Amino Acid For neurological symptoms

Therapeutic Efforts
#343

Interesting. Any idea why taurine has failed you? I read the entire text and according to it basically everything leads up to high glutamate levels which causes GABA imbalance.

Blockquote Furthermore, proper transmission of any neurotransmitters can’t happen without adequate levels of fat and most people are not consuming enough fat in their diet. Additionally, many foods and substances like sugar, whole grains, any high starch food, caffeine, chocolate, artificial sweeteners and flavorings, food additives and dyes can deplete GABA levels or disrupt transmission, so they should be removed from the diet. Grains (including whole grains) can bring about an excitotoxic effect by causing excessive glutamate formation in some people.

Very interesting.

#344

I think Taurine has failed because I’m taking a benzodiazepine that acts on the GABA receptors.

I’ll try again in the morning, at lower dose first, maybe I’ll have more success.

This articles reveals many things and gives many directions to go. I’ve increased my consumption of Aspartame and started taking 10 gr Collagen peptide a day and my sleep has deteriorated. I even had headaches and stomach ache which were things of the past.
According the the article, both Aspartame and Collagen (bone broth) produces Glutamate and lowers GABA. The writter says taking bone broth gives her headache, can cause stomach ache and says GABA regulates body temperature. I’ve been feeling cold lately.

So, knowing my GABA levels have been low since I crashed, it’s interesting to learn I’m having “by the book” reactions to Glutamate increasing substances and can conclude GABA levels are affected. I can see that in my life anyway.

In one of the success stories, the writter noted that all sweeteners were bad and to be avoided (as well as sugar). He was on a low carb diet…

#345

Day 168 Yesterday sleep has sharply declined at 4.5/10. I no longer have a few hours of sleep before I toss around.

It’s actually a good news as I learned the reason why in this article:
https://www.jacobsladdercenter.com/doc/research/other/How-to-Increase-GABA-and-Balance-Glutamate.pdf
I can experience first hand the effect while having all the solutions in my closet.

So the cause of my deteriorated sleep:

Elevated Glutamate (Stimulator) and lower GABA (inhibitor, which was always low to begin with)

The reasons:
Increased consumption of Aspartame (Sweetener)
10 gr Collagen peptide per day (contains Glycine and Glutamine, Glutamate precursors or excitatory)
Strong antibiotic treatment which resulted in killing my guts bio-dome and having bad bacteria replacing it, Candida if it has nything to do with this.

The solution:
Stop Aspartame
Stop Collagen Peptide.
Take pro-biotics
Increase Magnesium and Zinc intake.
Decrease Choline and take a slighly higher dose of Betaine HCL
Increase B12 and B6

And let’s see if the theory holds its ground…Hurrah !

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#346

Day 169 Sleep has increased to 6/10. I’m on the right track. Taurine in the morning seems to make me happy. I’m singing songs in my head !

So I made a condensed version of the article, extracting the do’s and don’ts from it if you want to elevate GABA (get rid of anxiety, insomnia, higher sex drive, joy of living etc…):

Take and do:
• Animal protein and fat to favor GABA and GAD (GAD is the enzyme that makes GABA)
• Ketogenic diet is exceptionally beneficial (damn I knew it helped)
• Mackerel has high GABA
• Eating Organic
• Taurine increase GAD and binds to GABA Rec.
• Magnesium (Also activates GABA Rec.)
• Zinc (no more than 40 mg)
• Probiotics
• Vitamin D (Easy on it)
• Vitamin K
• Vitamin B12 very low dose
• Vitamin B6
• Lithium
• Iodine
• Boron
• Chlorella Blue-Green Algae to detoxify
• 5-HTP or Trytophan
• Keeping blood sugar leveled
• Adequate Sleep

Don’t Take, Don’t do:
• Glycine
• Glutamate
• Glutamine
• Cysteine
• Theanine
• Casein (Cheese)
• Aspartame (sweetener)
• MSG
• Calcium (be careful)
• Easy on Glutathione
• Beware of Candida guts and mouth infection
• Sugar, whole grain, Starch
• Caffeine, Chocolate
• Food that spikes Insulin
• Artificial flavor, color, sweeteners, additives.
• Pesticide, Herbicide, Heavy Metals , perfume, dish soap, laundry soap
• Benzodiazepine
• Hydrolyzed food, creamers, Yeast, Collagen, Carragenine, Guar Gum or any Gum, Malt, Soy.
• Whey protein, Sport Protein Shake, Branch Chain Amino Acids.
• Processed Meat
• Tomato Juice

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#347

Can you describe what your disruption of sleep is like? For me I have 5-6 hours of good sleep meaining Iam absolutely unconscious and then after 5 hours or so I start to have sleep interruptions, so I constantly waking up and falling asleep.

That list seems do-able. Its interesting that going full carnivore is more or less avoiding the entire dont-list

#348

Before my motorbike crash, I went for a month of almost uninterrupted sleep. The interruptions took place in the last 2 hours, were few and far apart and I would go straight back to sleep.

After the crash, I took antibiotics which destroyed my guts bio-dome and I took collagen 10gr a day to heal faster. I ended with the worst sleep I had in months. No full sleep at all, only waking up and tossing for 8 hours with light dreams in between. It’s getting better now that I do the things on the list. It didn’t take long. Collagen in such large dose is a no-go for me if I want to sleep. But basically, the sleep you describe is what I have. Sometimes better, sometimes worst.

I’m doing the carnivore diet for the most part, except I eat some leafy veggies with vitamin K and I eat way more animal saturated fat than a regular carnivore diet. I was losing weight and later added extra fat, I gained some weight and seem to stabilize.

In my opinion, half the population and everyone here would see some improvement in their health if they did carnivore or ketogenic diets. I could be wrong, it’s just an opinion.

#349

Thanks.

So when your sleep rating is higher you have lessinterruptions?

Do you think our sleep issues are primarily due to dysfunctional GABA regulation?

This is what helped you most right? So I should go full keto and stick to the list to regulate GABA.

#350

Yes. 10/10 sleeps means I fall asleep right away, sleep without waking up for 8 hours and then wake up full rested. In my rating system, I lose points the most I wake up and toss at the end of the night. You know what it’s like, you’ve best sleeping 5 hours, and then in 2 seconds, you’re fully awake as if you weren’t sleeping 2 seconds ago.
In my rating, 5 is the minimum at which I can maintain a normal daily life. Below 5, I’m getting worst by the day.

In my opinion, low GABA is the source of many of our symptoms and contributes to low sex drive. I believe it’s the reason for bad sleep.

And yes, Carnivore diet with leafy veggies and lots of animal fat is what helps me the most. The rest just does adjustments to what symptoms I have left after the diet.

I believe if you do the list and go full keto, you will improve. Read the article though. It’s more complete. You’ll notice how many low GABA symptoms are in the check list of pfs symptoms, like speech slur, feeling cold, being thirsty all the time and of course spasm, anxiety and insomnia.

#351

Hey @Ozeph … I have been reading about oxaloacetate. It is used to lower Glutamate in epilepsy patients as well as some alzheimers patients. It scavengest glutamate from your blood outside the brain and then your brain pumps glutamate from the brain to the blood stream to balance out blood levels… this lowers glutamate levels inside the brain. I’m wondering if this would improve sleep. I think its possible our GABA isnt actually low but we have to much glutamate for the GABA to neutralize. Benegene makes a supplement for oxaloacetate that you can buy on amazon. Maybe its worth a try. I’m considering trying it myself.

#352

I have an interesting theory: Do you think that the excitotoxins in different foods is causing GABA-dysfunctoin via glutamate and thats the cause why pfs sufferes have certain food allergies? So we arent allergic to food in a immunologic way but we arent able to clear excitotoxins from our system which are damaging our nerve cells.

#353

GABA is definitely low. Most of the symptoms of low GABA are on the pfs symptom list.
Gaba is regulated by Allopregnanolone which has been shown to be very low post crash. Progesterone is transformed by 5-ar and 3a-HSD into ALLO. I believe 3a-HSD gets hit by fin as well as 5-ar.

No matter what happened, both ALLO and GABA are low for sure.

One symptom of low GABA is high Glutamate because it’s not kept in balance by GABA anymore. That causes inflammation and lowers Glutathione, our main anti-inflammatory. So the food allergies we had but tolerated becomes exacerbated. On top of that, we become susceptible to Glutamate inducing food since Glutamate is out of control. Hence controlling that type of food is beneficial for both these reasons which is very well done with a carnivore / ketogenic diet. I knew the diet worked, but until now I didn’t know why.

Oxaloacetate could be tried, but beware, GABA is made from Glutamate via GAD enzyme and vitamin B6.
I will not try it. It too complicated, expensive and takes too much time to get stuff from Amazon to Thailand.

Taurine increases GAD and act as a secondary regulator of GABA which, in the absence of ALLO, is of good help. Taurine is also an inhibitory neurotransmitter and lowers all excitatory ones.

So altogether, I’m limiting what could create extra Glutamate and I’m adding Taurine, and vitamin B6 to my supplements to create more GABA.

I’ve been taking probiotics daily as a Candida infection in the guts (after taking antibiotics) could also be the cause.

Sleep is improving. Last night was 7/10. I think I’ll be back to normal (8-9 / 10) soon. That’s 6 hours of sound sleep with some barely waking up and turning but going straight back to sleep for the extra 2-3 hours.

On another note, I started having body odors on Tribulus Terrestris as well as increased sex drive. That’s new. Before only Horny Goat Weed would get me body odors. (I cycle those two plus Pine Pollen). So another switch that got turned on. Nice !

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#354

My understanding so far of Glutamate and GABA is this. Glutamate is the exists in our bodys in a MUCH higher ratio than GABA. I could be wrong but its something staggering like Glutamate to GABA is like 100 to 1 or even 1000 to 1. In a couple studies I read, MRS scans found no difference in GABA levels between insomniacs and the control group. They did however notice a big difference in Glutamate levels in the brain. Glutamate converts to Glutamine which then is converted to GABA. I would think that its possible that Glutamine is converting to GABA in normal levels but that the GLutamate density is so high its just crushing all the GABA. So in taking you flush excess glutamate from the blood and from the brain… bringing the Glutamate to GABA ratio back to a level where they can work in balance.

The other possibility is that the enzyme that converts Glutamine to GABA is dysfunctional or our immune system is now suppressing that enzyme…essentially allergic to it. That would be a much more difficult situation to address.

It seems a lot of people say their sleep improved after doing a water fast for several days or even weeks. This would probably tank your glucose and glutamate which might explain the improvement in sleep.

I also wonder if some of the other neurological symptoms people experience are due to excess glutamate. There are several studies that show children with autism who have sensory issues with loud noises and bright light show an excess in glutamate. They have even shown glutamate to be a catalyst for Epileptic patients and by lowering glutamate patients had less seizures.

Many PFS sufferers start on a protein rich diet in an effort to raise T. I believe high protein diets are also high in glutamate. (red meats, etc… ) @Go_Faster_Sonic was able to beat insomnia by changing to a raw food diet and I wonder if that might have been related to lowering glutamate. This is ALL speculation of course.

Anyway… I’m volunteering myself to try the Oxaloacetate for 30 days. I take NO other supplements at this point except a probiotic which I will stop while I’m taking the Oxaloacetate. It seems to have almost no side effects so I think it will be worth a shot to improve insomnia.

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#355

Glutamine is the most common amino acid in the body. It is my understanding that glutamine transforms into glutamate, which, via the GAD enzyme transforms into GABA.

But honnestly, I’m more interrested in results than their explanations. Tell me how it goes with this new substance you found. No doubt excess glutamate causes insomnia.

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#356

Could a simple GABA supplement improve some neurological symptoms then?

Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/NOW-GABA-750-100-Capsules/dp/B0013OVZAG?th=1

#357

If GABA passes through the brain barrier, it means you’ve got a leaky brain barrier. Healthy brain barrier will not let it through.

However, there’s GABA receptors in other parts of the body that may be affected.

You can try it. If it does something, good or bad, your brain barrier is leaky, if it does nothing than it’s not.

#358

So even if it improves some symptoms, it’s not all that positive since it could be an indication of a leaky brain barrier?

Did you take/are you taking a GABA supplement?

#359

No. I tried and felt bad on it.

But I am looking for ways to get GABA on track naturally.

#360

Very little of GABA supplements cross the blood brain barrier (BBB). Its possible that a GABA supplement might help with some muscle twitches but I’m not sure. Phenebut is a GABA supplement that crosses the BBB. It is GABA bound with a Phenyle ring (or something like that) …so that it is molecularly small enough to cross the BBB. I know that Phenebut improves some of my head pressure and muscle twitches. Tolerances build quickly and you have be very careful with Phenebut. You can only take it once or twice a week and even then you might build a tolerance depending on the person.

#361

From what I read… Glutamine is originally synthesized from Glutamate. Glutamine can be synthesized back to Glutamate by the body if needs Glutamate for some reason. I believe NAC helps to regulate this modulation and some people here have experimented with NAC.

My Oxaloacetate shows up today. I’ll start my test this weekend.

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#362

Any suggestions regarding how to get GABA on track naturally?