What is GABA?
I’m looking at older post here in the forum.
Someone here said to take a form of supplement to stabilize the GABA deficit.
I’ve notice when I took reservatol I never felt much better.
So I’m thinking taking L-Theanine tonight.
Is GABA something I should worry about?
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this is what its risks are and what it is.al i know sorry for lack of information.
I take GABA for good sleep and for a fat burning effect. I take 2000 mg at night, works good for me…but I take at the pdoc’s suggestion and monitoring, you should do the same.
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It’s an inhibitory neurotransmitter. Benzodiazepines and alcohol are primarily gabanergic.
Research has shown abnormalities in people which gaba systems in people diagnosed with schizophernia. This research both of gaba systems and L-Theanine is still in it’s infancy.
Don’t get your hopes up if the effect size was large then there would be a lot of funding and interest in L-Theanine. Most of these things are either not effective at all or don’t move the needle that much when the do. If they worked really well it would probably be easy enough to definitively say if they worked. As the don’t make a big difference it’s hard to measure if they work or not. That’s why they’re considering supplements/nutraceuticals and not medicines. That’s basically what your expectations should be. Same holds true for most alternative therapies.
Memantine, Celecoxib & NAC are really the only things we have right now which show some promise. There is stuff which targets other pathways but they’re still in drug development.
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I tried GABA and got dyskinea tendencies on high dose 750mg. I think I researched that second generation AP’s inhibit or block GABA, while first generation AP’s don’t. This is supposedly the reason it’s less likely to get tardive dyskinea on second generation AP’s.
Supplementing with GABA could possibly give involuntary movements. However when I supplemented with a low dose of 250mg it went ok, but didn’t really feel any benefits. I’ve been taking olanzapine. GABA might work differently for everyone though based on body chemistry and what AP you are taking.
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I took GABA and had a setback. Had higher anxiety.
My question is
I took reservatol then somone mentioned i feel good because of GABA in my body system.
Be careful with those supplements. I have tried them all. Most of them do nothing but some made me worse.
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Im just taking reservatol
Ive read GABA goes in the brain
So is reservatol safe? Or other related supplements?
GABA is the nervous systems natural inhibitory neurotransmitter. It slows down your nervous system.
Benzodiazepines work by affecting GABA and that’s why they calm anxiety and put you to sleep.
I’ve read GABA supplements can’t cross the blood brain barrier so are ineffective. I tried them and they had no effect on me. I take clonazepam (benzo) and it’s very effective at putting me to sleep.
I’ve found l-theanine calming, and helpful with mild anxiety. When combined with caffeine I feel relaxed but alert.
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Idk about that. Benzos help reduce tardive dyskinesia and are sometimes prescribed for it. They work through gaba
I found this from google. It appears Gaba agonist drugs can treat Tardive Dyskinea, but Gaba in itself can contribute to tardive dyskinea.
GABA agonist drugs have been used to treat tardive dyskinesia but have intense sedative properties and may make mental health or psychotic symptoms worse. GABA agonist drugs include baclofen, progabide, sodium valproate, and tetrahydroisoxazolopyridinol (THIP).17. apr. 2018
Gamma‐aminobutyric acid agonists for antipsychotic‐induced tardive dyskinesia - PMC (nih.gov)
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is a common neurotransmitter in the brain, and GABA-ergic neurons are thought to interact with antipsychotic medications, contributing to side effects such as tardive dyskinesia.29. sep. 2020
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There are also papers which have a yet to be disproven gaba theory of schizophrenia which works indirectly via ndma. My inkling is that gaba isn’t going to be any kind of panacea for schizophrenia. All kind of sedatives would have been trialed in people. One thing gabanergics are good at is making you feel calm. A lot of the worry associated with paranoia comes from a heightened state of alertness. Basically benzos don’t work for positive symptoms but they can make you less worried about them which subjectivly can help a lot. My personal experience has been that anexity and paranoia are interlinked.
As @Mr_Hope points out gaba can competing effects. This is a good illustration that you don’t necessarily want to think of thing as more is better.
@Noop_12 There would be an optimum level of gaba in your system and either increasing or decreasing that depends on where your baseline is at. It is also context dependent, at times you might need more or less. If it makes you sedated that might make it useful for sleep but not useful in the morning. Xanax for example can have a half life lasting 26 hours. If you have anxiety all the time then maybe having more gaba might be useful. These things a finite and good or bad is context dependent to the individual and situation. Additionally everyone is going to respond to drugs differently. A lot of the time what you’re looking is aiding the biological system maintain homeostatic balance where this balance has been perturbed by illness.
Here is a snapshot from conversation that really helped me reconceptualise the good vs bad concept. But in short the answer is complicated and we basically don’t know.
I would encourage you to speak to your doctor about gaba they are best placed to give you advice re good vs bad, as they will actually have a good grasp and understand of your unique situation and how it would effect you in context.
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I took a GABA supplement once and I got very sleepy. So it must cross the blood brain barrier right?
Isnt depakote a gaba inhibitor?
It could just be a coincidence that you got sleepy when you took it if just once. You need a larger sample size to draw a conclusion. If you took it 100 times and got sleepy every time that would be better evidence that it’s doing something
The vast majority of information on the internet says it does not cross the BBB.
Some that say it does also say it is removed from the brain much quicker than it enters.
However there are websites that say other supplements apparently help GABA to cross the BBB.
There is also the enteric nervous system (gut). GABA may be effecting people that way when you take the supplement.
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Interesting. I didnt know that, i guess there is a different mechanism of action of gaba by itself. I used to be on clonazepam to help with my td symptoms, i stopped taking it because it had negative effects on my mental health as i became dependent from not even daily dosing and went through withdrawal. Ive been taking gaba lately just as part of my supplement stack. Maybe i will stick to l-theanine only now and i dont want to risk an interaction. My td comes and goes and is worse at certain times like after taking meds at night or when i am tired
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There are some mainstream products now. With Nature Made Wellblends there is a gummy with Gaba and L-Theanine. Nature Made also offers Melatonin with L-Theanine.
Olly offers Goodbye Stress which includes L-Theanine, Ashwagandha, Lemon Balm, and Gaba. They also offer a sleep formula with magnesium, lemon balm, L-Theanine, and melatonin. Neuriva offers Sleep Plus with L-Theanine, Ashwagandha, and Melatonin. So there have been some available products in store retail, and also some advertising.
Nature’s Bounty offers Anxiety and Stress Relief with Ashwagandtha, and L-Theanine. Also Active Mind with L-Theanine, Choline, and Caffeine. Sleep3 is a blend with L-Theanine, and then chamomile, lemon balm, lavender, and valerian.
I was then taking:
One a day multivitamin
L-Theanine 100 mg
Nature’s Bounty Anxiety and Stress Relief w. 200 mg L- Theanine
Magnesium
Olly Sleep w. 100 mg L-Theanine.
It seems like then this has a lower cost as Horbach L-Theanine.
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Some meds work on GABA like Depakote
I remember taking GABA many years ago for what they thought was just anxiety. Noticed it really only worked for 20 minutes