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The amino acids GABA and tryptophan can help to relieve anxiety in children: an interview with Dr. Nicole Beurkens

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Using individual amino acids such as GABA and tryptophan can have an incredible impact on children with anxiety, easing anxiety very quickly. I don’t often write or talk about using amino acids with children and since many of you have asked for more resources for children, today I’m sharing an interview I recently did on this topic on The Better Behavior Show. This is a podcast hosted by my colleague and good friend Dr. Nicole Beurkens.

I share specifics on how Amino acids can help to relieve anxiety in children, together with some case studies.

Dr. Nicole sums up the power of the amino acids beautifully – and this is exactly why my clients love them so much – they take the edge off quickly, provide results and help with overwhelm:

I think that the fact that these [amino acids] can work quickly is really helpful. And as you said, it helps to take the edge off, it helps to reduce the symptoms so then we can more effectively address all of the underlying things. Because often, I’ll have parents say, “Oh, you want me to change the diet and do all these things, I just feel so overwhelmed, my kid is having so many issues, I don’t know how we’re going to do any of that.” And then when you can use things like targeted aminos to help take the edge off the symptoms for the parent and the child, it makes all of that other stuff more doable, I think.

Here are some snippets from one of the stories I share – the wonderful results I had with a 11-year old girl who had been adopted, was diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder and had explosive anger issues. This young girl:

….also had insomnia, so she was not sleeping well at all. She was very fatigued in the day, had really bad anxiety about going to school and loved colored candies and she was a big bread eater.

This family didn’t have much money to spend so I really had to find an affordable solution with the biggest benefits. She was anemic so we addressed that with iron supplements and getting her eating quality grass-fed red meat again and we figured out that gluten was an issue so she went gluten-free and this made a big difference with the outbursts.

The other factor was to figure out if low serotonin was a factor and address this. The big clues were the anger, the insomnia, the anxiety and the sugary cravings:

I was talking to her about the fact that she loved candies and she loved bread, and I said — how would you feel about giving it up? She was fuming with me. She was in a swivel chair and she turned her back to me and she didn’t want to talk about it.

I offered her a 100mg chewable tryptophan to see if it would help with her sugar cravings and the fact that she was furious with me:

“How about trying this amino acid, it’s called tryptophan and it’s chewable and it doesn’t taste bad… and then we’ll talk a little bit later. Don’t worry about what I said earlier.” So I gave her 100mg of chewable tryptophan.

She chewed the tryptophan and within 5 minutes, she turned around, smiled at me and said, “I think I can do it, I’m ready to do it.”

She was calm and smiling, and ready to give up the candies and bread and other gluten-containing products. These 3 interventions – addressing her low iron levels, having her go gluten-free and supplementing with tryptophan – completely turned this little girl’s life around.

Here is the link to the entire transcript of our interview: Amino acids can help to relieve anxiety in children. You can also find the audio interview at this same link or by going directly to iTunes – simply search for “The Better Behavior Show.”

Do listen in and/or read the transcript and learn more about:

  • how I do a trial of the amino acids (this allows for quick results in 5-10 minutes)
  • how I’ve worked with non-verbal children
  • a simple trick for using the unpleasant tasting tryptophan sublingually
  • what low GABA anxiety looks like in a child
  • why ADHD symptoms in children may actually be anxiety (I share another success story in this section)
  • why I use GABA Calm with children and adults (Dr. Nicole uses this GABA product too and loves that it’s sublingual and tastes great)
  • times you may consider using tyrosine or DPA
  • and much more

It was a pleasure to be on the show of someone whose work I deeply respect. Dr. Nicole is a unique combination of clinical psychologist, nutritionist, and special education teacher, and shares these resources for help with improving your child’s behavior naturally: her book Life Will Get Better, blog, and the Better Behavior Naturally Parent Program.  and tune in to my interview and some of the other excellent interviews.

If you’d like to learn more about these supplements, look at my supplements blog here

There is also a “Liquid and powder options for children” section on this blog – with other products you may find useful for children.

I’d also like offer a caution about the 100mg chewable tryptophan This chewable form is both good and bad. It’s good because it’s a nice 100mg of tryptophan per tablet, is chewable, tastes good and is suitable for children and “pixie dust” individuals who need a very small amount and for when doing the initial trial. The bad aspect is that it does contain sugar and is quite sweet. Because you are continually consuming something sweet you may end up over-consuming them if sugar addiction is your issue. I’ve seen the same with children who want to eat them like candy. So, what I do most of the time is use the chewable tryptophan for the trial and then switch to the 500mg tryptophan after that. We did that with the 11-year old with anger issues, anxiety and candy cravings.

One more thing: Lidtke is the only brand of tryptophan I use and recommend because of its quality. I forgot to mention that in our interview.

Have you benefited from using any of the amino acids and then found they also help your child/children?

Trichotillomania: NAC, GABA, tryptophan, inositol and zinc?

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This recent paper reports on a case study with NAC – Trichotillomania: a good response to treatment with N-acetylcysteine

Trichotillomania is considered a behavioral disorder and is characterized by the recurring habit of pulling one’s hair, resulting in secondary alopecia. It affects 1% of the adult population, and 2 to 4.4% of psychiatric patients meet the diagnostic criteria. It can occur at any age and is more prevalent in adolescents and females. Its occurrence in childhood is not uncommon and tends to have a more favorable clinical course.

The scalp, eyebrows and eyelashes are the most commonly affected sites. Glutamate modulating agents, such as N-acetylcysteine, have been shown to be a promising treatment. N-acetylcysteine acts by reducing oxidative stress and normalizing glutaminergic transmission. In this paper, we report a case of trichotillomania with an excellent response to N-acetylcysteine.

In this case report an 11 year-old male student had been pulling his hair out for 6 months. He had a relationship problem with this father and also suffered from asthma and dermatitis. He was started on NAC:

Treatment with N-acetylcysteine was initiated ​​(1200 mg/day for three months). The patient’s outlook improved dramatically, but complete remission was not achieved. We chose to increase the dosage to 1800 mg/day, which resulted in almost complete regrowth.

[From: Trichotillomania: a good response to treatment with N-acetylcysteine]

In this paper from 2009, N-acetylcysteine, a glutamate modulator, in the treatment of trichotillomania: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, it is reported that

  • Fifty individuals with trichotillomania (45 women and 5 men) received 1200-2400 mg/day of N-acetylcysteine or placebo over a 12-week period.
  • 56% percent of patients experienced “much or very much improved” hair-pulling symptoms with N-acetylcysteine use compared with 16% using the placebo, and the improvements were first noted after 9 weeks of supplementation.
  • Those in the N-acetylcysteine group did not experience any adverse events.

As you can see, the results with NAC are excellent but it can take 9 weeks and more before results are seen. For this reason, I would always also assess for low serotonin and low GABA and do trials of tryptophan or 5-HTP for low serotonin and GABA for low GABA. With any compulsive and obsessive behaviors I always consider inositol too and we may add this once the ideal dose of tryptophan has been found.

What is my rationale for recommending GABA, tryptophan, 5-HTP and/or inositol?

  • Since NAC works on reducing oxidative stress and normalizing glutaminergic transmission, GABA may help too and will certainly help to ease any physical anxiety that is being experienced
  • “Recommended first-line therapy for this psychiatric condition is administration of SSRIs” even though their efficacy is not yet proven in children – for this reason I’d recommend tryptophan or 5-HTP
  • Also “according to the psychiatric definition, these patients pull their hair because the act is gratifying and reduces tension, anger, depression and anxiety” (these are all signs of low serotonin and another reason to consider tryptophan or 5-HTP)
  • Because they offer relief right away, within 1-5 minutes

A complete nutritional and functional medicine work-up would be part of the plan too – to address the asthma and dermatitis (in the first paper above) and any other symptoms the person is experiencing and may be a contributing factor.

I’d expect the 56% of improved patients (in the second study above) to go to a much higher percent with all of the above approaches.

When I shared these papers on Facebook I was asked this question from someone who pulls out her eyelashes:

I pull my mascara off what is left of my eyelashes every night. I try my hardest not to do it but I find it impossible once I’ve touched my lashes. I’m about to start taking GABA and I was thinking about taking NAC. Would it be a bad idea to take both these amino acids?

This is my feedback: I always like to do one thing at a time and (as mentioned above) I would do the amino acid questionnaire and a trial of tryptophan and GABA first if the scores are high, and then look at adding NAC. If there are still some obsessive tendencies I would consider adding inositol. I am not aware of any issues with using all of these nutrients at once.

Someone else asked this:

Wouldn’t you deal with the psychological cause of it too – at the same time?

My response: Yes absolutely – if there is a psychological cause. But be aware that sometimes it’s purely nutritional or biochemical.

Another person shared that she only exhibits these behaviors when she’s stressed. Of course, the nutrients mentioned above, plus dietary changes, adrenal support, improving gut health and everything that I educate about, are important for reducing stress.

I also received some success stories. Here is one of them:

I’ve struggled with trichotillomania and dermatillomania (skin picking) for years and years. I underwent hypnosis that was extremely effective. When I added in zinc (after reading your book) the urge is almost completely gone. Thank you!

Keep in mind that zinc is a co-factor for making serotonin and GABA, is important for overall adrenal support and stress reduction, is needed for glutathione production and works as an antioxidant. I’d actually love to see these studies repeated with zinc alone.

And then I received this message from someone else:

I’m messaging you my answer about NAC because it’s slightly embarrassing I’ve always had terrible acne and always have picked at it obsessively and could not stop until I was given some supplements for PCOS which happened to contain NAC. To my surprise I lost the compulsion to pick at my skin, something I had never thought possible!

How wonderful for both of them! I always appreciate feedback like this and have to say nothing is too embarrassing to share (especially if it helps someone else).

Have you used NAC with success – with trichotillomania or dermatillomania (skin-picking) or even nail-biting? Or some other compulsive behavior?

What about GABA or inositol or tryptophan or zinc (or something else) for the same purpose and/or for additional emotional and stress-reducing support?