Anyone take GABA??
 

I have recently discovered this. It is an all natural herbal remedy for anxiety and depression. I am not depressed, have been for several years of my life, and been on many different medications. However, I am just an anxious person in general. I have been taking this stuff for 3 or 4 days now, and I have to say I think I am in love! I have such clear thinking, and such a sense of calm. How nice to find something so beneficial that is all natural!

interesting! I'm going to have to ask my dr about it! where do you buy?

I was reading an interesting blog post about this, but darned if I can find it again. Apparently, you can be deficient in GABA, and that is associated with depression, anxiety, seizure disorders, and bipolar disorder. Alcohol triggers GABA production, so a lot of people with those illness are literally self-medicating when they abuse alcohol. Some psychiatric drugs have a similar method of action on GABA.

I'm not on it nor am I depressed, but I'd read it was a useful tool in losing weight, so it's on my list of supps to buy. Apparently it can help curb emotional eating. I'm not guilty of that (yet) but I did take a new job this year in a podunk town and I hate the office I'm in... so I might need something to keep me happy soon...

Yep, it is pretty cool stuff to research. Candice, I bought it at the local health food store! People are using this to treat ADHD, seizure disorders, all kinds of stuff now.

Any updates? :)

I just started taking it. Dr recommended it for sleep issues. She said it will help calm the 'chatter'. The thoughts you may think as lying down like oh I've got to do this, didn't do that, anxiety stuff. I like it, but I like the quicker relief I get from 5htp. But I've only tried GABA for 3 days. My doc says the 3 keys to weight loss diet, excercise and sleep. Sleep is tough for me. Good luck with it.

I've never heard of this.... I have a terrible time sleeping. I wake up around 2-3 and never seem to fall back asleep, or fall back right before I just have to get up. I've tried melatonin and every OTC sleep aid out there and nothing lets me sleep through the night. Wonder if this would work?

Chaotic, I currently take GABA, taurine, inositol, magnesium, B6, L-Glutamine, PicMins minerals from Thorne, and 4-amino-3-phenylbutyric acid HCl for sleeping. The combination seems to work all right. I read that the 4-amino-3...., helps the GABA go where it needs to go in the brain.

As one who has suffered from chronic insomnia, off and on for years, and done a TON of research on all these supplements, I personally would not mess around with any off them. Except for possibly melatonin, and that in much smaller doses than usually given (<1mg). 4-amino-3-phenylbutyric acid (Phenibut) in particular has a terrible reputation--Please be careful with that stuff! You can get wicked rebound insomnia from using this and other supplements, and other unpleasant side effects. Very few people get consistently good results over time with any of these.

Eat a good diet, get good exercise, reduce stress. Realize that you can function on little or no sleep if absolutely necessary, and it won't kill you(even if you feel awful), so there is no good reason to lie in bed and fret about it. Hormone supplementation has been the most helpful for me in the long run.

Nicekitty, thanks for the warning. I do change what I take, sort of rotating the supplements every few weeks. Do you happen to know the biochemical mechanisms which cause the rebound insomnia?

I had terrible insomnia for a couple of years, and HRT fixed it for a while, and then made it much worse! I tried supplements, and they only worked for a little while.

It seems that the sleep thing is so complicated, and changes so much in the course of our sleep, just taking supplements is bound to not do it right... and runs the risk of throwing things further off.

I've done a lot of things to fix my own health crisis, but sleep hygiene turned out to be very important. Just as we have to change a lot of things to fix our diets, so we might have to change a lot of habits to fix our sleep.

Be aware of blue light. Get f.lux for your computer, and/or amber lenses for wearing after sundown. Pick an early bedtime (mine is 10:00 pm) and stick to it. Going to sleep after midnight is just asking for trouble, because routine sleeping in is part of how we screw up our circadian cycle. Exhaustion only works for so long.

Wear a sleep mask. Or, eliminate all sources of light in the bedroom. Honestly, it's easier to find a sleep mask that works for you. DreamEssentials.com has many different styles. The brain can't make melatonin unless you are sleeping in complete darkness, and nobody does.

Address inflammation. Take a walk after dinner, have your CRP checked to see if it's elevated, eliminate all sugar and grains, and start fussing over your gut biome. I put a couple of spoonfuls of grassfed organic yogurt in my morning smoothie, and take a chewable probiotic after lunch. And often skip dinner, because IF helps, too.

Stress kills. If cortisol is messed up, this classically messes up our sleep by letting us get to sleep, but then waking us up at 2 AM and not letting us get back to sleep again. (This is how I was getting 2-4 hours of sleep a night.) I'm using high dose niacin and Zero balancing, others might use meditating or just refusing to let certain things get to them. But stress is what overdoes the cortisol and then our sleep.

Now? I get 8-10 hours a sleep a night and I wake up feeling INCREDIBLE. Because I was willing to do almost anything. And I did :)

WereBear, I'm glad you solved the sleep puzzle. Good to know that niacin can help, too. I'm glad the Zero Balancing is helping you, as well. There are many useful energy balancing techniques available these days.

I'm finding adrenal supplements helpful with solving the cortisol wake-up in the wee hours.

Thanks for reinforcing the sleep hygiene steps. :)

I'm glad Werebear mentioned niacin. I take a good bit of it myself, and it makes a difference. I take it with a B-50 and vitamin C (after reading some of Dr. Andrew Saul's work).

I do take GABA on occasion too, but niacin is daily and if I forget for a week or so, there's a huge difference in stress and sleep. When I resume, I'm back to normal in a couple days. It's like magic for me.

There are some precautions so be sure to research it so you know. :) I found this info when researching to find a website to share with a friend.