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Misc l theanine

M

markosheehan

Bluelighter
Joined
Sep 17, 2016
Messages
238
Is l theanine actually useful for anxiety/sleep. Some people say it's placebo. Is there any point in me buying it or do you actually get good affect from it. Some people who take very high does say they notice nothing.
 
It doesnt make you high or intoxicated or sedated. It may slightly improve your ability to tolerate stress.

Importantly, l theanine is not the only chemical compound in green tea that may have a antianxiety effect.

The major fact in my opinion is not the l theanine but the polyphenols that make up 50 of the leave by dry mass.

The polyphenols at very high doses especially egcg may act to weakly modulate gabaa signaling to cause potentiation of benzodiazepine and barbitutate sleep time and reduction in movement in rats (sedative test)

Additionally polyphenols may increase time a rat will spend exploring a maze (antianxiety test) and reduce immobility after chronic unpredictable stress (forced swimming) (antidepressant antistress )

Still polyphenols are still supplements which may have antianxiety effects under certain with certain doses like ssris snris and very low dose diazepam. If you have a severe anxiety disorder is not a replacement for drugs by a doctor with strong evidence in humans beyond ancedotes.
 
If these are supplements, always remember: no regulation. It could be sawdust. Batch to batch, who knows. They should make it a banner above every GNC and Vitamin Shoppe: that bottle could be dried dog shit and you wouldn't know.

To really be sure, you'd need a standard. Sigma Aldritch offers pure theanine at the unhelpful price of a dollar per mg: http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/product/sigma/smb00395?lang=en&region=US which makes you wonder why the store bottle is a thousandth the price.

I tried it too eons ago, and didn't notice anything (yes, I WAS going for some mystical Zen state beyond alpha waves . . . ).
I checked pubmed, and there are actually a LOT of papers on theanine effects (why do people always want to add which isomer? Nobody ever says "I need to check my blood levels of alpha-D-glucose") that I'm too lazy to go through. The first few look like positive anti-stress results.

If you're unfamiliar with pubmed, here's a link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=theanine+anxiety
Most of these results link to journals you need a subscription to, at unbelievable cost, unless you're a student at a university. But usually you just need the abstract.
If you are familiar with it, go ahead and sneer at my condedescension.
 
do you's know any thing like l thenine (similar safety) but actually produces effects you can feel and would help you get to sleep?
 
L theanine i think is the ethylamine amide of glutamic acid.

Ghb is structurally similar to gaba and since gaba is structurally similar glutamic acid.

Id say both ghb and l theanine have similar structures based on gaba and glutamate.

Ghb is addicting and causes severe withdrawl.

There is nothing that you can feel and knocks you out that doesnt cross the line imo from a supplement into a drug
 
Gabapentin and lyrica also have structural similarities to l theanine that is

Ho/(0=)\/\/nh2 *(id check that)

Idk about how addictive they are only used a few times
 
d1nach said:
Ghb is structurally similar to gaba and since gaba is structurally similar glutamic acid.

Id say both ghb and l theanine have similar structures based on gaba and glutamate.
Click to expand...

Theanine is metabolized to glutamate in your guts and elsewhere, and has high affinity for certain glutamate (NMDA) receptors. You don't hear about that excitatory receptor as a focus of drugs of abuse, because repeated seizures and death aren't good highs.

But OK, you're posting here because you want something to make you feel good and sleepy. Theanine effects are kind of the opposite of that. So I'd pick a different direction.

And with the majority of human morality deciding pleasure for its own sake is a sin, you can be confident that there is nothing you can buy OTC that makes you feel good. It would be scheduled and a felony to possess the moment it hit the news.
 
I use it, in combination with 5htp and dmae. Does it "work"? I like it. I've also been taking vitamin D. But these are subtle brain chemistry rebalancing tools, so it's a longer term, more subtle thing. Hey, if it works for you, why not? These aren't wacky things. Some of the science makes sense.
 
Glutamate is used to make gaba in your body

HOOC-CH2-CH2-CH(NH2)-COOH → CO2 + HOOC-CH2-CH2-CH2NH2


Therefore, anything that looks like glutamate will likely to look similar to gaba.
L theaninine
CH3CH2NH-CO-CH2-CH2-CH(NH2)-COOH *(tired might be off)
Glutamate
(In glutamic acid form)
HOOC-CH2-CH2-CH(NH2)-COOH
Gaba
HOOC-CH2-CH2-CH2NH2
 
d1nach said:
Therefore, anything that looks like glutamate will likely to look similar to gaba.
Click to expand...

Structural similarity can only get you to "slightly educated guess" in biochemistry. And really, if anything GABA resembles glycine, also a neurotransmitter.

You can't be certain of a drug's function at all without knowing the structure of the protein target, in spatial terms. Plus all the other enzymes and receptors it will encounter. A drug may fail to bind a receptor, yet have effects on regulatory proteins and change gene expression.
 
Phee said:
These aren't wacky things. Some of the science makes sense.
Click to expand...

They aren't wacky, no. Sometimes paying a lot for them when there's no way to know if it's what you really bought is.

And taking a substance out of it's context can change its effects. Eating carotenoid-containing foods protects against lung cancer in smokers; but taking Vitamin A supplements actually increases the cancer risk. Theanine with or without caffeine and green tea might have different effects.
 
Thank you for this. I really want to learn more about all of this. I'd say we're in the early stages of learning how our brains work, so we could use all the research we can get. I wasn't aware of the green tea/theanine thing. Keeping good, healthy brain chemistry balance is important, but it's especially important for people who have caused some imbalances due to substance use. Opiates are particularly difficult. I've never done meth, but that seems to be a big culprit too. We have a long way to go with all of this.
 
Imo if its to relax get some cheap store brand green tea tea decaff.

If its for a alert but calm and focused drink some cheap green tea from the store.

To maximize the relaxation brew each bag up to 5 times for the maximum green tea polyphenol.

Keep caffeine under 300 mg per day.

Each 2 g tea bag of regular store brand has 1 g of green tea polyphenols 10-30 mg of l theanine and 30-50 mg of caffeine.
 
I was wondering if there were any alternatives in general herbal or not that would be similar in the physical safety of taking l theanine.
 
Egcg its already in green tea and is imo much strong than l theanine for anxiety
 
d1nach said:
If its for a alert but calm and focused drink some cheap green tea from the store.
Click to expand...

Pretty much.
If you have the money, there's green teas out there that will keep you gently focused right to bedtime, no sleep problems (eg. sencha, gyokuro)

I think fermented teas (oolong, black, etc) also contain theanine.

College kids could sell their adderall to afford all the tea they need, do better.
 
inre: OP, I find it a useful supplement to keep around during more excitable times when I need to take a slight edge off. I'm sure a lot of people will say that it's placebo because the effect is so subtle when taken at baseline that it's hard to distinguish; however, I recall distinct times where I didn't have a benzo or something similar to bring me down from a nasty JWH (I forget which # it was) trip, and my wife administered me l-theanine to great effect. I've done the same for her in other situations, and she finds it useful as a pre-sleep aid to help quell racing thoughts.

These effects are not overt like a benzodiazepine, but it does work for some people. It is also especially useful when combined w/ a nootropic stack, as well as caffeine. It can help take the edge off things without dulling them completely, if that helps at all.
 
vacuole said:
It can help take the edge off things without dulling them completely, if that helps at all.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't think anyone actually mentioned the whole idea (at least when I first heard a thousand years ago) about theanine was that it worked with and counter to caffeine, and made green tea more smoothly alerting than caffeine would alone. Calm alertness, was the final product.

But, concentrating and purifying the individual constituents? Your placebo may vary.
 
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