Re: Ever thought about Glutamate?

Hey, Mikey

It's a really informative link that you posted. I've been reading this all day yesterday - my information processing is too slow:)

The theory of neuroinflammation being the cause of Chronic-Fatigue-Syndrome is very interesting and plausible. It provides deeper understanding of the etiology of AF as well. Glutamate/GABA imbalance gives rise to generalized anxiety disorder, ADHD, OCD and sets off the chain reaction down the HPA axis involving the multiple compensatory mechanisms that the body has developed to adapt to the constant signal of arousal. It's like stress that goes on continuously on more subtle level throughout that we eventually stop noticing but it wears the body down as time goes on.

Glutamate exitotoxicity might be the underlying cause of the HPA axis dysregulation and why it happens to be so much weaker in some people. I was always wondering how it can just break down like that sometimes...

I don't think glutamate itself is the problem though. It's just as essential for life as cortisol is. It's much harder to treat glutamate overload symptoms without harsh drugs in my opinion. I can't believe in that article they actually advocate the use of Klonopin for Chronic-Fatigue-Syndrome or better yet... Ketamine (???)...

I can relate to that mental "deadlock" state that they are describing which happens due to the sensory overload. It was why I started to take Xanax in the first place! I used to just stare at something or somebody (was awfully awkward!) without managing any coherent response due to my anxiety and ADHD.

It's pretty amazing how all the things in the body are connected though. I'm talking about the NAC and glutamate reuptake connection. Strangely enough I don't feel much of a relief of my Xanax symptoms from NAC itself but I do feel a difference when I take Glutathione. My tension headache is gone now and I'm so grateful for that. Apparently Glut gets broken down into its precursors or it increases the availability of Cysteine to neutralize the glutamate neurotoxicity. Although it could be their antioxidant effect that reduced my painful symptoms. I'm not sure but I'm trying to understand the mechanism behind this because it holds the key to my freedom from benzos.

I started to take Suntheanine (L-Theanine) few days ago which helps reduce glutamate activity but increase dopamine and norepinephrine. My BP and HR are so low that it scares me because it shows no improvement at all. I believe that I have a genetic problem with dopamine production which is what started all my issues since I was a kid. They mentioned in that article that dopamine modulates the sensory gating and is partially responsible for the increase in glutamate signaling because you are unable to "filter the noise".
It's a very interesting resource indeed. Thank you for sharing it. Tweet