L-tyrosine ADHD Supplements

Tyrosine is one of the amino acids in everyday protein foods such as cheese, soy, chicken, fish, eggs, nuts and seeds. Your body turns it into dopamine and noradrenaline, which help keep you alert and motivated. It is also the starting material for thyroid hormone.

Our Herbs of Gold Tyrosine 1000 tablets can help maintain healthy nervous system function, assist the synthesis of neurotransmitters (the brain's chemical messengers) and support a healthy stress response. They also support healthy thyroid gland function.

Researchers have mostly studied tyrosine during short bursts of heavy mental load, such as cold, lost sleep or juggling several tasks at once.^[3] So it tends to interest people who:

• are heading into a demanding stretch and want support for a healthy stress response
• want support for healthy nervous system function
• prefer a single amino acid they can dose themselves

Most people who eat enough protein already get plenty of tyrosine from food. A supplement gives you a measured amount on top.

Shop by type: Amino Acids, Cognition & Focus Support, Memory & Focus Supplements and Stress Relief Vitamins.

Prices change, so check the pack. Serves across our range run from 400 mg to 5 g, so compare the cost a serve. Only one product is a listed medicine, and two powders are labelled as sports foods. Australian rules set a 400 mg daily limit for tyrosine in a sports food^[1], while a listed medicine has no such limit.^[2]

1. Nervous system: our tyrosine tablets can help maintain healthy nervous system function.
2. Brain chemistry: they help your body make neurotransmitters, the brain's chemical messengers.
3. Stress: they support a healthy stress response.
4. Thyroid: they support healthy thyroid gland function and thyroid hormone production.
5. Pure and simple: four of our five products are tyrosine on its own, with no flavours or sweeteners.
6. Value: the cheapest powder works out at about 11 cents a serve.
7. Your dose, your way: a powder lets you choose your own amount within the label directions.

Always read the label and follow the directions for use. If symptoms persist, talk to your health professional.

It helps most under pressure. A review of the research found tyrosine improved thinking only when the brain's chemical messengers had been run down, by cold, noise, multitasking or lost sleep. Without that kind of load, there was little to gain.^[3] A separate appraisal of 14 trials gave a weak recommendation for tyrosine under mental stress, and none for physical performance.^[4]

The positive trials used big doses. In 20 adults, a single dose of 150 mg per kilogram of body weight improved working memory during a demanding multitasking test.^[5] The same dose restored working memory in eight men exposed to cold.^[6] In 15 people, 300 mg per kilogram protected memory during body cooling.^[7] US government bodies funded all three. For a 70 kilogram adult, those doses are about 10.5 g and 21 g, far above most serves.

At an everyday dose, results were mixed. In a trial of 80 adults, the 28 who took 2,000 mg before a stress challenge showed no change in stress markers, though they missed fewer responses on one attention test. The trial was government funded.^[8] In 17 adults aged 60 to 75, working memory actually dipped at higher doses.^[9] So more is not better, and you should never go above the label dose.

Follow the label on your pack, because serves differ a lot across our range. The tablet is taken twice a day with food, and the powders are stirred into water.

Tyrosine is taken for alertness, so morning or early afternoon suits it best. A late dose can make it harder to sleep. If you are using it for a demanding day, take it beforehand, as the trials did.

• Thyroid. If you have an overactive thyroid or take thyroid medicine, speak to your doctor first.
• Medicines for mood or blood pressure. Check with your doctor or pharmacist first, including for the older antidepressant classes.
• Parkinson's medicines. Tyrosine can affect how some are absorbed, and one label says not to take them together. Ask your doctor.
• Children. Two powders say they are not for anyone under 15. One powder gives a children's dose on its label of 3 g to 5.4 g a day for ages 2 to 11. That is a lot for a small body, so talk to your GP or paediatrician before giving tyrosine to a child.
• Pregnancy and breastfeeding. Not recommended without medical advice.
• Headache or a racing heart. Some people notice these, or poor sleep after a late dose. A smaller, earlier dose often settles it.

1. Check your thyroid and your medicines first.
2. Pick tablet or powder. A tablet is measured for you. A powder costs less and gives you control of the dose.
3. Read the serve size. Look at the grams in one scoop or teaspoon, not the pack weight. A 1 g scoop and a 5 mL teaspoon are not the same.
4. Work out the cost a serve from the serves in the pack.
5. Look for an AUST L number. A listed medicine can only contain TGA-approved low-risk ingredients, and its maker must hold evidence for what it says the product helps with.
6. Plain or N-acetyl. You may see N-acetyl L-tyrosine elsewhere. It dissolves more easily, but the studies of it were drip studies, where much of the dose passed out in the urine.^{[10] [11]} Our range is plain L-tyrosine.
7. Ask first. Book a Free 10-minute consultation and we will help you decide whether tyrosine suits you.

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Explore more: read our guide to the best supplements for focus and concentration. You can also browse Cognition & Focus Support, Memory & Focus Supplements and Amino Acids. For calmer focus support, see L-Theanine Supplements.

1. Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code, Schedule 29, Special purpose foods (F2015L00463), section S29-18, which caps L-tyrosine at 400 mg in a one-day quantity of a formulated supplementary sports food. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2015L00463 (Accessed: 4 November 2026).
2. Therapeutic Goods (Permissible Ingredients) Determination (No. 3) 2026 (F2026L01382), tyrosine entry, which sets no maximum daily dose for a listed medicine. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2026L01382 (Accessed: 4 November 2026).
3. Jongkees, B.J., Hommel, B., Kühn, S. and Colzato, L.S. (2015) 'Effect of tyrosine supplementation on clinical and healthy populations under stress or cognitive demands: a review', Journal of Psychiatric Research, 70, pp. 50 to 57. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2015.08.014. No funding or competing interests stated.
4. Attipoe, S., Zeno, S.A., Lee, C., Crawford, C., Khorsan, R., Walter, A.R. and Deuster, P.A. (2015) 'Tyrosine for mitigating stress and enhancing performance in healthy adult humans, a rapid evidence assessment of the literature', Military Medicine, 180(7), pp. 754 to 765. doi: 10.7205/MILMED-D-14-00594. No competing interests stated.
5. Thomas, J.R., Lockwood, P.A., Singh, A. and Deuster, P.A. (1999) 'Tyrosine improves working memory in a multitasking environment', Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior, 64(3), pp. 495 to 500. doi: 10.1016/s0091-3057(99)00094-5. Funded by the US Government; no competing interests stated.
6. Shurtleff, D., Thomas, J.R., Schrot, J., Kowalski, K. and Harford, R. (1994) 'Tyrosine reverses a cold-induced working memory deficit in humans', Pharmacology, Biochemistry, and Behavior, 47(4), pp. 935 to 941. doi: 10.1016/0091-3057(94)90299-2. Funded by the US Government; no competing interests stated.
7. O'Brien, C., Mahoney, C., Tharion, W.J., Sils, I.V. and Castellani, J.W. (2007) 'Dietary tyrosine benefits cognitive and psychomotor performance during body cooling', Physiology & Behavior, 90(2-3), pp. 301 to 307. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2006.09.027. Funded by the US Government; no competing interests stated.
8. McAllister, M.J., Martaindale, M.H., Dillard, C.C. and McCullough, R. (2024) 'Impact of L-theanine and L-tyrosine on markers of stress and cognitive performance in response to a virtual reality based active shooter training drill', Stress, 27(1), 2375588. doi: 10.1080/10253890.2024.2375588. Funded by the US Government; no competing interests stated.
9. van de Rest, O., Bloemendaal, M., de Heus, R. and Aarts, E. (2017) 'Dose-dependent effects of oral tyrosine administration on plasma tyrosine levels and cognition in aging', Nutrients, 9(12), 1279. doi: 10.3390/nu9121279. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
10. Magnusson, I., Ekman, L., Wångdahl, M. and Wahren, J. (1989) 'N-acetyl-L-tyrosine and N-acetyl-L-cysteine as tyrosine and cysteine precursors during intravenous infusion in humans', Metabolism, 38(10), pp. 957 to 961. doi: 10.1016/0026-0495(89)90005-x. No funding statement given.
11. Druml, W., Lochs, H., Roth, E., Hübl, W., Balcke, P. and Lenz, K. (1991) 'Utilization of tyrosine dipeptides and acetyltyrosine in normal and uremic humans', American Journal of Physiology, 260(2 Pt 1), pp. E280 to E285. doi: 10.1152/ajpendo.1991.260.2.E280. No funding statement given.