Glad the cake metaphor is taking off!
This is just what you said earlier this week to me Hat, and it makes perfect sense. Not forgetting that the effective window of these amino supplements can be very small - as little as 2-3 hours, despite sources stating half lives of 8-10 hours. I also noticed a "come down" after 3 hours on 5-HTP, which wasn't favourable. Consistency is the key here to reach stability and build confidence, so unless I was going to take a dose of 5-HTP five times a day, I couldn't see much progress with it. Typically, tyrosene has a shorter effective window than 5-HTP.
Been reading about Sodium Butyrate and it is interesting - all about the inflammation of the frontal cortex. This much is fact. Those suffering depression have inflammation of the frontal cortex. This is a deviant from the normal position of the brain, and therefore, regardless of its efficacy, returning it to normal is the correct procedure. It certainly needs more research at the present time, but if you opt for this approach HRT, please please let us know how it goes.