Health from a Scientist

  Let's talk about tryptophan This is one of my favorite small molecules.  You may be familiar about tryptophan because of Thanksgiving turkey with the idea that many people fall asleep after eating turkey, but there is a whole lot more to tryptophan!   One reason people connect falling asleep after eating turkey is because turkey has a lot of tryptophan and importantly, melatonin is generated   from tryptophan.  So eating more tryptophan should make more melatonin.  This is partially true, but lets dive into the metabolism of tryptophan. Melatonin is one of the metabolites that helps us sleep at night, but tryptophan makes many other molecules that are needed for our health, which is why it is an essential nutrient. The metabolism of tryptophan to both serotonin and melatonin begins with breakdown to 5-hydroxytryptophan .  This pathway is shown below to illustrate the process.   There is a lot about tryptophan and our metabolism that...