What is fibromyalgia and how does 5-HTP help?
Fibromyalgia is a recently recognized disorder regarded as a common cause of chronic musculoskeletal pain and fatigue. The history of the development of 5-HTP as an effective treatment for fibromyalgia began with studies on the drug fenclonine. 21 This drug blocks the enzyme which converts tryptophan to 5-HTP and as result blocks serotonin production. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was thought that increased serotonin formation may promote migraine headaches (the opposite of what was later proved, i.e., increasing serotonin levels reduce migraine headache occurrence). The researchers discovered that providing headache sufferers with fenclonine resulted in very severe muscle pain. This effect was exactly opposite of what was expected, but led to some important advances in the understanding of fibromyalgia–a way to induce its severe symptoms of (as well as symptoms nearly identical to EMS, the condition caused by contaminated L-tryptophan). The researchers also discovered tha
