Alternative medicines for anxiety that's what I'm going to be talking about today
I'm Dr. Tracey Marks a psychiatrist and on this channel I talk about mental
health education and self-improvement. In a previous video, I talked about
alternative medicines for depression and I'll put post a link for you in the
corner for that one. Today's though is about anxiety.
Even though there's a lot of medication options to treat anxiety, there are a lot
of biases against taking a medication for it. Ain't nobody here crazy. And some
people will just feel more comfortable taking something over-the-counter, if
they're gonna take anything at all. So here are five options or alternative
medications non prescription that are used for anxiety.
Number one chamomile. Chamomile is a plant from the Daisy family and it has a
number of uses. And one is a sedative which is where it helps with anxiety and
sleep. But it's also used as an antispasmodic agent which assists with
digestion and respiratory things like asthma. You can get it as an essential
oil to use in aromatherapy or you can get it as a tea or in pill form. There
haven't been a lot of randomized trials for this and randomized trial is just
code for a rigorous scientific study that scientists take seriously. But one
scientific study showed benefit for mild to moderate generalized anxiety.
The suggested dose is 1100 milligrams a day. Chamomile is pretty well tolerated
without side effects, however it is derived from the plant family that
includes ragweed and chrysanthemums and these plants commonly cause allergic
reactions in people. So those prone to allergies should be cautious because the
chamomile could trigger a similar reaction and some of these reactions can
be pretty serious such as wheezing or chest tightness or even hives. Another
issue with chamomile is it contains coumarin, a naturally occurring blood
thinning agent found in plants. Now this is not to be confused with
coumadin which is a synthetically produced blood thinning
agent and it's made from coumarin and other agents. The generic name for
coumadin is warfarin and people will take coumadin in to treat blood clots and
other blood clotting disorders. It's not expected though that regular doses of
chamomile will cause bleeding, but if you are someone who is taking blood thinning
agents such as coumadin, aspirin or even high doses of vitamin E, you should avoid
the combination of chamomile along with your other medications because it could
cause bleeding problems. Next is kava. Kava is a plant found in
the South Pacific and it's been used for years to treat anxiety and insomnia. The
typical dose for insomnia is 125 to 250 milligrams taken at bedtime. And here's
the ugly of kava. There's been some case reports of liver toxicity attributed to
using kava and it's mostly been outside of the United States. Liver
injuries include hepatitis which is inflammation of the liver, cirrhosis of
the liver which is hardening of the liver and even liver failure. The
incidences of liver toxicity are low enough to be considered rare, but the
FDA nevertheless has issued warnings about the possibility of this and urge
people with pre-existing liver problems to consult their physician before taking
any products that contain Kava. In fact Canada and European countries have
banned the use of Kava entirely. Another precaution to keep in mind is
that Kava has a lot of drug interactions so this means it can negatively affect
other medications that you're taking. Some people who've taken Kava for months
have noticed a slight yellowing of the skin or a scaly rash on their skin.
The yellow skin disappears once you stop taking the Kava. So for all of the above
reasons, although Kava may be helpful, it's generally not recommended.
Next is L-theanine. Theanine is an amino acid which is a building block for
proteins. L-theanine is one form or one version of the bigger theanine that can
be found in green tea. Theanine resembles glutamate which is a neurotransmitter
that's important in memory and learning. The research shows that it may help with
relaxation but it's not really robust enough to take care of an anxiety
disorder. The recommended dose is 200 to 400 milligrams a day and that's a lot of
tea to drink. But it does come in a pill form as well and there aren't a lot of
reported side effects. So even though it's not really seen as a real heavy
hitter when it comes to helping with anxiety it still may be helpful for
general relaxation. Next is valerian. Valerian is a plant that's native to
Europe and South Africa. The dietary supplement is made from the plant's root
which is why it's often called valerian root. It works by increasing and blocking
the reuptake of the brain chemical gamma amino butyric acid which is also called
GABA. Unfortunately the studies for valerian
are extremely limited and poor and they really haven't shown benefit over
placebo. The recommended dose though is anywhere between 500 and 1200 milligrams
in divided doses so that's for the whole day. And then you need to take it
between 2 and 3 times a day. So if you're someone who can't really handle or don't
want to have to think about taking something multiple times a day, it may
not be the supplement for you. The common side effects are headache and diarrhea.
Incidentally I have acquired it in an essential oil form instead of a pill and
used in an aromatherapy. I thought it was somewhat relaxing but it did not smell
good. But that is one alternative option for the use of it
rather than needing to take the supplement. And lastly there's GABA.
As I mentioned GABA stands for gamma-aminobutyric acid
and it's an inhibitory neurotransmitter which means that it's a chemical in the
brain that's made by the nerve cells and it works to inhibit or slow down cell
activity. So you can think of it as like putting water on a fire. So in this
analogy the hot fire would be your brain activity and the GABA would be the
water. So in theory this sounds like the perfect drug to make, but we haven't been
able to harness oral gaba that acts the same way that our native gaba does. And
part of the problem is that not everything we take by mouth crosses the
blood-brain barrier. So here's some serious science here. The blood-brain
barrier is a special boundary that separates your brain from the rest of
your body and the brain is very picky about what it's going to let through
that barrier. So not everything that you take by mouth actually makes it across
that threshold. So we do have drugs though that make it across the barrier
and activate the gaba receptors. And these would be things like Xanax and
Klonopin which are benzodiazepines. And these drugs act through binding to the
gaba receptors once they get past the that blood-brain barrier.
Binding to the receptors increases gaba so this is a roundabout way of
increasing gaba in the brain without actually taking gaba. So that's it. Out of
this list what would I say is probably your best bet based on research? I'd say
probably chamomile number one, L-theanine number two. Not based on research and
just based on what I've heard people tell me I've seen more people use GABA
and chamomile mostly in the tea form with the chamomile.
Like maybe having a warm chamomile tea at bedtime or in the
evenings things like that. Let me know in the comments have you've used any of
these and how they've worked for you. And also share this with someone if you
think it could help them. Thanks for watching.