enkephalinase

This latter, which is the most important of the three, has been given the name enkephalinase.

Alcohol and The Addictive Brain Kenneth Blum 1991

This latter, which is the most important of the three, has been given the name enkephalinase.

Alcohol and The Addictive Brain Kenneth Blum 1991

Over the next 18 days, we injected the alcohol-preferring mice with the enkephalinase inhibitor D-phenylalanine, and the water-preferring mice with a saline solution, then retested their one-day alcohol consumption.

Alcohol and The Addictive Brain Kenneth Blum 1991

In a series of experiments they demonstrated the ability of D-phenylalanine to inhibit enkephalinase, resulting in a long-term painkilling effect in both animals and humans.

Alcohol and The Addictive Brain Kenneth Blum 1991

The amount of enkephalinase, the enzyme that metabolizes enkephalin, increases, thereby reducing the supply of this opioid at the synapse.

Alcohol and The Addictive Brain Kenneth Blum 1991

D-phenylalanine, to inhibit enkephalinase, the enzyme that metabolizes or breaks down enkephalin, thereby increasing the availability of enkephalin and, presumably, making more dopamine available at the reward sites.

Alcohol and The Addictive Brain Kenneth Blum 1991

The positive nature of the results merits further investigation and full-scale clinical testing of the concepts of amino acid loading and enkephalinase inhibition.

Alcohol and The Addictive Brain Kenneth Blum 1991

Because of multiple causes acting to distort reward, we had chosen to use the “amino acid loading technique” in our formula, combining key amino acids with an enkephalinase inhibitor with the goal of offsetting a wide range of neurotransmitter deficiencies.

Alcohol and The Addictive Brain Kenneth Blum 1991

Protecting enkephalin supplies by preventing their destruction by enkephalinase reduces voluntary alcohol intake in alcohol-preferring animals.

Alcohol and The Addictive Brain Kenneth Blum 1991

This finding was later confirmed by Larry Grupp and associates at the University of Toronto when they showed that other types of enkephalinase inhibitors also reduce alcohol intake in rats.2

Alcohol and The Addictive Brain Kenneth Blum 1991