Benzos GH and recovery from withdrawals

Well my thread (my experimental withdrawal from gabaergics) had been moved to ADD ahcieves and I couldn't reply there. This maybe isn't very advanced but if you like to move it to ADD and that original thread that is fine to me. Just a short update of my thoughts about GHRP:s and GH roles in recovery from withdrawals.

Well last time I stopped my many months benzo usage very fast (at the beginning of summer) and didn't taper much but it went very smoothly compared to year 2008 when I last withdrew. Well what was different I had lyrica and phenibut (allthough I have builded tolerance to most of their effects because I have been using lyrica three years and phenibut a year) and I was fasting and using GHRP:s. That how well it went supprised me. I speculated that one reason was because of ketogenic diet and GHRP.

About month after I had quite benzos this summer I started using them again only two or three weeks everyday. I knew I would have again withdrawals because there was only about month break from last withdrawals so I was still recovering and thinking that I would have withdrawals again BUT I thought also that it wasn't so bad last time so I would go through it again.

And this time I did it without GHRP and not as intensive fasting/ketosis. And this has been such a shit now! Last time I did about the same regimen: after last xanax I took two days valium, 10mg and 5mg and stopped. This time I did allmost identically rapid tapering with xanax and temazepam and took last two days valium 10mg and 5mg. Differences has been:

1) Last time my withdrawals lasted about one week after last valium and then my mood brightened very well along with the symptoms disappeared. Now it has been 15 (fifteen!) days and I have still bad withdrawal symptoms ex. my eye is still constantly twitching, muscle have tremors, hands are shaking and now I have become allso extremely fatiqued. Allso my panics and anxietys have been much worse and frightening.

2) I have lost weight about 10lbs. Last time I did loose 0lbs!

3) My strenght has gone very down about 30% decrease. Last time it didn't.

4) My sleep has been much worse even though I had been taking phenibut 10g wich I didn't need last time.

Overall this has been much worse experience without GHRP. It is allmost similarly to year 2008 experience when I also didn't had that extra GH. I have still headache wich I had only minor then.

The difference has been so HUGE that it is hard to believe anymore this is placebo. Tomorrow I'll propably start taking GHRP again and if you don't delete this I can update if that is going to make difference.

I think it's logical to assume that GH would help and shorten withdrawals as it does shorten recovery from any kind of physical traumas as well. After all brain is allso a physical organ wich has receptor to GH. It has been shown to speed up process of fracture or muscle healing and it has been used for burn victims. GHRH dosing has been allso shown to prevent and/or reverse dementia. Also speaking of PAWS.. Now I have a feeling I might get (or might have allready) PAWS, last time I didn't get absolutely nothing. Maybe there really happens some damage to brain cells during withdrawals and that is what causes PAWS and if there is a powerful neuroprotectant like GH that will eliminate the cause of PAWS.

- Young people has more growth hormone and they recover better than older

- Bucklecroft Rudy pasted this link in opiates and brain damage thread: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=can-hgh-reverse-brain-dam

"The team isolated developing nerve cells from a mouse fetus in petri dishes and bathed them in morphine for a week; they added synthetic growth hormone to some of the cultures. Their findings: cells exposed only to morphine began to die off, but those also infused with HGH persisted and, in some cases, increased."

It would be very interesting to see studies done with recovering addicts given GHRP. I bet results would be very good even better than with synthetic GH because of natural pulsatile secretion GHRP:s create.

If someone else here is soon going through withdrawals AND has done that before (so know what to compare) I would be very interested to hear what experience other people have with GHRP. If someone is interested to try those during withdrawals?

Clearly you'll lose weight on a ketogenic diet. That's practically it's definition. U would think eating would help ur body recover by giving it energy to start producing all the good natural anxiolytics that ur so missing post benzo abuse

But if you read my post I said there I was allso on ketogenic diet last time but only now I loose weight. I mean last time I had much more energy and could been in gym but know I tried it couple of times but my strength had gone down to atleast 30% in few days. Last time those kind of changes didn't happen. As I said only change has been not as intensive ketogenic diet and fasting and not GHRP. So I have eaten more carbs wich could allso explain worse withdrawals.

My previous thread I posted there studies wich showed that fasting and ketogenic diet improves brain gabaergic activity (increase in GAD entsyme and allso ketone acetoacid or BHB could maybe act on gaba receptors) and posses neuroprotective effects wich I think could help in withdrawals.

But now I'm not sure wich has the biggest effect (GHRP or fasting). Or maybe they are synergistically together I don't know. Anyway I believe they have very positive effect.

I would be glad to hear if someone here like to try fasting or GHRP during withdrawals. But people who are kind of carb "addicts" need to practise fast so that their bodies can handle the fat easily when withdrawals start. Maybe if someone isn't "fat adapted" fast might worsen things at least first days.

In my thread that was in ADD section I posted many links regarding neuroprotective and antiseizure effect of ketogenic diet. I'm too lazy at the moment to post them again at here - so if you are interested about them more you can read them in ADD section on my withdrawal thread.

I just want to put a little update regarding my withdrawal and ketogenic diet, fast and growth hormone's role in all this.

I started another thread here where I told details about my ongoing withdrawal procedure wich is now clonazepam, baclofen and lyrica. You can read details there. Unfortunately (as I am addict) I have had a major relapse last week or maybe two week when I started using phenibut again with increasingly dosages over two weeks (ending up using 20g/day) and increased a little of my clonazepam dose but not much fortunately. Also increased a little my Lyrica intake. All this was because there was some parties and I wanted to be like party mood and ended up using alcohol... so maybe someone here know what alcohol can do. Well there went two weeks but I managed to cut it last weekend and dropped phenibut away and replaced it again with baclofen at dose 100mgx2/day and clonazepam 1,25mg/day, Lyrica 600mg day.

I have had bad time here after weekend and my withdrawals has gone definately worse because there is also hangover from alcohol etc. Anyway it seems things are again getting better but I'm having much more withdrawals now that I had two weeks ago.

Now I have been again using ketogenic diet and much of coconut oil (wich is almost as pure MCT oil). Now I can definately confirm that ketogenic diet, fast and coconut oil (wich converts easily to ketone bodies in body and shifts metabolism and genes favoring fat burning) helps in withdrawal symptoms. I have been doing intermittent fasting (16h of not eating and 8h eating period) but in the fast time I use coconut oil so basically it isn't a really fast but at least caloric restriction and should make metabolism about same it is in fasting state but maybe better because of increased ketone bodies.

So I now take baclofen and lyrica during day but don't take clonazepam. Actually I have been able to replace my clonazepam dose for coconut oil. It gives sometimes a relaxed feeling and sametime increased energy and takes away withdrawal symptoms from clonazepam - anxiety, muscle tightness/cramps, fear, restlesness, panic etc.

I will put here a few links regarding ketones role in improving brain health. But if you get interested you could see other links I have put from ADD section in my thread. Also because this thread is about GH's role in improving withdrawals and recovery - wich I have believed strongly - I put link to one study regarding gh and gaba-b receptors.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/evolutionary-psychiatry/201104/your-brain-ketones

Quotes are from above link:

"Glutamate has several fates, rather like our old buddy tryptophan. It can become GABA (inhibitory), or aspartate (excitatory and, in excess, neurotoxic). Ketogenic diets seem to favor glutamate becoming GABA rather than aspartate. No one knows exactly why, but part of the reason has to do with how ketones are metabolized, and how ketosis favors using acetate (acetoacetate is one of the ketone bodies, after all) for fuel. Acetate becomes glutamine, an essential precursor for GABA."

"When we change the main fuel of the brain from glucose to ketones, we change amino acid handling. And that means we change the ratios of glutamate and GABA. The best responders to a ketogenic diet for epilepsy end up with the highest amount of GABA in the central nervous system."

In ADD thread I have posted studies wich showed that ketogenic diet, intermittent fasting etc. produce more GAD (glutamic acid decarboxylase) wich could potentially be the reason why gaba is increased during fast and ketogenic diet. Also there is links for evidence that ketone bodies protect brain cells wich is obviously what one would need during withdrawals.

There is more studies and evidence about benefits of ketogenic diet/fast but right now I have not time to put them here.

Growth hormone increases GABA-b receptor density and function:

http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?doi=339821

"The effects of the hormone were determined by quantitative autoradiography and by GABAB stimulated [35S]-GTPγS binding using the selective GABAB receptor agonist baclofen. The results demonstrate moderate but significant alterations in both receptor density and functionality in a number of brain regions. For example, a dose-dependent upregulation of GABAB receptors was found in the cingulate cortex, primary motor cortex and caudate putamen, whereas attenuation in the receptor density was encountered in, for example, the medial geniculate nucleus."

Just a little speculation.. From many sources I have been reading that baclofen doesn't form significant tolerance even after long-term use. Could it be that it somehow relates to it potential to increase GH? It increases GH and that increase could be enough to cause gaba-b receptor upregulation and so at the same time when baclofen itself causes downregulation gh neutralizes that by causing upregulation? Just wondering.

Is there anyone who has used baclofen long-term and have had tolerance problems like with benzodiazepines?