Tyrosine is a non-essential amino acid that works to create neurotransmitters that are necessary in the brain to produce dopamine, adrenaline, and noradrenalin. It is synthesized in the body from the phenylalanine that your body already makes. Tyrosine is a building block of sorts for many important chemicals which work to regulate your mood. When you have a deficiency in tyrosine you can have depression as well as other emotional illnesses. Tyrosine is also partially responsible for the production of melanin which is the pigment that gives you the skin and hair color that you have. It also aids in the function of organs in the body that make and regulate your hormones. This includes the thyroid, pituitary and adrenal glands. As you can see, this is a very important amino acid that can be beneficial to keeping you healthy.

Another effect of a tyrosine deficient body is low blood pressure, an underactive thyroid as well as low body temperature. However, just by taking tyrosine supplements doesn’t mean you will avoid these problems, but it can be an effective aid in helping to treat it. Having tyrosine in your body though as a supplement can give you additional benefits that you may not get enough of if you just allow your body to produce it. This includes have the mild antioxidant effects that it provides. In addition it does provide treatment for certain illnesses such as Phenylketonuria which is the inability to metabolize the amino acid phenylalanine which can lead to mental retardation. Also, tyrosine is beneficial for stress because it acts as an adaptogen which aids your body in adapting to and coping with the effect of physical or psychological stressors and helps to minimize the symptoms that come from stress.

In people who are trying to detox from drugs it can be beneficial to incorporate this into treatment to help with withdrawal symptoms and to stop the overall cravings. Since it is aids in pigment of your skin it can work in patients that have been diagnosed with vitiligo which is an irregular depigmentation of the skin. Finally, some people find tyrosine beneficial for physical performance.