Your body synthesizes many important biological compounds using the amino acid tyrosine as an ingredient. Coenzyme Q10, melanin, thyroid hormone, dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine are a few of the chemicals tyrosine helps make possible. Tyrosine is a non-essential amino acid: your body is able to make all the tyrosine it needs from the amino acid phenylalanine. Tyrosine and its metabolites impact your mental health, ability to adapt to stress, blood pressure, heart rate, skin color, ability to stand pain, metabolic rate and more.
Sources of Tyrosine
Tyrosine is also found in foods such as aged cheese, fermented sausage, pickled herring and dried fish. Lima beans, fava beans, lentils, snow peas, brewer's yeast, beer, red wine and sauerkraut are also high in tyrosine.Tyrosine is also found to a lesser degree in some fruits, chocolate, white wine, peanuts and soy sauce. Cheese and meats are also sources of the tyrosine precursor phenylalanine.
Tyrosine and Blood Pressure
A 1979 animal study published in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" studied the effect of tyrosine injections on the blood pressure of male rats. Researchers found that tyrosine actually reduced rat blood pressure. Another study on tyrosine and blood pressure was published in the journal "Brain Research Bulletin" in 1994. This study looked at the effect of tyrosine on healthy human subjects. Tyrosine was found to reduce diastolic pressure but had no effect on systolic blood pressure. A 1999 study published in "Brain Research Bulletin" also found that tyrosine supplementation reduced blood pressure in people.
Tyrosine Metabolites
Tyrosine is converted into several chemical compounds that directly or indirectly elevate blood pressure. Tyrosine is converted into tyramine and the catecholamine neurotransmitters epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine. Tyramine stimulates the release of catecholamines from nerve cells into the gap between nerve cells called synapses. Each of these catecholamines can elevate blood pressure. Another disease indirectly caused by tryosine is hyperthyroidism--the overproduction of thyroid hormone produced from tyrosine and iodine.
Tyrosine Drug Interactions
Your body relies upon the enzyme monoamine oxidase, or MO, to break down or catabolize epinephrine, norepinephrine, dopamine, tyramine and other substances. Some anti-depressant drugs called monoamine oxidase inhibitors, or MAOIs, block the action of MO and increase the amount of beneficial neurotransmitters in the nerve synapse. When tyramine is given with MAOIs, the catecholamines it causes to be released into nerve synapses are not removed quickly enough. As catecholamine levels increase in the synapses, a dramatic and potentially deadly rise in blood pressure often results.
References
- Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health; Important Drug and Food Information; 2003
- "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences"; Tyrosine administration reduces blood pressure and enhances brain norepinephrine release in spontaneously hypertensive rats; A. F. Sved, et al.; July 1979
- "Brain Research Bulletin"; Tyrosine improves cognitive performance and reduces blood pressure in cadets after one week of a combat training course.; J. B. Deijen, et al.; 1999
- "Brain Research Bulletin"; Effect of tyrosine on cognitive function and blood pressure under stress; J. B. Deijen and J. F. Orlebekea; 1994
- "Annals of Surgery"; The Relation of Hyperthyroidism to Hypertension"; J. Dewey Bisgard; January 1942
- University of Maryland Medical Center; Tyrosine; David Zieve, M.D., M.H.A., and David R. Eltz; July 2010
