We got the MAOa SNPs from reanalyzing the raw genetic data from 23andMe. Over the years, I’ve used Genetic Genie which is the easiest , Nutracker, and Prometheus to re-analyze 23andMe data.
It may be possible to measure neurotransmitter levels from cerebral spinal fluid. There are alternative docs who believe you can tell about neurotransmitters from testing their levels in urine but I suspect that says more about the kidneys than about the nervous system.
I shared an office with a naturopath for a while and she ordered the cortisol test. We learned about the diurnal cortisol from doing a saliva test four times a day waking up, noon dinner time and bedtime. Salivary cortisol tests are used for psychophysiology research as well as clinically.
These tests showed I had low cortisol early in the morning and it didn’t become normal until close to bedtime, which may be why I stayed up late for a lot of my life.
I started doing dopamine agonists because I got hired to measure brain waves associated with taking tyrosine.
It was a pilot study so I figured I would participate just to get a larger sample size. And the dopamine agonist made me feel great. When I re-analyzed the 23andMe data and found out about my overactive homozygous MAOa, I understood why I liked tyrosine and mucuna so much.
Because of this overactive MAOa, I break down dopamine very fast. The references in Prometheus said this SNP is associated with chronic depression and that makes sense because if I don’t take my dopamine precursors, I can’t get out of my own way.
I suspect I can take such a high dose of tyrosine and mucuna because of the overactive MAOa. People without the overactive dopamine oxidation system I have would probably get very anxious with these levels of dopamine Agonist.
And I suspect I don’t crash from taking modafinil because I’m taking so much tyrosine. I do dopamine and mucuna both because the L DopA in mucuna only takes one step to become dopamine. There are more steps to convert tyrosine.
Deprenyl? I’ve been taking it since grad school in the early 90s.
It’s also a neuroprotectorant. There was a documentary about catatonic addicts about 35 years ago. I think it was part of the Nova series. The addicts had been using synthetic heroin and the fella making it let it get a little bit too hot and. made MPTP, a neurotoxin that quickly destroys the substantia nigra. The documentary discussed the Swiss chemist who discovered MPTP and had destroyed his own substantia nigra and had been catatonic in a mental hospital for decades and he was quickly brought back with L dopa.
The chemist reported remembering hearing and seeing everything that happened in his room during all this time.