4 Amino Acids That Improve Energy and Mood
Everywhere we look there are advertisements for anti-depressants, stimulants and other substances that are supposed to help us feel better and more energized, but time and again these drugs prove to be ineffective and even harmful in the long run. Amino acid supplements, on the other hand, are an excellent alternative therapy for treating lack of energy and low moods.
Julia Ross talks extensively about amino acid therapy in her books The Diet Cure and The Mood Cure (read my The Diet Curereview of The Mood Cure here). Supplementing with the right amino acids can boost deficient brain chemicals and make transitioning to a healthy lifestyle more achievable. It’s not uncommon to have trouble kicking habits like using tobacco, alcohol, caffeine and eating processed sugar foods. Many times cravings for these substances can be linked to neurotransmitter deficiency. Fixing your diet and lifestyle are the best ways to correct such a deficiency, but let’s face it: sometimes it feels impossible to make changes when our brain chemicals are off balance!
Amino acid therapy is generally very temporary if you are making other important changes in conjunction with the therapy. A few weeks or months is usually all it takes before doses can be tapered and eventually eliminated. I personally used amino acid therapy on and off for a period of about 12-18 months. Once I found which amino acids were most effective for me and got the dosage right, I discovered that changes were immediately noticeable. Today I no longer take regular doses of specific amino acids, though I do keep them around “just in case,” though I rarely feel the need to use them.
Here are four amino acids that particularly work to improve energy and mood:
(All the dosages below are based on Julia’s recommendations in her books, which I highly suggest reading before embarking on an amino acid therapy program. Remember it is always best to start with a small dose and increase as needed.)
4 Amino Acids That Improve Energy and Mood
Glutamine
Phenylalanine
Tryptophan
Tyrosine