Tyrosine is a conditionally essential amino acid which can come directly from the digestion of dietary protein. Common food sources include dairy, beans, whole grains, meat, and nuts. If intake is insufficient, tyrosine can be formed from the essential amino acid phenylalanine using a tetrahydrobiopterin reaction. Tyrosine itself is a precursor to several neurotransmitters including dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine. It is also needed to create thyroid hormone and melanin skin pigments. Within the metabolism of tyrosine to form neurotransmitters and other hormones, there are several important nutrient cofactors involved including vitamin B1, vitamin B6, tetrahydrobiopterin, copper, vitamin C, among others.
References:
- Kühn S, Düzel S, Colzato L, et al. Food for thought: association between dietary tyrosine and cognitive performance in younger
- Medicine Io. Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press; 2005
- Gulati K, Anand R, Ray A. Nutraceuticals as adaptogens: their role in health and disease. In: Nutraceuticals. Elsevier; 2016:193-205.
- Adrych K, Smoczynski M, Stojek M, et al. Decreased serum essential and aromatic amino acids in patients with chronic pancreatitis. World J Gastroenterol. 2010;16(35):4422-4427.
- Vannucchi H, Moreno FS, Amarante AR, de Oliveira JE, Marchini JS. Plasma amino acid patterns in alcoholic pellagra patients. Alcohol Alcoholism. 1991;26(4):431-436.
- Jurgens P, Schwartau M, Doehn M. [Disorders of amino acid metabolism in a patient with identified thiamine deficiency]. Infusionstherapie klinische Ernahrung. 1982;9(6):312-316.
Low levels of essential and conditionally essential amino acids may indicate a poor-quality diet, or maldigestion due to deficient digestive peptidase activity or pancreatic dysfunction. Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an inborn error of metabolism involving a deficiency of the hepatic enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase, and results in elevated phenylalanine and low tyrosine levels. Vitamin B3 deficiency has been associated with altered levels of amino acids.
Understand and improve your laboratory results with our health dashboard.
Upload your lab reports and get your interpretation today.
Our technology helps to understand, combine, track, organize, and act on your medical lab test results.
High dietary intake of tyrosine-rich foods can elevate levels. Additionally, functional need for vitamin and nutrient cofactors for tyrosine metabolism can contribute to elevations.
Interpret Your Lab Results
Upload your lab report, and we'll interpret and provide you with recommendations today.
Get StartedMonthly plan
Annual plan
Own it for life
Our exclusive data entry service is a convenient way to get your results into your private dashboard. Simply attach an image or a file of your lab test results, and one of our qualified data entry team members will add the results for you. We support all sorts of files, whether PDFs, JPGs, or Excel. This service is excellent whether you have a lot of reports to upload or are too busy to do the data entry yourself.
We strive to make the data entry process easy for you. Whether by offering dozens of templates to choose from that pre-populate the most popular laboratory panels or by giving you instant feedback on the entered values. Our data entry forms are an easy, fast, and convenient way to enter the reports yourself. There is no limit on how many lab reports you can upload.
$15 /month
billed every month
Most popular
Data entry included
$79 /year
$6.60/month billed annually
Data entry included
$250 /once
own it for life
Are You a Health Professional?
Get started with our professional plan
Welcome to Healthmatters Pro.
Save time on interpreting lab results with the largest database of biomarkers online. In-depth research on any test at your fingertips, all stored and tracked in one place. Learn more
Pro Monthly Plus
for health professionals
$75 per month
At HealthMatters, we're committed to maintaining the security and confidentiality of your personal information. We've put industry-leading security standards in place to help protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of the information under our control. We use procedural, physical, and electronic security methods designed to prevent unauthorized people from getting access to this information. Our internal code of conduct adds additional privacy protection. All data is backed up multiple times a day and encrypted using SSL certificates. See our Privacy Policy for more details.
1-Methylhistidine, 25 - Hydroxyvitamin D, 3-Methylhistidine, 8-Hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine, a-Amino-n-butyric acid (a-ANB), a-aminoadipic acid, a-ANB/Leucine, Alanine, alpha-Tocopherol, Arginine, Arsenic, Asparagine, Aspartic Acid, b-Alanine, b-Aminoisobutyric Acid, b-Carotene, Cadmium, Citrulline, Coenzyme Q10, Copper, Cyst(e)ine, Cystathionine, Ethanolamine, g-aminobutyric acid (GABA), gamma-Tocopherol, Glutamic Acid, Glutamic Acid/Glutamine, Glutamine, Glutathione, Glycine, Histidine, Homocysteine, Isoleucine, Lead, Leucine, Lipid Peroxides, Lysine, Magnesium, Manganese, Mercury, Methionine, Ornithine, Phenylalanine, Phenylalanine/Tyrosine, Phosphoethanolamine, Phosphoserine, Potassium, Proline, Sarcosine, Selenium, Serine, Taurine, Threonine, Tryptophan, Tryptophan/LNAA, Tyrosine, Urea, Valine, Vitamin A (Retinol), Zinc