N-Acetyl-L Tyrosine
N-Acetyl-L-Tyrosine is a modified version of the amino acid (L-Tyrosine). The modified version has benefits to absorption and a larger benefit for the brain. Tyrosine is an amino acid that is valued for countering stress with healthy brain chemistry for alertness and peak mental performance.
N-Acetyl-L-Tyrosine is a nootropic supplement (brain enhancing) that increases attention, concentration, improves mood and stress response, alertness, and improves memory, learning and performance.
Within the brain, L-Tyrosine supports overall mental performance, healthy stress responses and also helps to produce key feel-good neurotransmitters (norepinephrine, dopamine, and epinephrine).
Active ingredient: N-Acetyl-L-Tyrosine
Why: N-Acetyl-L-Tyrosine is a modified version of the amino acid (L-Tyrosine) which has an active compound “acetic acid” added in order to increase bioavailability and absorption.
A purified form of tyrosine like ours gets pushed to neurotransmitter synthesis, while tyrosine in food ends up going to the muscles with the rest of the amino acids.
A single dose of 500mg N-Acetyl- L-tyrosine can elevate plasma tyrosine levels for up to 7 hours.
N-Acetyl-L-Tyrosine (NALT) is a modified form of the amino acid L-tyrosine, created synthetically by attaching an acetyl group to L-tyrosine to enhance its solubility and absorption. It is not found naturally in foods but is derived from L-tyrosine, which is present in various dietary sources. The main sources of L-tyrosine include:
Natural Sources of L-Tyrosine
N-Acetyl-L-Tyrosine (NALT) is a modified form of the amino acid L-tyrosine, created synthetically by attaching an acetyl group to L-tyrosine to enhance its solubility and absorption. It is not found naturally in foods but is derived from L-tyrosine, which is present in various dietary sources: Soy products (tofu, soy milk) Legumes (lentils, chickpeas, and beans) Nuts and seeds (almonds, peanuts, sunflower seeds)
Grains (Whole grains like oats and quinoa)
Main benefits for Savvy:
- Tyrosine helps people to counter stress and anxiety and helps you focus
- Tyrosine helps boost mood, motivation and wellbeing
- Improves cognitive performance
- Tyrosine increases resilience to fatigue and promotes increased mental performance and ability to multitask
To make it easy to identify all the different studies - we will highlight them for you!
We really hope you enjoy our many years of research when formulating Savvy...
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Tyrosine helps people to counter stress and anxiety and helps you focus
Stress and anxiety lower and deplete your brain’s norepinephrine stores, and when this happens, your memory, focus and general level of cognition all suffer. Tyrosine keeps the brain performing at its best during stress and improves focus during tasks that are mentally demanding.
Scientific sources:
Banderet, LE and Lieberman, HR, ‘Treatment with tyrosine, a neurotransmitter precursor, reduces environmental stress in humans.’ in Brain Research Bulletin, Volume 22, Issue 4, 1989, pp 759 - 762. [Link]
“Acutely stressful situations can disrupt behavior and deplete brain norepinephrine and dopamine, catecholaminergic neurotransmitters...tyrosine should be evaluated in a variety of acutely stressful situations.”
Kumar, A., et al, ‘Stress: Neurobiology, consequences and management’ in Journal of Pharmacy BioAllied Sciences, Volume 5, Issue 2, April 2013, pp 91 - 97. [Link]
“Memory impairment is a common and usual comorbidity associated with exposure to prolonged stress. “
Colzato, LS, et al, ‘Working Memory Reloaded: Tyrosine Repletes Updating in the N-Back Task’ in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, Volume 7, Issue 200, 2013. [Link]
“In sum, even if long-term effects are yet to be demonstrated, our findings suggest that the supplementation of TYR, or TYR-containing diets, may promote cognitive enhancement in inexpensive, efficient, and healthy ways.”
Deijen, JB, et al, ‘Tyrosine improves cognitive performance and reduces blood pressure in cadets after one week of a combat training course.’ in Brain Research Bulletin, Volume 48, Issue 2, January 1999, pp 203 - 209. [Link]
“These findings suggest that supplementation with tyrosine may, under operational circumstances characterized by psychosocial and physical stress, reduce the effects of stress and fatigue on cognitive task performance.”
Deijen, JB and Orlebeke JF, ‘Effect of tyrosine on cognitive function and blood pressure under stress.’ in Brain Research Bulletin, Volume 33, Issue 3, 1994, pp 319 - 323. [Link]
“The effects of tyrosine on mood, performance, heart rate and blood pressure of 16 healthy young subjects were assessed...Tyrosine was found to improve the performance on two cognitive tasks, which were performed 1 h after administration of the medication and which could be characterized as highly sensitive to stress. “
Reinstein, DK, et al, ‘Dietary tyrosine suppresses the rise in plasma corticosterone following acute stress in rats.’ in Life Sciences, Volume 37, Issue 23, December 1985, pp 2157 - 2163. [Link]
“Numerous studies suggest that NE inhibits the release of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) by suppressing corticotropic releasing factor (CRF) secretion in the hypothalamus. In the present study, we found that pre-treatment with supplemental tyrosine not only prevented the behavioral depression and hypothalamic NE depletion observed after an acute stress, but also suppressed the rise in plasma corticosterone. These results support a role for brain NE in stress-induced corticosterone secretion and demonstrate that supplemental tyrosine can protect against several adverse consequences of such stress.”
Lehnert, H, at al, ‘Neurochemical and behavioral consequences of acute, uncontrollable stress: Effects of dietary tyrosine’ in Brain Research, Volume 303, Issue 2, June 1984, pp 215 - 223. [Link]
“Supplementary tyrosine may be useful therapeutically in people exposed chronically to stress.”
Fernstrom, JD. ‘Can nutrient supplements modify brain function?’ in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 71, Supplement 6, June 2000, pp 1669 - 1675. [Link]
“Over the past 40 y, several lines of investigation have shown that the chemistry and function of both the developing and the mature brain are influenced by diet. Examples are … the effects of tryptophan or tyrosine intake (alone or as a constituent of dietary protein) on the production of the brain neurotransmitters derived from them (serotonin and the catecholamines, respectively).”
Fernstom, JR and Fernstrom MH, ‘Tyrosine, Phenylalanine, and Catecholamine Synthesis and Function in the Brain’ in The Journal of Nutrition, Volume 137, Issue 6, June 2007, pp 1539 - 1547. [Link]
“Aromatic amino acids in the brain function as precursors for the monoamine neurotransmitters serotonin (substrate tryptophan) and the catecholamines [dopamine, norepinephrine, epinephrine; substrate tyrosine (Tyr)]. Unlike almost all other neurotransmitter biosynthetic pathways, the rates of synthesis of serotonin and catecholamines in the brain are sensitive to local substrate concentrations, particularly in the ranges normally found in vivo. As a consequence, physiologic factors that influence brain pools of these amino acids, notably diet, influence their rates of conversion to neurotransmitter products, with functional consequences. “
Jongkees, BJ, et al, ‘Effect of tyrosine supplementation on clinical and healthy populations under stress or cognitive demands--A review.’ in Journal of Psychiatric Research. Volume 70, November 2015, pp 50 - 57. [Link]
“Consuming the amino-acid tyrosine (TYR), the precursor of dopamine (DA) and norepinephrine (NE), may counteract decrements in neurotransmitter function and cognitive performance...TYR does seem to effectively enhance cognitive performance, particularly in short-term stressful and/or cognitively demanding situations. We conclude that TYR is an effective enhancer of cognition, but only when neurotransmitter function is intact and DA and/or NE is temporarily depleted.”
Tyrosine helps boost mood, motivation and wellbeing
Tyrosine also turns into dopamine, which controls pleasure and motivation, amongst others. Tyrosine also creates serotonin, and these two neurotransmitters do a lot to regulate mood and happiness.
Scientific sources:
Dailly, E, et al, ‘Dopamine, depression and antidepressants’, in Fundamental and Clinical Pharmacology, Published 21 October 2004. [Link]
“The experimental studies with animal models of depression and the human studies implicate the role of the dopamine system in depression. Not only do dopaminergic receptor agonists, but also antagonists such as olanzapine exhibit antidepressant effects associated with standard antidepressants in patients with treatment‐resistant depression.”
Gelenberg, AJ and Gibson CJ, ‘Tyrosine for the Treatment of Depression’ in Nutrition and Health - Sage Journals, Volume 3, Issue 3, 1984, pp 163 - 173. [Link]
“Another way to increase brain levels of NE and 5-HT, and potentially to increase presynaptic activity, would be the systemic administration of the precursors of the neurotransmitters, an approach something like organic gardening in the brain. For this purpose, the 5-HT precursors tryptophan and 5-hydroxtryptophan (5-HTP), and the NE precursors tyrosine and dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA), have been administered to depressed patients”
Banderet, LE and Lieberman, HR, ‘Treatment with tyrosine, a neurotransmitter precursor, reduces environmental stress in humans.’ in Brain Research Bulletin, Volume 22, Issue 4, 1989, pp 759 - 762. [Link]
“Acutely stressful situations can disrupt behavior and deplete brain norepinephrine and dopamine, catecholaminergic neurotransmitters...tyrosine should be evaluated in a variety of acutely stressful situations.”
Alabsi, A., et al, ‘The Antidepressant Effect of L-Tyrosine-Loaded Nanoparticles: Behavioral Aspects’ in Annals of Neurosciences, Volume 23, Issue 2, July 2016, pp 89-99. [Link]
“Depression has been linked to disruption in the cerebral levels of specific neurotransmitters. L-tyrosine is a precursor of more than one of the neurotransmitters affected by depression. Even though setbacks of monoamines precursors include high doses and low efficiency, many studies have suggested using L-tyrosine as antidepressant.”
Improves cognitive performance
Jongkees, BJ, et al, ‘Effect of tyrosine supplementation on clinical and healthy populations under stress or cognitive demands--A review.’ in Journal of Psychiatric Research. Volume 70, November 2015, pp 50 - 57. [Link]
“Consuming tyrosine...may counteract decrements in neurotransmitter function and cognitive performance...TYR [Tyrosine] does seem to effectively enhance cognitive performance, particularly in short-term stressful and/or cognitively demanding situations. We conclude that TYR is an effective enhancer of cognition...”
Neri, DF, et al, ‘The effects of tyrosine on cognitive performance during extended wakefulness.’ in Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, Volume 66, Issue 4, April 1995, pp 313 - 319. [Link]
“... tyrosine may prove useful in counteracting performance decrements during episodes of sustained work coupled with sleep loss”
Deijen, JB, et al, ‘Tyrosine improves cognitive performance and reduces blood pressure in cadets after one week of a combat training course.’ in Brain Research Bulletin, Volume 48, Issue 2, January 1999, pp 203 - 209. [Link]
“These findings suggest that supplementation with tyrosine may, under operational circumstances characterized by psychosocial and physical stress, reduce the effects of stress and fatigue on cognitive task performance.”
Jongkees, BJ, et al, ‘People are different: tyrosine's modulating effect on cognitive control in healthy humans may depend on individual differences related to dopamine function’ in Frontiers' in Psychology, Volume 5, October 2014. [Link]
“The amino-acid TYR [Tyrosine] is a promising cognitive enhancer”
Tyrosine increases resilience to fatigue and promotes increased mental performance and ability to multitask
Neri, DF. et al. ‘The effects of tyrosine on cognitive performance during extended wakefulness.’ in Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine. Volume 66, Issue 4, April 1995, pp 313 - 319. [Link]
“Tyrosine, a large neutral amino acid found in dietary proteins, has received recent attention as a potential treatment for stress… Tyrosine administration was associated with a significant amelioration of the usual performance decline on a psychomotor task and a significant reduction in lapse probability on a high-event-rate vigilance task.”
Thomas JR, et al, ‘Tyrosine improves working memory in a multitasking environment.’ in Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior, Volume 64, Issue 3, November 1999, pp 495 - 500. [Link]
“Previous studies indicate that tyrosine may prove useful in promoting improved performance in situations in which performance is compromised by stress. To extend the generality of previous tyrosine findings, the present study examined the effects of tyrosine ingestion on performance during both a Multiple Task and a Simple Task battery. The multiple task battery was designed to measure working memory, arithmetic skills, and visual and auditory monitoring simultaneously, whereas the simple task battery measured only working memory and visual monitoring...Administration of tyrosine significantly enhanced accuracy and decreased frequency of list retrieval on the working memory task during the multiple task battery compared with placebo. … The present results indicate that tyrosine may sustain working memory when competing requirements to perform other tasks simultaneously degrade performance, and that supplemental tyrosine may be appropriate for maintaining performance when mild to severe decrements are anticipated.”
Deijen, JB, et al, ‘Tyrosine improves cognitive performance and reduces blood pressure in cadets after one week of a combat training course.’ in Brain Research Bulletin, Volume 48, Issue 2, January 1999, pp 203 - 209. [Link]
“These findings suggest that supplementation with tyrosine may, under operational circumstances characterized by psychosocial and physical stress, reduce the effects of stress and fatigue on cognitive task performance.”
Hoffman, JR, et al, ‘The effects of acute and prolonged CRAM supplementation on reaction time and subjective measures of focus and alertness in healthy college students.’ in Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, Volume 7, issue 39, December 2010. [Link]
“Results indicate that acute ingestion of CRAM can maintain reaction time, and subjective feelings of focus and alertness to both visual and auditory stimuli in healthy college students following exhaustive exercise… The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of acute and prolonged (4-weeks) ingestion of a supplement designed to improve reaction time and subjective measures of alertness, energy, fatigue, and focus...CRAM; α-glycerophosphocholine, choline bitartrate, phosphatidylserine, vitamins B3, B6, and B12, folic acid, L-tyrosine, anhydrous caffeine, acetyl-L-carnitine, and naringin… Reaction time significantly declined..”
