If you've got problems with GABA,
you might need carbs.
Hi, I'm Dr. Chris Masterjohn of
chrismasterjohnphd.com, and this is
Chris Masterjohn Lite, where the name of the game is
"Details? Shmeetails. Just tell me what works!"
And today we're going to talk about why some
people might need carbs with their GABA.
So, I have a friend and colleague who told
me how every time she takes GABA or glycine,
she gets anxiety that results from a fear
response to a decrease in her breathing
rate and heart rate. And this makes sense
because GABA and glycine are
inhibitory neurotransmitters, and they
could be acting on parts of the
central nervous system that are
controlling your breathing rate or your
heart rate in a way that decreases them.
But normally what you're doing is just
supplying these raw materials to your
central nervous system, and your brain
and spinal cord use them in a regulated
fashion to control your breathing and
heart rate where it's supposed to be.
But what balances these inhibitory
neurotransmitters is the excitatory
neurotransmitter glutamate.
And glutamate, although it is an amino acid,
most glutamate in your central nervous system
is derived from glucose, which is the
type of sugar that starch digests into.
And in fact, my suspicion is that the
reason that some people with epilepsy
benefit from a low-glycemic,
moderate-carbohydrate diet is because the spikes
in blood sugar that can accompany eating
high-glycemic foods, foods that digest
into sugar rapidly, can be the principal
determinant of spikes in brain glutamate.
And ordinarily none of this is a problem,
but in people with epilepsy, glutamate is
often what triggers a seizure. But let's
spin this around. We're not talking about
epilepsy right now. We're talking about
people who have a negative reaction to
glycine and GABA supplements because
it's slowing down their heart rate or
their breathing rate. In those cases,
what you may need is
to produce a glucose spike in your blood
that will produce a glucose spike in
your central nervous system that will
then allow you to manufacture enough
glutamate to balance them. Now, we also
know with glycine that glycine has the
potential to lower blood sugar, and in
fact, that's why using 3 to 5 grams of
glycine with a meal can stabilize your
blood sugar, so there may be in the case
of glycine, you may actually be lowering your
blood sugar, and that is compounding
this whole process, making you even more so
need carbohydrate. I am not saying
that these supplements are not safe
unless you take them with carbohydrate.
But I am saying is—what I am saying
is that if you suffer negative reactions
to GABA or glycine like these,
then including carbohydrate, especially
high-glycemic, whole-food carbohydrates
like rice, oats, potatoes, or sweet
potatoes, then that strategy might
be how you should handle taking GABA and
glycine if you find that you're getting
other benefits that makes it worth it to
take those supplements.
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All right, I hope you found this useful.
Signing off, this is Chris Masterjohn of
chrismasterjohnphd.com.
And this has been Chris Masterjohn Lite.
And I will see you in the next episode.