommendations
I use Tyrosine intermittently for periods of about 4 weeks. I take *2-8g split in two doses.

I personally find an increase sense of motivation, that I accomplish more tasks throughout the day, more positive training sessions and a decreased sense of stress.

*This is under the 150mg per kg of body weight recommendation. The daily dose range is dependent on what I’m doing, how I feel and what other supplements I’m taking at the time.

Summary:

1. Helps adapt to stress

2. Helps maintain normal functioning under psychosocial, physical and environmental stresses

3. May increase reflexes beyond normal

4. Safe in high doses

5. Relatively cheap

6. Needs cofactors for conversion so a multivitamin is advised

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