by S. Suzanne Fisher
Amino acids are the raw nutrients needed to manufacture neurotransmitters.
Neurotransmitters are chemicals that are used to relay, amplify and modulate electrical signals between a neuron and another cell. The three major categories of substances that act as neurotransmitters are:
- amino acids (primarily glutamic acid, GABA, aspartic acid & glycine),
- peptides (vasopressin, somatostatin, neurotensin, etc.) and
- monoamines (norepinephrine, dopamine & serotonin) plus acetylcholine.