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Hi im such a long time in search about a good supplement/nootropic to increase safe and "long term" GABA levels in my brain. A lot of supplements i came across did work well by modulating and boosting GABA but later they seem to make everything worse.
Im fine if i can increase the level slowly, for example 3-5% per week would be absolutely fine for me. But it shouldnt be a fall - downregulation after stopping usage.
Unluckily its not as easy to work on low gaba and high glutamate like on low Serotonin and low Dopamine. On both L-Tryptophan (Serotonin) and L-Tyrosine (Dopamine) can help to balance deficiency safe. Glutamine as precursor for GABA and Glutamate according a lot of sources can make GABA/Glutamate balance even worse. GABA supplements seem not to be able to cross blood brain barrier to increase gaba level in brain.
Many gabaergics seem to work on Gaba receptors as agonists aswell PAMs which seem lead to short term increase but longterm decrease of gaba level like Phenibut(receptor agonist)...
I tried Ashwagandha (PAM) and got strong withdrawals after 1-2 months.
I made a list about a few Supplements:
-Probiotics (may increase multiple major neurotransmitter like serotonin which i dont really like)
-Valerian
-Lavendar
-Magnolia officinalis
-Taurine
-Holy Basil
-Passion Flower
-Chamomile
-St John's Wort (does increase all major neurotransmitter)
-Scutellaria baicalensis
-Lemon Balm
-Theanine (seem to increase multiple Neurotransmitter)
Hi im such a long time in search about a good supplement/nootropic to increase safe and "long term" GABA levels in my brain. A lot of supplements i came across did work well by modulating and boosting GABA but later they seem to make everything worse.
Im fine if i can increase the level slowly, for example 3-5% per week would be absolutely fine for me. But it shouldnt be a fall - downregulation after stopping usage.
Unluckily its not as easy to work on low gaba and high glutamate like on low Serotonin and low Dopamine. On both L-Tryptophan (Serotonin) and L-Tyrosine (Dopamine) can help to balance deficiency safe. Glutamine as precursor for GABA and Glutamate according a lot of sources can make GABA/Glutamate balance even worse. GABA supplements seem not to be able to cross blood brain barrier to increase gaba level in brain.
Many gabaergics seem to work on Gaba receptors as agonists aswell PAMs which seem lead to short term increase but longterm decrease of gaba level like Phenibut(receptor agonist)...
I tried Ashwagandha (PAM) and got strong withdrawals after 1-2 months.
I made a list about a few Supplements:
-Probiotics (may increase multiple major neurotransmitter like serotonin which i dont really like)
-Valerian
-Lavendar
-Magnolia officinalis
-Taurine
-Holy Basil
-Passion Flower
-Chamomile
-St John's Wort (does increase all major neurotransmitter)
-Scutellaria baicalensis
-Lemon Balm
Anti-glutamate
-PQQ
-Resveratrol
Can any of you help me with my search ?
I don't know if I can help but you are onto the same search I am involved in. It's been a few years since I realized that I must be deficient in GABA but I can't find the answer as to what to do about it.
When I would go to a dr for insomnia, they would always try to push trazadone on me. I think trazadone affects serotonin. Apparently serotonin isn't the problem, it's GABA. The trazadone just makes me dizzy and sick. So now I take a benzo, not very willingly, but it does make me sleep and I don't get addicted or have withdrawal. It affects GABA but not in the long term, unfortunately.
As for your (all too familiar,lol) list--Valerian does absolutely nothing for me although it's supposed to affect GABA. I've tried it many times over the years. Zilch. Taurine does nothing too. Holy basil? Do not know. Passion flower used to work a little bit but not anymore. Chamomile does nothing. St Johns Wort--I think it's one of those risky things to take so I've never tried it. Never heard of scutellaria baicalensis. Lemon balm does nothing. Other things that were supposed to work but did nothing are Kava Kava, 5 htp,
theanine, and vitamin B6.
Never. tried PQQ or resveratrol.
There's something called PharmaGaba that supposedly works and it's popular in Japan. I read a scientific article about it, tried it, and nothing happened. There was something in it, I think, that was supposed to help it cross the blood brain barrier but it didn't work in my case. I did try GABA from some place that I had to send away to and they had enhanced it with something to make it work and it DID work! However, I had to take a ton of it (scary) and when it finally kicked in and I finally got to sleep, I was groggy most of the next day too so I'm afraid to try it again.
The place that I ordered it from is into nootropics, a field that I don't know much of anything about and I'm not too sure anybody knows much about. So I'm not much help but I am definitely interested because I must be GABA deficient. I even found out that many years ago I was on a medication that is known to lower GABA! But how to get it back again? Or if it's not a matter of getting it back, how to get it working again?
That's why I'm scared to fool around with things like this. The doctors don't know anything about it and I just get more and more confused the more I read about it.
Last edited by in_newengland; 11-20-2020 at 03:07 PM..
Maybe you already know about this place. They apparently are conducting research and coming up with decent products, however I am scared to use them because I have no doctor to guide me. It's unfortunate because it came so close to solving my insomnia, yet since so little is known, I'm afraid to touch the stuff again.
I provided the link because it includes information that could be valuable and there are explanations of how it all works and how they have modified it so that it really does (and I can vouch for that!) cross the blood brain barrier.
Maybe you can glean some information or contact them and get some help. I don't know. Like so much else, we are waiting for science to catch up with our needs.
So now I take a benzo, not very willingly, but it does make me sleep and I don't get addicted or have withdrawal.
As for your (all too familiar,lol) list--Valerian does absolutely nothing for me although it's supposed to affect GABA. I've tried it many times over the years. Zilch. Taurine does nothing too. Holy basil? Do not know. Passion flower used to work a little bit but not anymore. Chamomile does nothing. St Johns Wort--I think it's one of those risky things to take so I've never tried it. Never heard of scutellaria baicalensis. Lemon balm does nothing. Other things that were supposed to work but did nothing are Kava Kava, 5 htp,
theanine, and vitamin B6.
Never. tried PQQ or resveratrol.
There's something called PharmaGaba that supposedly works and it's popular in Japan.
Benzos do work on Gaba receptor as agonists i think. The problem with those is at the beginning they might work great but at some time may you can build up tolerance -> you need higher dosage for the same effect. When stopped immediately after prolonged use you might have withdrawals as result of downregulation.
Its the problem the boys in reddit have with phenibut i think. Im not a big fan about benzos, because i think the best solution is to fix deficiencys long term instead of addiction to benzos. I had some withdrawals already from prolonged use of Ashwagandha which in comparison should be lighter and better in terms of withdrawals and i dont want to use it ever again =).
May benzos can work if used correctly i dont know, i never used any synthetical drug so far for gaba. Ashwagandha i used with high dosages of 1-2g ~3% daylie withouth cycling for 3 months, but at the same time with Theanine, maybe that was the problem. Cycling may help, i dont know.
Did you used standardized Valerian ? May you got some with low active compounds. Herbs can be very great in my opinion. Its on my list of "try next". But it should work similar like Ashwagandha, so i dont know if its worth trying.
About Taurine i aswell didnt feel alot, tried dosages between 1-2g.
Lemon Balm is one of the most interesting on this list in my opinion, because it is able to reduce Gaba transminase which can lead to higher availability of gaba in the brain. In theory exactly what i was searching but somehow i dont felt a lot of improvement on a "not standardized" product. I even felt something like a light withdrawals after 1 month, not sure about. I dont know.
PQQ should be able to stop excess glutamate, weak Link to examin research
Resveratrol is one im very interested to try. Should stop excess of glutamate aswell, weak Link to examine research The "clue" with Resveratrol seem to be that excess glutamate get converted back into glutamine wich makes room for more gaba and glutamate.
It maybe can be a way to solve low GABA by decrease Glutamate, i am working on.
PharmaGaba looked nice, but i cant get it where i live.
Yeah its just hard, to find something nice and safe. I aswell have planed to use Glutamine + everything necessary to conversion into gaba for a few weeks, maybe that can be the solution. I dont know.
Benzos do work on Gaba receptor as agonists i think. The problem with those is at the beginning they might work great but at some time may you can build up tolerance -> you need higher dosage for the same effect. When stopped immediately after prolonged use you might have withdrawals as result of downregulation.
Its the problem the boys in reddit have with phenibut i think. Im not a big fan about benzos, because i think the best solution is to fix deficiencys long term instead of addiction to benzos. I had some withdrawals already from prolonged use of Ashwagandha which in comparison should be lighter and better in terms of withdrawals and i dont want to use it ever again =).
May benzos can work if used correctly i dont know, i never used any synthetical drug so far for gaba. Ashwagandha i used with high dosages of 1-2g ~3% daylie withouth cycling for 3 months, but at the same time with Theanine, maybe that was the problem. Cycling may help, i dont know.
Did you used standardized Valerian ? May you got some with low active compounds. Herbs can be very great in my opinion. Its on my list of "try next". But it should work similar like Ashwagandha, so i dont know if its worth trying.
About Taurine i aswell didnt feel alot, tried dosages between 1-2g.
Lemon Balm is one of the most interesting on this list in my opinion, because it is able to reduce Gaba transminase which can lead to higher availability of gaba in the brain. In theory exactly what i was searching but somehow i dont felt a lot of improvement on a "not standardized" product. I even felt something like a light withdrawals after 1 month, not sure about. I dont know.
PQQ should be able to stop excess glutamate, weak Link to examin research
Resveratrol is one im very interested to try. Should stop excess of glutamate aswell, weak Link to examine research The "clue" with Resveratrol seem to be that excess glutamate get converted back into glutamine wich makes room for more gaba and glutamate.
It maybe can be a way to solve low GABA by decrease Glutamate, i am working on.
PharmaGaba looked nice, but i cant get it where i live.
Yeah its just hard, to find something nice and safe. I aswell have planed to use Glutamine + everything necessary to conversion into gaba for a few weeks, maybe that can be the solution. I dont know.
Resveratrol has been on my list of things to try for a long time but I never get around to it. Nothing seems to work anyway so I guess that's why I don't get too excited about any of them anymore. I have just about given up and have just sunk to the level where I'll take the benzos and be careful about it. I take them for a few nights and then have a night with gabapentin instead. Gabapentin really makes for a beautiful sleep for me and I feel energetic the next day. Supposedly it's a pain killer. Go figure, lol. I've never had any withdrawal symptoms from the benzos but I know you're probably supposed to. With me, they just put me to sleep.
PharmaGaba didn't work--it didn't cross the blood brain barrier, I guess. The place I bought it was the Vitamin Shoppe, but probably you shouldn't even bother. BTW, Ashwagandha had no effect on me either.
I, too, would like to fix the problem rather than having to keep taking some kind of pill all the time. I read about amino acids quite a bit because I think they may be at the root of the problem. One time when I had fibromyalgia, an amino acid completely cured it. That was quite by accident. After that I went and got tested for amino acids but it didn't show any deficiencies and just didn't make much sense in light of what I was trying to accomplish.
It almost seems to me that this is something to do with how our bodies use what we are taking in, rather than *what* we take in, at least to some extent. For instance, a long time ago I was tested and found extremely deficient in magnesium yet no matter how much magnesium they gave me, even by injection, I was still extremely deficient. Maybe my body just can't metabolize it. Ever since those days I have taken magnesium by mouth but I have never been re-tested.
As for standardized products, I try to take supplements that top quality such as Solaray or Source Naturals or Pure Encapsulations, etc. Most have been tested and are on the list in Consumer Reports and elsewhere. The valerian root was high quality but over the years when I have taken it, it did absolutely nothing. There is something else going on. I wish I knew what it is.
I think you have to fix the problem in your gut where you have GABA receptors which would increase GABA receptors in the brain (gut-brain axis). Adding probiotics to your regimen was probably a good first step. Herbs and drugs are best suited for temporary insomnia.
Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium are noteworthy as GABA-producing strains. There may be others. Sorry I don't have time right now to look up and link research findings but there is a lot out there about this specifically. You may have read some already. Real fermented foods would be good too, but at least avoid or restrict processed foods and try to focus on whole foods. Also important is to include sufficient prebiotic foods to support and grow the bacteria. A permanent diet/lifestyle change is likely required. There is no supplement or drug that will repair the gut microbiome, but taking a probiotic with GABA-producing strains while one makes those changes might help kickstart the gut healing process.
Hi, I can recommend GABA not allowed most practical way to have GABA because planting probiotics and having the right microbiome in your guts is too hard, too long and too expensive for most of the people.
Last edited by in_newengland; 11-29-2020 at 03:30 PM..
Thanks guys for your interest.
At the moment im trying to increase GAD supporting suppliments.
Aswell i tried Glutamine, it can be useful for the whole glutamine -> glutamate -> gaba -> Glutamate cycle. But it can make everything worse by increasing glutamate. Maybe using a gaba transminase inhibitor together with glutamine can do the trick + even an gad supporting herb for the full combo.
I dont know if changing the supplier of Gaba will do a lot of difference, but who knows. If im running out and decide to restock i can give edited a try.
About probiotics, i personally think its a good idea to work on microbiome. Sounds more like fixing root problems than fight for symptoms, but i dont like the idea to swallow a lot of living bacteria every day (i think i dont trust the manufractor).
Last edited by in_newengland; 11-29-2020 at 03:33 PM..
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