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pharmaGABA

GABA Calm is in short supply – what other GABA products are there for easing anxiety?

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gaba calm alternatives

Sheila contacted me via the blog asking about Source Naturals GABA Calm ~ I am from Brussels/Belgium. I cannot find the Source Naturals GABA Calm sublingual anymore. The one you recommend. I’ve been recommending this for years to clients since I read your book “The Antianxiety Food Solution.” I already contacted Source Naturals a few times but no response. Do you know why they have stopped selling this in Europe?

After doing some checking around and contacting Source Naturals it seems there is a world-wide shortage of Source Naturals GABA Calm 125mg lozenges. When I reached out to them I was told it’s indefinite (with no reason why) and to check back at the end of January. Two other people were told it would be available mid-January and mid-February so the messages are mixed.

Today I’m sharing some other GABA product options until GABA Calm comes back or in case it doesn’t or if there is another shortage in the future. It’s such a pity since it is so effective for so many folks as you can see in these blogs:

I also posted this message on Facebook to let my community there know and to find out what they were using instead.

gaba calm alternative question facebook

This is some of the feedback I received:

  • Mary ~ Oh my goodness! I just found it in my local Vitamin Shoppe tonight! There was one bottle left.
  • Diana ~I noticed. My son uses this, I’m a little worried.

I shared that there are other products that will hopefully work as well and asked everyone who was using something else: Do  you use it opened onto the tongue or swallowed? And if you’ve used Source Naturals GABA Calm in the past how does it compare for you?

A number of people said they like Thorne pharmaGABA capsules, someone said she like Now GABA Powder and a few people like Natural Factors pharmaGABA chewables:

  • Tara ~ I’ve only used Thorne PharmaGABA because of how it’s derived [fermented]. I just swallow the capsule and I’m immediately calm within 5-15 mins. I was previously prescribed a benzo & this is much better. 100mg is all I take when I feel a panic attack coming on. I’ve been thru a few years of absolute hell of benzo withdrawal coming off of my klonopin prescription. The GABA feels almost the exact same as the benzo except the benzo would actually cause rebound panic attacks (I didn’t realize it at the time) & the GABA does not.
  • Jane ~I use Now Foods GABA powder. A little under the tongue works well.I have found both effective. Powder good for rapid effect at home (1/4 teaspoon as needed). GABA Calm good to take out with you.
  • Meesh ~ I use the Natural Factors pharmaGABA (100mg) and it works great. I use it in combo with L-theanine 250mg (which also contains 20mg of magnesium)… and the combination is magic

I’ve updated the supplements blog with the above products and a few additional similar products so you have many options to select from based on your unique needs and taste preferences, and what’s available at the time:

  • Thorne PharmaGABA-100: the label says Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) 100 mg but it also states that the product uses Pharma Foods International’s Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (PharmaGABA®).  This is also pleasant-tasting when opened on to the tongue and is most effective when used this way.
  • Thorne PharmaGABA-250: as above but contains 250mg of PharmaGABA®. This is also pleasant-tasting when opened on to the tongue and is most effective when used this way.
  • Designs for Health PharmaGABA Chewables: gamma-amino butyric acid (pharmaGABA) 200 mg in 2 chewable tablets. It’s quick-acting and convenient like GABA-Calm because it’s chewable. This does contain xylitol, natural flavors, stevia and some other ingredients so taste may be a factor and xylitol can cause gas, bloating and diarrhea when too much is consumed.
  • Natural Factors PharmaGABA: gamma-amino butyric acid (pharmaGABA) 200 mg in 2 chewable tablets. It’s quick-acting and convenient like GABA-Calm because it’s chewable. However it also contains organic cane sugar and natural fruit flavors so it’s a little too candy-like for my preference, especially if you have low GABA-related sugar cravings. Also 2 chewable tablets – 4g of carbs which is almost 1 teaspoon of sugar!
    [January 22, 2021: I’ve included this as a stand-by option for occasional use until Source Naturals GABA Calm is readily available again or if Designs for Health PharmaGABA Chewables are not available.]
  • Now Foods GABA Powder: 1/4 Level Teaspoon (500mg). This is pleasant-tasting when opened on to the tongue and is most effective when used this way. The only challenge with powder like this is making sure you don’t use too much by mistake. And it’s especially challenging when you only need 100mg.
  • Quicksilver Scientific Liposomal GABA with L-Theanine: 2ml (4 Pumps) provides (Gamma Amino Butyric Acid) 240mg, L-Theanine 100mg and Phosphatidylcholine 120mg (from purified sunflower seed lecithin). It does contain ethanol so would not be suitable for alcoholics or young children.

I do want to add that Nutritional Fundamentals for Health GABA-T SAP is still a firm favorite of mine: gamma-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) 300 mg, l-Theanine 150 mg. This is pleasant-tasting when opened on to the tongue and works very well when GABA Calm can’t be used (because of the tyrosine or taste or sugar alcohols). It is also often used with GABA Calm – like GABA Calm in the day and GABA-T SAP at night or some combination.  I find best results when it is used opened on to the tongue and it offers a feeling of calm focus. It could easily be used as a substitute for GABA Calm in the short-term.

In case you’re new to GABA you can read more about it here: GABA for the physical-tension and stiff-and-tense-muscles type of anxiety.

Is Source Naturals GABA Calm a favorite of yours? And how has it helped you?  What have you found works as well – for physical anxiety, tension, insomnia, pain, sugar cravings, muscle spasms – when it’s not available?

If you’ve used a GABA product in capsules, do you use it opened onto the tongue or swallowed? And if you’ve used Source Naturals GABA Calm in the past how does it compare for you?

If you’re a practitioner do you use GABA Calm and/or other GABA products?

Please do share in the comments below and let me know if you found this helpful or if you have questions. And thanks for the questions and contributions so far!

PharmaGABA eases physical anxiety in a young man who has recently given up Adderall, alcohol and nicotine

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pharmaGABA and physical anxiety

Today’s blog is about a young man diagnosed with ADD (attention deficit disorder) in his early twenties and prescribed Adderal (a stimulant). He was a cigarette smoker and drank alcohol too. His mother shared this encouraging feedback about the recent changes he has made and the benefits he reports with pharmaGABA on a recent blog. She aslo has a question about the GABA timing.

If you’re new to the low GABA type of anxiety, here is a recap: with low GABA the anxiety is the physical anxiety type with stiff and tense muscles and there is often the need to self-medicate with alcohol in order to relax, feel calm and fit in socially. Cigarettes can also be calming for many folks. Anxiety can cause poor focus issues and the inability to focus can drive up anxiety.

Here is her feedback and question:

I have a son that just started GABA after I recommended it from following you all these years. He has given up Adderall, alcohol, and nicotine all this past six months and is feeling so much better than the past ten years of his life. He is 32. He had been diagnosed with ADD in his early twenties.

He has symptoms that fall under low GABA and tried a chewable PharmaGABA 100mg tablet yesterday. He took 2 tablets (200mg total) with his meals three times the past two days and said he felt it work immediately. I told him I thought perhaps on a podcast I heard dosing 30 minutes before meals or an hour after was best?

This was my feedback for this mom about the timing of the pharmaGABA:

  • It’s wonderful to hear that the chewable pharmaGABA worked immediately to ease his low GABA physical anxiety symptoms
  • The amino acid GABA is best used away from protein so, yes, 30 minutes before meals with protein or an hour after is best.
  • Your son will likely find he needs less GABA doing it this way and it’ll be more effective.

I had this encouragement and feedback about quitting and using GABA:

  • Good for him getting off Adderall and quitting alcohol and nicotine. It can be tough when using just will-power alone.
  • The amino acids actually make it easier to quit because of the self-medication aspect and alcohol and nicotine are often used as a way to ease anxiety.
  • Even so, addressing low GABA levels after the fact will make it so much easier for him to stay away from nicotine and alcohol without having to use will-power.
  • There is also research showing that GABA may offer gut protection after alcohol consumption
  • As I mention above, anxiety can cause poor focus issues and the inability to focus can drive up anxiety. GABA can help improve focus and reduce anxiety)

If I was working with young man I would also consider imbalances of other neurotransmitter too (like low serotonin and low endorphins) especially because alcohol and nicotine addictions are so often replaced by sugar and carb addictions.

In this randomized, double blind study, The use of a food supplementation with D-phenylalanine (DPA), L-glutamine and L-5-hydroxytriptophan in the alleviation of alcohol withdrawal symptoms, amino acids were “used to replenish a lack in neurotransmitters and alleviate the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.”

In the study 20 patients were given these amino acids before quitting alcohol and this combination was found to alleviate withdrawal symptoms. Based on my experience even when will-power is used to quit (as in this case), many of these withdrawal symptoms linger.

Another reason to look at all the neurotransmitter imbalances is that low blood sugar and gut damage is often a factor with drinkers so glutamine may also be helpful for blood sugar stability and gut healing.

Finally, poor focus can also be caused by low catecholamines, so looking into this and considering a trial with tyrosine may also be worthwhile. This may also prevent the caffeine addiction we see once someone quits alcohol too.

Addressing his diet and probable nutrient deficiencies would be the next step for him. Also looking into adrenal health, possible candida and gut issues and food sensitivities.

I appreciate this mom for sharing and applaud her for telling her son about GABA. I also take my hat off to this young man for making these huge changes in his life and being willing to try GABA.

Have you successfully used GABA or any of the other amino acid to help quit alcohol or cigarettes? Or have you used them after you quit to prevent sygar cravings taking the place of alcohol or cigarettes?

Has GABA or pharmGABA helped ease the physical anxiety you experienced and also helped with focus issues?

Feel free to post your questions here on the blog too.

The Anxiety Summit – Tapering off psychiatric drugs so they don’t ruin your life

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Dr. Jonathan ProuskyQuote_Anxiety2

Dr. Jonathan Prousky, MSc, ND, editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine and author of Anxiety: Orthomolecular Diagnosis and Treatment was interviewed by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.

Tapering off psychiatric drugs so they don’t ruin your life

  • The process of reducing or discontinuing psychotropic medications
  • Difficulties patients have in overcoming pharmacological dependence
  • Reactions when someone discontinues SSRIs and benzodiazapines
  • Tapering approach, duration and improving outcomes
  • The importance of diet and lifestyle
  • Melatonin and niacinamide during benzodiazepine withdrawal
  • Using Neurapas Balance, rhodiola and GABA during a taper protocol
  • A tapering schedule case report

Here are a few snippets from our interview:

prescribed psychiatric drugs…. They are not like any other medication. These drugs are not disease-modifying agents, so they’re not like taking a drug for diabetes. These drugs are psychoactive.

That’s exactly how they work. They influence, basically, how one thinks, feels and behaves and, of course, physiology and, as a result, their effects are highly, highly unpredictable and what I constantly see in my own practice is how doctors are failing our patients and not really discussing all of what is necessary when prescribing these drugs because these drugs tend to have some significant effects. and I don’t consider any of the effects of these psychoactive drug’s effects and they can be either positive, negative or neutral

I think what’s important for people to realize is there’s no specific clinical manifestation that would be appropriate for all patients that are on SSRI drugs, whether that’s something like Paxil or Prozac or Celexa. It doesn’t matter. There’s no one manifestation that all patients coming off those drugs are going to experience. Essentially, because these drugs have very, I would say, unpredictable psychoactive effects then, when somebody is coming off of them, the effects from tapering are also rather unpredictable. So, people can experience either regression of their symptoms that brought them to a physician in the first place and one of the reasons why they were prescribed the drug in the first place, so patients can certainly regress and start having a return of their previous symptoms. Patients can have incredible sleep issues where they just cannot sleep, and they literally are feeling so concerned and they start worrying about not being able to fall asleep even before they sleep because it becomes such an issue.

Patients can feel very restless and they can get an inner restlessness that sometimes can drive them, literally almost like, as if, they’re going crazy, it’s called agathusia. There’s like this inner restlessness that torments people. Sometimes that can even happen as they taper down. Sometimes people can develop some weird, neurological manifestations whether it’s ticks or just strange or abnormal body movements, which we call dyskinesias. Patients can start having the sweats or feelings of derealization where they don’t feel grounded in reality.

They can have brain zaps where their brain just feels like it’s being zapped or as if someone’s electrocuting them. They can feel their whole body shaking and sort of becoming very jittery or even they can have cold sweats and shiver a lot. Essentially, there’s not a manifestation that you and I couldn’t think of that couldn’t happen to somebody coming off of these drugs because, as I said, they’re so unpredictable.

During the interview we discussed a number of papers written by Dr. Prousky. Here is a link to his publications.

Here is the Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs by Will Hall

Dr. Prousky discussed this paper about pharmaGABA: Relaxation and immunity enhancement effects of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) administration in humans.

GABA could work effectively as a natural relaxant and its effects could be seen within 1 hour of its administration to induce relaxation and diminish anxiety.

I talked more about GABA in my interview: Targeted individual amino acids for eliminating anxiety: practical applications

Dr. Prousky shared a case study of an SSRI and rhodiola taken together leading to tachyarrhythmia: Herbal medicine–sets the heart racing!

We report the case of a young previously healthy woman who had a significant tachyarrhythmia whilst taking a combination of escitalopram and the over the counter herbal medicine Rhodiola. Escitalopram, a SSRI, increases serotonin levels in the brain by selectively inhibiting re-uptake of serotonin. It is metabolised by the cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoenzymes CYP2C19, CYP2D6 and CYP3A4. Rhodiola also increases serotonin levels by inhibiting monoamine oxidase. It is a potent inhibitor of CYP3A4 and P-Glycoprotein. Consequently both agents taken by a patient can augment serotonin levels.

Dr. Prousky discussed the risks of SSRIs during pregnancy and shared this paper: The risks of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor use in infertile women: a review of the impact on fertility, pregnancy, neonatal health and beyond

Antidepressant use during pregnancy is associated with increased risks of miscarriage, birth defects, preterm birth, newborn behavioral syndrome, persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn and possible longer term neurobehavioral effects.

Dr. Prousky is the editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular medicine.

The CSOM/Canadian Society for Orthomolecular Medicine holds an annual conference in Toronto and you can learn more here. The 2015 conference will be April 24-26.

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