BEANS FOR THE CATECHOLAMINES AND DOPAMINE-RELATED DISEASES

March 07, 2019 / Ashley Romanchuk

Fava beans or Vicia faba, also known as Faba or Broad beans are a member of the pea family, Fabaceae, and thus look like peas, but instead of peas, they have large beans inside. These beans are easy to grow and have been a part of the eastern Mediterranean diet dating back to 6000 BCE, possibly even longer. They are grown and cultivated and a normal part of diets all over the world. Velvet Beans or Macuna pruriens, on the other hand, are only grown in Africa and tropical Asia and are thus no so easily to come by but their medicinal properties are almost identical.

Now these fascinating beans are eaten all over the world but what makes them extra special is they contain the precursor to Dopamine. This precursor is known as L-DOPA or levodopa or in more biochemical terms: L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine. While Fava beans also contain tyramine, and Velvet beans, contain trace amounts of serotonin, nicotine and bufotenine and thus would also be recommended for anyone along the anxiety-depression spectrum that is not being treated pharmaceutically.

Traditional Ayurvedic Medicine has known to use these beans for treating depression and Parkinson’s disease for centuries.

Now humans naturally synthesize this amino acid (L-tyrosine to L-dopa into the catecholamines) from eating proteins and this important conversion reaction in the body also requires appropriate amounts of vitamin C and Pyrodoxine (Vitamin B6) that are easily consumed and bioavailable in a typical healthy diet of consuming fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains. L-DOPA then becomes the precursor to the catecholamines: epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine. So, there is a variety of ways it shows up clinically when L-Dopa is low and requires some supplementation. Presenting symptoms can range from depression and fatigue to lack of muscle power and reactivity to stressors to addictive mindsets and cyclical thinking, strange face puckering, dystonias, dyskinesias, Parkinsonian like symptoms or true Parkinson’s disease.

The benefits of using these beans specifically with Parkinson’s is that L-DOPA can cross the blood brain barrier whereas dopamine can not so consuming these beans are a source of a natural remedy for Parkinson’s Disease or and Dystonias or Dyskinesias that are potentially related to low dopamine. Trials have found that those with Restless Leg Syndrome have also found beneficial affects with the consumption of Fava or Velvet Beans.

Because Fava beans do also contain tyramines and are in fact rich in tyramine, they should be avoided by anyone taking a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) and Fava Beans have been repeatedly reported to send people with G6PD deficiency into hemolytic crises and thus are contraindicated.

NOVEMBER 9, 2018

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