Blog post on gaba/glutamate

https://www.holistichelp.net/blog/how-to-increase-gaba-and-balance-glutamate/

I’m not sure how much of this is backed up by papers and I’m too tired to figure that out. But I found that vitamin d can make glutamate worse very interesting since all practitioners have basically looked at me baffled when I say vitamin d makes me really sick. Then they go on to just say again my vitamin d is too low.

Awesome article. This touches on a lot of things that I’ve experienced and conclusions I came to, which is that most drugs and supplements aimed at correcting these imbalances end up having the opposite effect. NAC, zinc, and glutamine (in addition to creatine) are 4 that I’ve noticed really increase glutamate for me.

I came to the conclusion that messing w chemistry through supplementation just doesn’t work. You are pulling levers you don’t understand, and these are too complex of processes. Healthy diet and lifestyle are the only solutions

What are your excitotoxic symptoms Bailey?

The points on supplementation are interesting. There are so many supplements suggested and taken during therapy, but nothing has gotten better, at least for me, in using them. That is not to say they don't work. For instance, if I don't supplement vitamin D, then my levels go below normal.

Then there are other supplements the doctor or naturopath have suggested, but then I see they can cause bigger problems for kidneys. Then look at Baliey's situation. My thought is so much simply seems to go back to improving gut before anything.

Yeah I ordered taurine it’s on my try very soon list. As for symptoms, my vision problems seems to be driven by and excess of glutamate or not enough gaba. I literally have been scared I’m going blind. Additionally parts of my face sometimes feel like something is touching them when nothing is, this also seems to be helped by things that fix gaba/glutamate. My sound sensitivity and peripheral inflammation/lack of circulation to periphery of my brain seemed to improved when I push my gaba/glutamate in favor of gaba. So in short, it seems to fix a lot of my problems.

Additionally I keep found pemf to somewhat dramatically help many many problems. However, it’s worsening my vision issues to the point where I worry I’ll go blind. So I have motivation to fix the eye issues since the pemf was helping peripheral brain inflammation, overal energy stamina, and even making my body less angry and prone to break out in hives. All this with very very low setting snd not much time. So I’m eager to fix the eye issues so I can use pemf.

yeah, i think part of the problem is this stuff is a massive industry - something like 50% of the population in the western countries take daily supplements of some sort today.
that's an absolutely huge market -

add to this most people want an easy solution - like just pop this pill and all your troubles will be gone - and throw in pretty lax regulation - and causes a perfect stage for marketing hype.

on top of that chronically ill people are desperate for some hope of relief - and so any hint of possible benefit and this stuff flies off the shelves!
the reality is the benefits are not universal - and even when present are generally subtle compared to the marketing hype.

if you are truly low in something - then supplementing with it strategically may well help in some significant way - but the next person may have the same symptom or complaint but for an entirely different reason and may have no benefit or even an adverse reaction.

so for me its not so much that they are all useless - just that they rarely measure up to the marketing hype.

it also seems to be a pattern that those of us that are the sickest also seem to be the most reactive to supplements and things that others in the healthy population would have no issue with.

for instance - some people with type 2 diabetes take large doses of berberine to increase their insulin sensitivity a bit - but if i took those doses of berberine i would be bedbound with herx and feeling like i should be in the ER.

and i saw the other day the youtuber Jake Picker - Bartonella Babe - talking about how even the vegetable based capsule material used in some supplements would cause her MCAS to flare so much she would be out of action for a day after taking only 2 of them - so some peoples system is just so intolerant it can react strongly to almost anything. That's a tough one to deal with.

I’ve been helped by immensely some supplements, and I’ve been hurt by supplements, and my bank account has been hurt by supplements, drugs and medical professionals…. Oddly none of them ever help the health of my bank account 🤣.

dcd2103 said...
Interesting…I’m starting to think that I’m allergic in some way to the vegetable capsules. I’ve noticed that I seem to get a fibromyalgia type muscle pain to various supplements, and the only conclusion i can come to is that it’s the vegetable casing

There are often fillers in supplements that cause issues

She helped me immensely! She got my inflammation down significantly in a couple months. As mentioned my burning basically went to zero. Was still struggling with the ANS stuff and vibrations which I felt was nervous system damage. She has a plan for that but I decided Spero was complementary to what I was doing w her and would get me there quicker. But I absolutely could not have made improvement wo her approach, it was the lynchpin which changed everything for me.

She is super sharp and knows more about nutrition and health than probably anyone I’ve ever met. She really is the “Sherlock Holmes of health”.

The only problem is that I used to work with her one on one, but she’s gotten so famous she doesn’t do that anymore. She hosts group zoom calls now. It’s still super beneficial to see what others are doing and how they’re reversing their diseases, but you won’t be able to ask as many questions as you would working one v one. But it’s still a great option and may literally turn you around. You will see others in her group zoom meetings who have very bizarre diseases that are being fixed, which is inspiring

dcd - First, hope the time at Spero is helping. Waiting for update when you post one.

As far as Mary R goes, with new format, are individual problems addressed?