Relax Your Mind With GABA
Relax Your Mind with GABA
Do you often feel worked up, irritable or sad for no good reason? Do you spend a lot of your time feeling stressed and worried? Not as interested in having fun? Have friends or family members expressed their concerns over your well-being?
Though there could be any number of explanations for what you’re going through, one possibility is that your neurons aren’t releasing neurotransmitters at optimal levels. Our brains may use as many as 100 different neurotransmitters, with GABA being one of the most important.
What Are Neurotransmitters?
Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that neurons (nerve cells) release to allow them to communicate with other neurons. The neurotransmitter most associated with calming effects in the brain is GABA (technically Gamma-AminoButyric Acid). Clinical research suggests taking GABA by mouth can help cope with stress, improve mood, and generally have calming effects.
What Can GABA Do for You?
In addition to rhyming with the feel-good 70s group ABBA, GABA has been found by clinical research to help reduce stress and produce groovy feelings. This neurotransmitter’s primary effect is believed to be holding back our nerve cells from excess firing. GABA also is fundamentally important for the healthy maturation of new nerve cells (neurogenesis) and for the overall development and maintenance of the brain.
Also, GABA has mild relaxation properties that can support a balanced mood and restful sleep. Lower levels of this neurotransmitter in some brain regions has been linked to mood challenges, difficulties with self-control, and excessive worry.
Gamma-amino-butyric acid (GABA) is an amino acid and neurotransmitter that regulates brain excitability by inhibiting excessive firing of neurons, resulting in a sense of calm. Supplementing with GABA can help flip the “off” switch on worrisome, ruminating thoughts by supporting the body’s natural mechanism for quieting the mind.
Are You Low on GABA?
If you’ve suffered emotional trauma or are under a great deal of stress, it’s possible your GABA levels are less than optimal and contributing to your feeling anxious, unmotivated, uptight, or just plain sad. If you tend to predict the worst, are wracked with nervousness, have chronic muscle tension or other stress-related feelings, it might be worth taking steps to increase your brain GABA levels.
If you’re one of the millions of Americans struggling with mood or sleep problems, the good news is that you do have a shot to get control of these feelings. Try these five steps to start living a happier life…
5 Ways to Calm Your Mind Using GABA
Be Grateful
One way to boost your mood and reduce anxiety is to write down five things you are grateful for every day. Research suggests that focusing on gratitude helps to calm your deep limbic areas and enhance the other judgment centers of the brain. When you focus on what you love, your brain works better, and you’ll have a chance to feel better. You’ll likely notice a significant positive difference in your level of happiness over a pretty brief period.
Do Yoga and Get a Massage
Practicing yoga and getting massages can do more than improve your physical function. Clinical studies indicate that both are beneficial for improving mood and coping with stress. Massage can lower the stress hormone cortisol while increasing the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, which work cooperatively with GABA. Yoga actually can increase brain GABA while improving anxious feelings and overall mood.
Soothing Tunes
Listening to soothing music can help relieve stress by triggering biochemical stress reducers in your brain. Due to an increase in dopamine levels, music can also improve mood, boost energy, and help with focus and concentration. When used properly, music is medicine.
Stress Reducing Strategies
When you’re under stress, your body cortisol and other messengers that push your brain to seek out rewards—cravings. For many of us, cravings are triggered by unpleasant emotions, including stress and anxiety, as well as being sleep deprived due to stress. Making sure to get enough sleep can reduce cravings and help you feel level-headed enough to deal with the cravings. Rather than giving in to your cravings, utilize stress management techniques—take a vigorous walk, do yoga, or relax in a hot bath. Meditation, diaphragmatic breathing, intense exercise, hypnosis and optimizing vitamin D levels are also great ways to improve self-control and make better judgment calls so that you truly control your brain.
Support GABA Levels With Supplements
GABA Calming Support is a unique combination of clinically proven ingredients that help cope with restlessness, irritability and other challenges associated with occasional anxiety. This supplement provides GABA chemically identical to the GABA our nerve cells make. It also contains ingredients that help our nerve cells respond better to GABA.
At BrainMD, we’re committed to providing the highest quality, best-researched nutrients that can help you optimize your mood, memory, judgment, and your other life functions that depend on a finely tuned brain. For our full list of supplements, visit us at BrainMD.
- This Is What You Need to Know About Serotonin and Happiness
Medically Reviewed by Dr. Nicole Avena - May 23, 2023 - Why Supplement Subscriptions Are the Future of Health and Wellness
Medically Reviewed by Dr. Nicole Avena - May 18, 2023 - Meet Vitamin D3 + K2: The Potent Pairing of Essential Vitamins You Need Daily
Medically Reviewed by Dr. Nicole Avena - May 15, 2023
Thank you for the information on GABA supplementation. Will give it a try.
I though GABA could not cross the blood brain barrier, and that is why it is better to take the things that make GABA but not GABA itself. What do you say?
The research is mixed regarding GABA and the blood-brain barrier (BBB). The most recent findings suggest some portion of an oral dose of GABA does get across the BBB into the brain. But there are also other ways that dietary supplementation with GABA might have a calming effect. These include direct effects on the extensive nerve network in the gut area, which does link to the brain; and being taken up from the gut into the vagus nerve which could then allow GABA to travel all the way to the spinal cord and from there reach the brain.
Taking “things that make GABA”doesn’t guarantee they will become transformed into GABA. To get the calming effects your best bet is to take GABA itself. BrainMD provides authentic GABA in our GABA Calming Support product, not “PharmaGABA” which is not pure GABA.
If I already take ativan 150 mg daily, will the Gaba Supplementation be good or harmful for me to take?
Is Gaba ok to use with Ativan, and also Zoloft
Is this supplement addictive? It works on same receptors as alcohol and benzodiazepines.
When is the best time to take GABA supplements
Hello, Bill. Appreciate your thoughtful question. It’s best to start taking GABA at night, as some people encounter sleepiness when taking the product. If you find that it doesn’t cause you to feel tired, you can try it during the day. It’s always best to start off at the lowest dose to see what your body can tolerate. Hope this helps and thanks for choosing BrainMD.
Is gaba a component of gabapenten or neurotoxin? I take that medication 3x a day. Will gaba interfere with gabapenten?
The articles are making gaba very tempting.
Thank you in advance for any guidance.
Lilly
Its very informative article.I think massage is best to reduce stress, because reducing stress is essential to live a happy life that you really deserve.
I’m taking GABA, I take 200 mg, 3 times a day, I read that you can increase the dosage up to 450 mg if you feel the anxiety isn’t totally being addressed on a lower dose. I’m on day 2, I’m also taking daily brain that three brains is a line of supplements designed to support the critical relationship between our head, heart, and gut. Reading that these three brains influence our mental health and cognition. I’m feeling that at first when I took this GABA everything changed. Before when I had no issues with sleeping I I was doing ok. Since taking GABA, it imo has messed up my sleep. Before all this happened I slept great, hardly had any dreams, taking GABA, was so tired last night I actually went to sleep, woke up from having had dreams, but now I’m really tired. So taking this GABA makes me wonder if I should just stop it and take the Effexor XR my doctor gave me. Back in Sept 2018, when I got the script and took it, just the first capsule took time to reach my brain and when it did it was like someone turned the sound down, I could not hear voices in my head, it was as if someone turned the volume to off. I’ve been reading about Effexor XR and what I will face when taking it. I used to take it years ago and the hell it took to come off of it. Now I have no alternative choice but to go back on it. I have met people who are taking antidepressants for years and two of them who weaned off of it, one wished they never did and the other one won’t go back. I don’t want this problem but I am also scared too.
Hi there. I just started taking a low dose of Gaba for anxiety and I feel amazing. I take a low dose 2x’s a day to help with focus, concentration, and to feel an overall sense of calm…it checks all of these boxes. My question for you, since you’re expert, is can it safely and effectively be taken as a supplement long term?
Is Gaba ok to take at night when you have been diagnosed with narcolepsy? Have not been taking naps anymore but thoughts are racing @ night due to major emotional stress.
Can you take warfarin while taking GABA?