nursing

GABA and taurine reduce high blood pressure: the anxiety connection and what do when on blood pressure medication or if blood pressure is already low

September 1, 2023 By Trudy Scott 18 Comments

Gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) is an amino acid that used as a supplement to help ease physical anxiety and help with insomnia, and a host of other symptoms ranging from pain to throat spasms (you can see the most recent list of symptoms here)

Research shows that GABA lowers blood pressure too. This has implications if you have high blood pressure/hypertension and are currently taking blood pressure medication or if you happen to have low blood pressure. The latter is already a precaution I review with my clients i.e. to watch the use of GABA when blood pressure is low. But we do need to add another precaution to cover folks already on blood pressure medications. Read on to learn about these precautions and what they may mean for you, and to read about the GABA (and taurine) hypertension research. And the fact that anxiety is common when you have high blood pressure and can actually be a driving factor.

This paper, United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Safety Review of Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA), published in 2021, reports the results of a 4-week study that investigated the tolerability of GABA supplementation in mildly hypertensive but otherwise healthy adults:

The authors first established an optimum dose in mildly hypertensive subjects (SBP/systolic blood pressure between 130 and 180 mm Hg) who were randomized to receive oral doses of GABA at 0 (placebo), 20, 40, or 80 mg/day for 4 weeks.

An intake of 80 mg/day of GABA was associated with a significant reduction of the BP in adults with mild hypertension, and no adverse effects were reported.

A subsequent study evaluated long-term effects of GABA at 80 mg daily versus placebo in mildly hypertensive subjects for 8 weeks:

At the end of the 8-week study, SBP [systolic blood pressure i.e. the top number] and DBP [diastolic blood pressure i.e. the bottom number] were on average 5% lower in all the subjects who received 80 mg/day of GABA compared to participants in the placebo group whose blood pressure levels remained above normal.

This is a substantial reduction when 80 mg of GABA a day is considered a very low dose. I typically have my anxious clients start with 125mg GABA and increase from there. They may end up using 125 mg GABA 3 or 4 times a day and sometimes 250 mg a few times a day.

I’m not suggesting using only GABA or taurine (more on this below) when blood pressure is high as there can be many variables and root causes. I would, however, like to see GABA be given more consideration, especially when anxiety is a symptom too.

The existing GABA precautions: a new one if you are taking medication for high blood pressure

If you are currently taking blood pressure medication for high blood pressure and plan to do a trial of GABA, it’s worth monitoring your blood pressure and discussing with your prescribing doctor. GABA may lower your blood pressure enough that your medication can be reduced or possibly stopped. The above paper states this:

Because some studies showed that GABA was associated with decreases in blood pressure, it is conceivable that concurrent use of GABA with anti-hypertensive medications could increase risk of hypotension [low blood pressure].

I have now added this as a new precaution – High blood pressure and on blood pressure medications: GABA, taurine. You can see it on the Amino Acid Precautions blog.

The existing GABA precautions: watch when you have low blood pressure and don’t use when pregnant or nursing

As you can read in the amino acids chapter of my book and on the above precautions blog, there is already a precaution stating to watch the use of GABA when you have low blood pressure. It’s worth being aware of but is not something I’ve actually seen to be an issue. Occasionally folks reduce their GABA dose because they feel light-headed.

This precaution is already addressed – not to use GABA when pregnant or nursing – but it’s worth repeating here as it’s a frequent question I am asked . The above paper states:

Caution is advised for pregnant and lactating women since GABA can affect neurotransmitters and the endocrine system, i.e., increases in growth hormone and prolactin levels.

Taurine: hypertension, stroke and heart disease

You’ll notice taurine grouped with GABA on the list of precautions. Based on the research, this amino acid also helps reduce blood pressure and is cardio-protective: “Advances in extensive studies on experimental models indicate that taurine is preventive against hypertension, stroke and atherosclerotic arterial diseases.”

This is one of the proposed mechanisms of taurine for lowering blood pressure : “The preventive mechanisms of taurine were ascribed to sympathetic modulation for reducing blood pressure (BP) and anti-inflammatory action.” GABA works in a similar way.

The same precautions would apply: low blood pressure and high blood pressure with blood pressure medication.

As I mentioned above, there is more to hypertension than adding only taurine or GABA. This book by Dr. Mark Houston MD, is an excellent resource – What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About(TM): Hypertension: The Revolutionary Nutrition and Lifestyle Program to Help Fight High Blood Pressure (my Amazon link).

He does mention taurine and recommends 1 to 1.5 g of taurine twice a day for high blood pressure. He does not mention GABA supplementation but does mention how vitamin B6 is important for GABA and serotonin production and improving sympathetic function.

Stress, anxiety and fear affect blood pressure and GABA helps

Dr. Houston shares that “numerous studies have linked stress, anxiety, fear and other negative emotions to an elevation in blood pressure. Conversely, as stress decreases, so does blood pressure. ”

This supports my comments above about giving GABA more consideration when it comes to high blood pressure, especially when anxiety is a symptom too. Here are some cases studies:

When GABA is not available taurine is a viable option for anxiety and hypertension.

Resources if you are new to using amino acids as supplements

If you suspect low levels of any of the neurotransmitters and do not yet have my book, The Antianxiety Food Solution – How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings, I highly recommend getting it and reading it before jumping in and using amino acids on your own so you are knowledgeable. And be sure to share it with the practitioner/health team you or your loved one is working with.

There is an entire chapter on the amino acids and they are discussed throughout the book in the sections on gut health, gluten, blood sugar control, sugar cravings, anxiety and mood issues.

The book doesn’t include product names (per the publisher’s request) so this blog, The Antianxiety Food Solution Amino Acid and Pyroluria Supplements, lists the amino acids that I use with my individual clients and those in my group programs. You can find them all in my online store.

If, after reading this blog and my book, you don’t feel comfortable figuring things out on your own (i.e. doing the symptoms questionnaire and respective amino acids trials), a good place to get help is the GABA QuickStart Program (if you have low GABA symptoms too). This is a paid online/virtual group program where you get my guidance and community support.

If you are a practitioner, join us in The Balancing Neurotransmitters: the Fundamentals program. This is also a paid online/virtual program with an opportunity to interact with me and other practitioners who are also using the amino acids.

If you have low blood pressure, has GABA (or taurine) been an issue for you?

Do you have high blood pressure and has GABA (or taurine) lowered it? If yes, how much did you use and how much did your blood pressure improve? And did you have to adjust your blood pressure medication (and which one)?

Has GABA (or taurine) helped ease your physical anxiety and other low GABA symptoms?

If you have questions and other feedback please share in the comments too.

5-HTP with Paxil, when nursing, for men, with insomnia in Parkinson’s and when it gives you nightmares: questions and answers

December 9, 2022 By Trudy Scott 8 Comments

5-HTP is an amino acid, made from the seeds of an African plant, Griffonia simplicifolia, and used as a supplement to ease low serotonin symptoms of worry-type anxiety, often with ruminations, obsessing and panic attacks. When you have insomnia caused by low serotonin you may lie awake worrying. This type of anxiety is different from the low GABA physical/tension type anxiety. Other low serotonin symptoms include low mood/depression, late afternoon and evening carbohydrate cravings, pain, digestive/IBS symptoms, PMS, irritability, rage and anger, TMJ, low confidence, imposter syndrome and perfectionism.

I’ve blogged about 5-HTP extensively and I receive many great questions about this supplement. Today I’m going to share some of these questions and my answers so you can get the benefits too: using it with Paxil, insomnia when you have Parkinson’s disease, if 5-HTP works for men, timing of 5-HTP with nightmares and if 5-HTP can be used in pregnancy and when nursing.

Haley shared how 5-HTP helps with insomnia and asks about taking it with Paxil:

I was taking 5-HTP and it definitely helped me sleep at night. I recently started Paxil for my panic attacks after a recent trauma and I’m no longer sure if I can take Paxil with 5-HTP or not?

I’m so glad to hear 5-HTP helped with sleep. I’m sorry to hear about your recent trauma but keep in mind the other benefits of 5-HTP – helping with panic attacks is just one. When I’m working with someone who has experienced something like this and is already seeing benefits with 5-HTP, we increase their 5-HTP to help with the panic attacks too.

If they have already started Paxil and would prefer to stop using it I have them read this tapering blog and work/discuss with their prescribing doctor. There is the risk of serotonin syndrome with SSRIs (such as Paxil) and 5-HTP (and tryptophan).

There are many nutritional solutions for trauma and psychological stress (a natural disaster or anything else) and we’d address all this too.

Lynn has Parkinson’s disease and sleep problems:

I have Parkinson’s and sleep is starting to be an issue. I usually fall asleep but after about 4 hours I’m wide awake. I’m afraid this sleeplessness will negatively affect my brain if I can’t remedy this. I take carbidopa/levodopa. I’ve seen a sleep neurologist and she wants to prescribe drugs which again I’m afraid will have a negative effect on my brain. Your suggestions around 5-HTP would be very much appreciated.

We always start with the low serotonin symptoms and do a trial of either 5-HTP or tryptophan if it looks like low serotonin is the root cause of the sleep issues (there are many other root causes of insomnia).

If you score high on many of the low serotonin symptoms I suggest sharing this 5-HTP/Parkinson’s disease blog post and research with your sleep neurologist and Parkinson’s doctor: “Research shows that the amino acid 5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan), the intermediate metabolite of tryptophan in the production of serotonin, offers benefits for Parkinson’s disease patients. It has been reported to ease depression and to reduce levodopa-induced motor complications. This was reported in two separate studies by the same research team at the University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy. They were small studies and considered preliminary.”

Meleah asks about using 5-HTP with men:

Hi Trudy, did you recommend the same protocol for men? Most of the examples are about women and I have a male friend who needs help

Generally speaking the amino acids work the same for men but I have found that the impact they have on the sex hormone estrogen when using 5-HTP or tryptophan (and progesterone when using GABA) means they tend to work exceptionally well for women.

I also have much more experience working with women so I have more to share on these outcomes. With the few men I have worked with I find they tend to under-report when looking at their low serotonin symptoms so this needs to be taken into account when doing the trial of 5-HTP or tryptophan.

Scott shared how he uses 5-HTP for insomnia and his solution for preventing nightmares when using it:

In regards to nightmares with 5-HTP, I definitely seem to experience disturbing dreams when I take it within 4 hours of bedtime. Therefore, I normally don’t take any after 7pm but do take it periodically throughout the day.

I also suggested it to a friend who tried and likes it very much, however, he experienced excessive dreaming which interferes with him sleeping soundly, so I suggested the same protocol to him.

When I was in college, I am now a senior, I tried taking regular tryptophan and soon started having nightmares and hallucinations as I began seeing faces on the wall when I was trying to fall asleep.

I only take 5-HTP now, in extended release 200mg tablets from the Natrol company. Thank you, Trudy, for bringing this subject up.

I thanked him for sharing this interesting nuance of nightmares with 5-HTP and using it in the day instead. (which I blogged about here i.e. some folks do get nightmares when using 5-HTP)

I’m glad he figured this out and it helps since tryptophan does cause him nightmares. We are all so different and have to find what works best for our unique needs.

Carly asks about using 5-HTP when nursing:

Can someone take 5-HTP while nursing?

5-HTP has not been studied during pregnancy or nursing but a free form amino acid blend that does contain tryptophan is often very helpful. You have to really look for these because many companies choose to leave out tryptophan. I have a few listed on the supplements blog.

Other approaches to improve mood, reduce anxiety and help with sleep while nursing include exercise, yoga, diet and bright light therapy/full spectrum light. Dr. Aviva Romm writes about herbs for anxiety and specifies which are safe while nursing.

If you are new to other anxiety nutrition solutions like gluten/sugar/caffeine removal, blood sugar control, gut health, and pyroluria my book “The Antianxiety Food Solution” is a great place to start for the foundations. Much of this helps with low mood, cravings and insomnia too. More here.

5-HTP is often successfully used in conjunction with other amino acids

Here are some useful blogs related to low serotonin and 5-HTP. As you can see, it’s often successfully used in conjunction with other amino acid supplementation:

You can see all the low serotonin symptoms here.
Fibromyalgia: tryptophan or 5-HTP for anxiety, depression, pain and insomnia
GABA is a life saver for anxiety, theanine helps at night (insomnia) and 5-HTP makes a significant difference in lessening daily pain
Drastic reduction in intrusive thoughts, anxiety and fears (and better sleep) with GABA, tryptophan, 5-HTP and the pyroluria protocol
If low GABA type anxiety and insomnia is also an issue you may find this helpful too – GABA for easing physical anxiety and tension: some questions and answers.
An amino acid supplement with DLPA, glutamine and 5-HTP eases alcohol withdrawal symptoms at an inpatient detoxification program
You can see the 5-HTP and tryptophan products (and GABA) I use with my clients here on the supplements blog.

As always, it’s not only the low serotonin we need to address. 5-HTP offers quick relief but we must always do a full functional workup looking at diet, nutritional deficiencies, digestion, all hormones, toxins and infections (and so on) so we can address all possible root causes – and why serotonin is low in the first place.

I also want to add that I typically start with tryptophan for low serotonin support simply because I have such good results with it and because 5-HTP can raise cortisol in some folks. If we already have salivary cortisol results and none of the four collections are high then 5-HTP is an option to consider.

Resources if you are new to using 5-HTP and other amino acids as supplements

If you are new to using 5-HTP or any of the other amino acids as supplements, here is the Amino Acids Mood Questionnaire from The Antianxiety Food Solution (you can see all the symptoms of neurotransmitter imbalances, including low GABA and low serotonin).

There is an entire chapter on the amino acids and they are discussed throughout the book in the sections on gut health, gluten, blood sugar control, sugar cravings, self-medicating with alcohol and more.

If, after reading this blog and my book, you don’t feel comfortable figuring things out on your own (i.e. doing the symptoms questionnaire and respective amino acids trials), a good place to get help is the GABA QuickStart Program (if you have low GABA symptoms). This is a paid online/virtual group program where you get my guidance and community support.

Thanks to these folks for asking good questions and for allowing me to share here.

What questions do you have about 5-HTP?

Which low serotonin symptoms can you relate to and has 5-HTP or tryptophan helped? Or have you found success with a combination?

Feel free to post your questions and feedback in the comments below.

How to Beat Anxiety and Resolve Panic Attacks with Targeted Amino Acids: Wellness Mama podcast

September 15, 2017 By Trudy Scott 20 Comments

Today I share my wonderful interview with Katie, the “Wellness Mama”. We talk about my favorite topic: How to Beat Anxiety and Resolve Panic Attacks with Targeted Amino Acids with some extra questions about pregnancy and nursing that I’m not often asked about. Katie is mom to 6 children and many in her community are moms too.

Here is some of what we cover in our interview:

nutritional deficiencies commonly linked to anxiety, depression, and other problems
my own story of recovery from severe panic attacks
why perfectionism and worry might have more to do with body chemistry than your personality
all about the key anti-anxiety amino acids: GABA, theanine, tryptophan, 5-HTP (and others)
how low vitamin D, low zinc, high copper, and other nutritional factors add to anxiety
the low zinc and high copper play a role in postpartum depression
the potential neurotransmitter issue that leads to cravings
biochemical reasons some people are introverted or socially anxious
guidance for pregnant moms who can’t take amino acids (and what to do if you’re nursing)
the way an MTHFR mutation is linked to anxiety and how to resolve it

Here is a snippet of our interview on the topic of how to assess for low neurotransmitters and do a trial of GABA or tryptophan, and how quickly they work:

Just like you test your vitamin D levels – that’ll tell you that you’ve got low levels and you need to supplement with vitamin D, then you’ll retest and see that your levels have come up. With the amino acids and the low neurotransmitters, I find using a questionnaire is the best way to assess the fact that you may have low GABA and you may have low serotonin. Then you do a trial of the amino acid based on your unique needs, and then you redo the questionnaire and you see how things have changed.

If you use these targeted individual amino acids based on your unique need, you can see results very quickly – within five minutes, and then over the course of the next few weeks you should be seeing results very quickly. Some people will say, “I’m not seeing any impact, should I keep trying, you know, how long should I be aiming for.” The thing that, about the amino is that are so amazing, is that you get results right away. If you don’t get results, it means it’s not enough or it means you don’t need it. The anxiety is not caused by low serotonin or low GABA.

I also talk about my personal experience with low serotonin and perfectionism:

I discovered low serotonin was a factor because although the GABA helped with the physical anxiety and the panic attacks, I still had this perfectionism issue. I remember working in that computer job and being called up to do an appraisal. And they told me I was too much of a perfectionist and I needed to let go a little bit. I couldn’t believe anyone could think that was a bad thing. So it was interesting how, as you start to implement some of these, you start to realize some of these other things that you may think is just a personality thing or it’s just me, it’s just the way I am – you realize that some of these things can be related to biochemical imbalances.

As I mention above Katie does ask me about using the amino acids during pregnancy and while nursing:

I don’t recommend anyone take them during pregnancy. It’s difficult advice for me to give because I know that there are so many issues with SSRIs during pregnancy. Because we don’t have the research, it’s not something that I can recommend. If you are prone to anxiety or you’ve had anxiety, get that sorted out before you get pregnant. I know, that’s easier said than done. A lot of women really want to get pregnant now or they are pregnant and then they realize that they’ve got the anxiety. So that’s a very difficult situation.

Once you’ve had the baby, if you are having really bad anxiety, obviously you’ve got to talk to your doctor and make sure that they are okay with you taking the amino acids right after nursing and then waiting four to six hours before nursing again. It is one way to do it. And then monitoring the baby to make sure that they are okay. There are actually two studies that came out recently showing that tryptophan and tyrosine, doesn’t seem to be an issue in breast milk.

You can listen to the entire interview (and download the interview mp3 file and read the transcript) via the Wellness Mama podcast #105 blog.

For additional information on products over and above those we covered in the interview here are some recent blogs:

Katie, is the “Wellness Mama” and her goal is to help other families live more naturally through practical tips, real food recipes, natural beauty and cleaning tutorials, natural remedies and more. Her blog is a wealth of information and if you don’t tune in to her podcasts and get her newsletter I encourage you to check her out.

Here are a few really good ones to get you started (although they really are all excellent!):

Epsom Salt: 21 Surprising Uses & Benefits for Health, Beauty, and Home (the first one is to use it for a relaxing bath soak, a favorite of mine; another is a recipe for a soothing magnesium lotion)
Homemade Remineralizing Toothpaste Recipe (Natural + Simple)
Homemade HE Laundry Detergent Recipe (Laundry Soap) (this was a hot topic on a recent facebook discussion)

She shares this on her site: “my real goal with the blog is to help you and to create lasting changes so that our children can grow up in a better world.” I just love her mission and passion and all the very practical and safe solutions she offers!