I have been taking GABA from the health food store for 6 days. My stomach and ribcage are no longer spontaneously clenched. I am more relaxed and calm, and have a spontaneous desire to stand up straight and even to exercise! I can breathe more deeply. I feel more optimistic and positive.
Six days ago I took the first dose at night. Usually when I wake up and my brain engages, my stomach and ribcage become clenched. If I consciously relaxed, they would be clenched again within seconds. The first morning after taking the GABA, when I woke up and my brain engaged, I noticed that my stomach and ribcage were not clenched. This has been the case for 6 days - I have been unclinched. My lungs expand easier, and I do not feel like I have a weight pressing in on my breastbone giving me a concave chest.
I am taking half a 750 mg capsule morning and night. Previously I had taken a whole capsule and it made me depressed immediately. I had only taken 1 capsule for one day on two different occasions. Then I decided to take a cue from those that take Neurontin and start small and work up. I had my first botox injection October 10. Although my voice improved, the clenching did not. When I started taking GABA my voice volume increased. I don't know if this is the natural cycle of the botox or if the GABA affected it. But I feel the GABA is helping my voice and I know it is helping my breathing and I have a sense of calm confidence that I did not have before.
I researched more and found that Baclofen (a drug also used for SD) is a GABA agonist (helper). The drug Neurontin (gabapentin) which many SDers are praising, is very close structurally to GABA. GABA is a well-known inhibitor of presynaptic transmission in the Central Nervous System. GABA (gamma amino butyric acid) is available in the health food store.
Could it be that taking GABA would be as good as taking Neurontin? Drug companies continually search for new uses for their products, and users say that Neurontin is effective. But what drug company would have a vested interest in making it known that GABA from the health food store was effective? Could it be that we are deficient in GABA for whatever reason - chemical imbalance, stress, depression? - or that we have a higher need for GABA? With so few cases of SD, what financial incentive is there to find a cure? How many simple measures have not been studied?
I am not a doctor. I was a medical research assistant for 10 years and know how to read literature. I am simply passing on my personal experience with taking GABA.
Micki
Re: Micki, GABA is helping breathing
Has your voice improved enough to forego Botox?
Re: Micki, GABA is helping breathing
My voice is great right now. But it's only been a month since I had the botox injection. Only time will tell.
Research - results of low GABA
The below was taken from an explanation of GABA's role in epilepsy. To read the entire writeup, go to the attached link. Nerve cells, or neurons, communicate by releasing neurotransmitters. These chemical messengers flow onto other neurons that act as receivers. The neurotransmitter attaches to a slot on the neuron, or receptor site. Once attached different neurotransmitters either trigger "go" signals that allow the message to be passed on to other cells or produce "stop" signals that prevent the message from being forwarded. GABA is the most common message-altering neurotransmitter in the brain.
The brain has to keep tight control of this message delivery system to avoid communication chaos. A single receiving neuron has thousands of receptor sites and receives many different messages and passwords at once. Each neuron adds up the incoming signals and determines whether or not to pass the information along to other cells. Enzymes help out by patrolling the brain and eliminating excess message-halting GABA to ensure a balance in communication.
Sometimes, however, the system crashes. Normally each neuron affects only a limited number of other cells. If a sufficient amount of GABA is lacking, however, the system goes out of whack, and tens of thousands of neurons send messages rapidly, intensely and simultaneously, resulting in a seizure. The enzymes that normally work to keep GABA at a satisfactory level may, under some abnormal conditions, actually trigger the message onslaught by keeping the levels of GABA too low.
Related link: http://www.sfn.org/briefings/epilepsy.html
Re: GABA is helping breathing
Gaba sounded good to me, so I started it this week. Been taking two of the 750 a day and I think it is helping me, although I haven't been diagnosed that long and don't know for sure. It seems to help me relax, though, is that possible?
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