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Julia Ross

GABA, the calming amino acid: expert opinions

December 11, 2015 By Trudy Scott 67 Comments

gaba-opinions

GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is one of my top nutrient recommendations for clients with physical tension, anxiety, overwhelm and panic attacks. I’m often asked if it really works and is it even worth taking so here is some feedback from practitioners from the Anxiety Summit, all of whom I consider experts on the topic.

Julia Ross, MFT, pioneer in the field of amino acid therapy, my mentor and the author of The Mood Cure and The Diet Cure shares this wisdom about GABA during our interview: Eliminating Anxiety: Amino Acid Therapy and Adrenal Balancing on season 1 of the Anxiety Summit:

Among other things, GABA relaxes the nerves in the muscles in the body. One of the most common kinds of feedback that we get from people who are doing a GABA trial is that it seems to take effect so quickly. This may be because, unlike tryptophan, which has to be converted into serotonin, GABA is the neurotransmitter and the amino acid all in one and requires no conversion.

There isn’t often a GABA discussion when the topic of the blood-brain-barrier doesn’t come up and whether GABA actually does work. Of course Julia addresses this too:

There is a myth going around, based on one old study, that GABA doesn’t cross into the brain, that it doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier. But there are other studies that show that it does [here is a paper published earlier this year], and our clinical experience is overwhelming. This is the most popular trial that we do, the GABA trial, using only 100 mg. It zips right into the brain, and people immediately feel relaxed physically and mentally.

I see this with my clients on a daily basis and I can certainly attest to that personally too. I like to share that I was a “GABA girl”: when I had my terrible anxiety and panic attacks in my late 30s anxiety, GABA worked beautifully for me. It was amazing and life-changing! Zero anxiety and no more panic attacks!  

We are all individual and you may find that theanine works better for you than GABA. Julia talks about this too:

I would say about 15 to 20 percent of people who need this GABA-type relief of the tension and stress, don’t seem to get it from GABA. In those cases, most of them do get it from the amino acid, l-theanine, instead, in our experience.

Dr. Josh Friedman, is dear friend, colleague and integrative psychotherapist who uses amino acids and other nutritional approaches in his practice. I also had the honor of interviewing him on season 1 of the Anxiety Summit. I ask him if he uses GABA with his patients and what he thinks about the naysayers. I just love his answer:

[GABA] is definitely something I use. I am not a biochemist, so I actually don’t really know whether it crosses the blood/brain barrier, nor do I care actually. The first question should be, is it harmful? Are any of these things going to cause harm? And the answer with all the amino acids are no, they’re not going to cause harm, especially when compared to psychiatric medicines. The second question is, does it work? Is it helpful for our patients that we see in our practice?

GABA certainly worked for Meme Grant, GAPS Practitioner, Nutritional Therapist, FNTP, and fellow African. She had anxiety, panic attacks, didn’t enjoy speaking in public, had insomnia and was an emotional eater. I also interviewed her in season 1 and she shared this:

I took GABA for the first time in the afternoon and had no panic attacks that afternoon, and I took one in the evening and I did that for a couple of weeks, and I haven’t seen a panic attack since.

I find that many people do well with a combination of GABA and one or more of theanine, taurine and glycine. All of these are calming amino acids and since we are all unique you may find that one of these combinations work better for you.

Dr. Hyla Cass, M.D. board-certified in psychiatry and integrative medicine and the author of Natural Highs and The Addicted Brain and How to Break Free, talks about this in our interview: The Addicted Brain and How to Break Free   

If someone has anxiety, it’s not a Valium or a Xanax deficiency. It could be a GABA deficiency. And that could be due to stress. So if you’re low in GABA, there are some really cool things to take – theanine, glycine, taurine. The different nutrients work together and when we add them together, it’s more than the sum of its parts. So adding glycine and GABA together is going to give you a better result and you don’t have to use as much as each of the individual ones. So that’s nature’s Valium.

Jonathan Prousky, ND, MSc, editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine and author of Anxiety: Orthomolecular Diagnosis and Treatment shares this in our season 2 interview: Tapering off psychiatric drugs so they do not ruin your life

I have found GABA to be invariably helpful and I don’t really know exactly how GABA works but I know it to be very, very safe and, to me, that is fundamentally important. It’s not associated with any withdrawal, with any tolerance, with any habituation, so people can try it without a lot of concern.

Dr. Prousky uses both regular crystalline GABA and pharmaGABA but prefers the latter. He uses it as part of his SRR model for helping his patients taper of psychiatric drugs such as benzodiazepines. SRR stands for sedation, relaxation and regulation:

  • Sedation: one gets the sedating effects of GABA (he uses pharmaGABA at a dose of 100-200 mg)
  • Relaxation: niacin at a dose of 250-500 mg (immediate-release)
  • Regulation: melatonin (generally about 3mg) to helps regulate the sleep-and-wake cycles

GABA really does work if your anxiety is a result of low GABA levels. As Julia so wisely says:

On a scale of zero to ten, zero is not an unrealistic goal when it comes to anxiety.  It’s really the human potential and GABA [and tryptophan] give us access to it.

So we have many expert opinions but the best way to figure out if GABA works is to try it. You’ll know within 5 minutes if it’s working for you. This is one of the reasons I love the amino acids: you get results right away and it makes you feel less anxious right away, giving you hope while you deal with other factors that may be contributing to your anxiety.

How much GABA do we need and how do we take it? I find that GABA is most effective when taken sublingually. Source Naturals GABA Calm is a great sublingual that contains 125mg GABA, 50mg Glycine, 20mg taurine, some magnesium and 25mg N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine. I also really like Nutritional Fundamentals for Health GABA-T SAP which contains 300mg GABA 300 mg and 150mg theanine. This is pleasant-tasting when opened on to the tongue and seems to be most effective when held there for about 2 minutes.   GABA products that contain 500mg and 750mg are often too much for most of my clients.

You can find these and other GABA products that I recommend here

If you’d like to learn more about GABA from the above experts, you can get details of the Anxiety Summits here 

You’ll also learn about many other nutritional and biochemical causes of anxiety: gut health and the microbiome, hormone imbalance, methylation issues, other low neurotransmitter levels, pyroluria (causing social anxiety), oxalates/gluten (special diets), pyschoneuroendocrinology, heavy metals, poor liver health, adrenal issues like high cortisol, mold, candida, parasites and much more!

Have you used GABA or any of the other calming amino acids and found benefits? Please share what product and how much worked for you?

If you have not tried GABA, were you a naysayer but now feel more inclined to look into this?

Filed Under: Amino Acids, GABA Tagged With: anxiety, anxiety summit, calming amino acid, GABA, Hyla Cass, Julia Ross, panic attacks, Trudy Scott

Amino Acid Precautions

November 16, 2014 By Trudy Scott 123 Comments

There are some precautions to be aware of when taking supplemental amino acids. These are reprinted from The Mood Cure (2004) with permission from Julia Ross. Consult a knowledgeable practitioner before taking any supplemental amino acids if any of the following statements apply to you:

  • React to supplements, foods or medications with unusual or uncomfortable symptoms
  • Have a serious physical illness, particularly cancer
  • Have severe liver or kidney problems
  • Have an ulcer (amino acids are slightly acidic)
  • Have schizophrenia or other mental illness
  • Pregnant or nursing
  • Taking any medications for mood problems, particularly MAO inhibitors, or more than one SSRI

Also, please be aware of the following precautions in regard to specific amino acids and consult with a knowledgeable practitioner if in doubt:

  • Overactive thyroid/Grave’s disease: tyrosine, DLPA
  • Phenylketonuria (PKU): tyrosine, DLPA
  • Melanoma: tyrosine, DLPA
  • High Blood pressure: tyrosine, DLPA
  • Migraine headaches: tyrosine, DLPA
  • Low blood pressure: GABA, taurine
  • Asthma: tryptophan, melatonin
  • Severe depression: melatonin
  • Bipolar disorder: tyrosine, DLPA, glutamine
  • Cancer: there is a question around glutamine (some research shows it’s beneficial some research suggests avoiding it – check with your oncologist if you are currently undergoing treatment)

Amino Acids and SSRIs

If you’re currently taking a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) or monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI), don’t take either 5-HTP or tryptophan unless you’re working with a knowledgeable practitioner. Taking 5-HTP or tryptophan with either of these classes of antidepressants may cause serotonin syndrome, an adverse reaction characterized by agitation, confusion, rapid heart rate, and blood pressure fluctuations. If you experience these symptoms, stop taking 5-HTP or tryptophan immediately. When I have clients who are taking a single SSRI who might also benefit from tryptophan or 5-HTP, I have them take the amino acid six hours apart from their medication—after obtaining approval from their doctor and with their doctor monitoring for adverse reactions. Please do the same. I also recommend the chapter on antidepressants and amino acids in The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to take charge of your Emotions

The above (except for the cancer/glutamine statement) is an excerpt from my book The Antianxiety Food Solution: How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings

Here is a link to the information shared during my interview on the Anxiety Summit season 2: Targeted individual amino acids for eliminating anxiety: practical applications 

The questionnaire is also on the blog – amino acid questionnaire   It has many comments that are invaluable.

Filed Under: Amino Acids, Antianxiety, Anxiety and panic, The Anxiety Summit 2 Tagged With: amino acids, Julia Ross, precautions, the antianxiety food solution, the mood cure, Trudy Scott

The Anxiety Summit – Treating Anxiety in an Integrative Medicine Practice

November 14, 2014 By Trudy Scott 8 Comments

Rebecca Robb, PsyD clinical psychologist, co-founder of an integrative health care practice, Integrative Primary Care Associates, was interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Treating Anxiety in an Integrative Medicine Practice

  • What is integrated medicine
  • What are the complexities of building an integrated medical practice
  • Incorporating neuro-nutrition/amino acids into a psychotherapy practice
  • Case studies using neuro-nutrition/amino acids and psychotherapy for anxiety, depression, panic attacks, family dysfunction, chronic pain, gut distress

Rebecca Robb incorporates neuro nutrition into her psychotherapy practice. This is what she says about neuro nutrition:

From my standpoint, for me, I think I use those words to describe the way in which I use supplements, specifically amino acids although I’m starting to use lithium orotate, and vitamins and supplements, vitamins and omega-3’s, that kind of thing. How I use those supplements and how I use dietary change and adjustment to affect mental health issues or to tweak mental health issues. That’s what I mean by neuro-nutrition.

I will tell you any therapist can describe to you, and I can go on and on, about what it’s like, for example, to be sitting with somebody who’s quite anxious and spending your time on deep breathing exercises and the kind of tools that I have traditionally been offered as a psychologist, and yet here’s this other tool where we can calm the patient’s body. Once they can get more of their physical symptoms under control, the level that we can go at in a psychotherapy realm is very exciting.

People come in to see a therapist and then kind of push you away because it’s too scary to deal with grief, it’s too scary to deal with the hard stuff, they’re afraid to become more depressed or more anxious or more – but when we can get the physiological symptoms more under control, we can go to really deep places and make wonderful progress from the psychological standpoint. I do it, so that I can do my work better; that’s why I’m so attracted to it. I watched people be able to grow more than I could ever imagine them growing with us just using the traditional tools of psychotherapy.

We discussed the amino acid questionnaire created by Julia Ross, author of the The Mood Cure. Here is the link to the blog from my talk: Targeted individual amino acids for eliminating anxiety: practical applications. You can get a copy of the questionnaire from here and read up more information on GABA.  I am a big fan of GABA and find it to be very effective.

Rebecca has found phenibut (and Kavinace – a combo product that contains phenibut) to be more effective than GABA with her patients.  This is one of the case studies that has me concerned about phenibut: Phenibut dependence 

We present a case of a patient who used phenibut to self-medicate anxiety, insomnia and cravings for alcohol. While phenibut was helpful initially, the patient developed dependence including tolerance, significant withdrawal symptoms within 3-4 h of last use and failure to fulfil his roles at work and at home.

Rebecca mentioned two books: the book that covers a paleo style diet Practical Paleo: A Customized Approach to Health and a Whole-Foods Lifestyle by Diane Sanfilippo and The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter–And How to Make the Most of Them Now by Meg Jay, a guide for 20-somethings.

If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com

Filed Under: Amino Acids, Antianxiety, Food and mood, The Anxiety Summit 2 Tagged With: amino acids, anxiety, DPA, GABA, Julia Ross, neuronutrition, Rebecca Robb, the anxiety summit, Trudy Scott, tryptophan

The Anxiety Summit: Eliminating Anxiety – Amino Acid Therapy and Adrenal Balancing

June 20, 2014 By Trudy Scott 39 Comments

julia_ross

This is day 5 of the Anxiety Summit season 1. Julia Ross, MFT, pioneer in the field of Amino Acid Therapy and the author of best sellers The Mood Cure and The Diet Cure, is interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Eliminating Anxiety: Amino Acid Therapy and Adrenal Balancing

  • the role of low serotonin and low GABA in anxiety
  • when to use tryptophan versus 5-HTP
  • the effectiveness of oral GABA supplements
  • how to assess for neurotransmitter deficiencies and the ineffectiveness of urinary neurotransmitter testing
  • the adrenals and excess cortisol: how to correct this cause of anxiety
  • the issues with using benzodiazapines and SSRIs for anxiety

Here are some great gems from my interview with Julia:

On a scale of zero to ten, zero is not an unrealistic goal when it comes to anxiety.  It’s really the human potential and GABA and tryptophan give us access to it

Amino acids are really our only hope for quickly reversing the epidemics not only of anxiety, but of depression, compulsive eating, and obesity

We see these low serotonin symptoms disappear in front of us when we administer capsules of one of the two forms of serotonin fuel, either the amino acid tryptophan or the amino acid 5-hydroxy tryptophan

with GABA there’s a whole body relaxing element, as well as an anxiety-relieving, stress-relieving element

if you or someone that you’re working with is dependent on these kind of drugs [benzodiazapines] to get any kind of decent sleep at night, then you can be pretty sure that cortisol levels are too high

Julia talked about how when it comes to funding drug research to treat depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders, the global pharmaceutical industry prefers to invest its research dollars in cancer, metabolism, autoimmunity, and other disease areas. Here is a link to the article she referred to : Psychiatric Drug Development

We discussed how to assess for neurotransmitter deficiencies and the ineffectiveness of urinary neurotransmitter testing. This is the 2012 study Julia mentioned: Correlation of serotonin levels in CSF, platelets, plasma, and urine

This method of measuring serotonin levels in platelets results in a very strong correlation with levels in CSF (cerebrospinal fluid)

I highly recommend Julia’s wonderful books The Mood Cure: The 4-Step Program to Take Charge of Your Emotions and The Diet Cure: The 8-Step Program to Rebalance Your Body Chemistry and End Food Cravings, Weight Gain, and Mood Swings – Naturally

Be sure to listen to Meme Grant’s success story on Sunday June 22.  She shares how she used amino acids to end her anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia and emotional eating. Tryptophan and GABA made a world of difference for her.

Here is Julia’s Townsend article on Urinary Neurotransmitter Testing

If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com

UPDATE: season 1 summit concluded on Tues 6/24/14 – If you’d like to be on the notification list for future summits just sign up here www.theAnxietySummit.com

Missed this interview or can’t listen live? Or want this and the other great interviews for your learning library? Purchase the MP3s or MP3s + transcripts here and listen when it suits you

Filed Under: Adrenals, Amino Acids, Antianxiety, Anxiety and panic, Depression, The Anxiety Summit Tagged With: adrenals, amino acids, Antianxiety Food Solution, anxiety, cortisol, GABA, Julia Ross, the anxiety summit, Trudy Scott, tryptophan

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