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Originally Posted by HeadDoc thanks for another one your thorough responses Marianco. Have you found any value from adding acetylcarnitine or phosphatydalserine to SSRI's for enhancing sexual reponse? How about l'arginine? |
Acetyl-L-Carnitine: A combination of Acetyl-L-Carnitine and Alpha Lipoic Acid many in some people reduce erectile dysfunction. The problem is that the doses used are relatively high. The acetyl- part of Acetyl-L-Carnitine is essentially vinegar, is acidic, and may not be pleasant for many people to take in large doses. I have to do some research on this, but high alpha lipoic acid doses may cause problems - are not as safe as I thought it would be.
Phosphatidylserine: The available phosphatidylserine is made from soy, not extracted from brain (due to risk of mad-cow-like disease). Unfortunately, the studies on brain function by-and-large use brain phosphatidylserine - which is totally different from plant-derived phosphatidylserine. Phosphatidylserine (plant derived) does reduce cortisol production from the adrenals. The problem I have with lowered cortisol and sexual response is that reducing cortisol may blunt sexual response since a person then would not be able to generate enough energy to maintain sexual response. Lowering cortisol with phosphatidylserine may make sense only if the person has tonically high cortisol levels in the first place, not normal or low levels.
L-Arginine - L-Arginine can increase Nitric Oxide levels - which then increases cyclic-GMP, which then causes an erection. The problem is that L-Arginine may not be able to persistently increase Nitric Oxide levels enough to improve sexual response. I haven't seen yet if it is effective in improving sexual response. Body builders have attempted to use L-Arginine to increase Nitric Oxide, to improve muscle blood flow, to increase muscle growth in response to exercise. But I have yet to see good data indicating that this is effective. Note that persistent high nitric oxide levels can be dangerous. It is a strong oxidant. L-Arginine does not localize the increase in nitric oxide to only the penis - it does so everywhere in the body. As an aside, Nitric Oxide is a retrograde neurotransmitter given out by the receiving neurons to reinforce neurotransmitter signaling from the originating neuron - e.g. to reinforce learning and memory. Increasing total nitric oxide levels would not be useful since the increase needs to be localized to the specific neurons for the specific desired function.