Tips for decreasing glutamate?

Hey there

I feel like, as I continue slowly to taper Clonazepam, physical and emotional symptoms are piling on. Sleeping is still the worse obstacle, but

even when I do sleep I wake up so often in the night that I get up in the morning still exhausted. I feel like many things are way out of balance, including

gaba and glutamate. As the calming effect of Clonazepam, if there was any left, leaves me, the excitatory effect of glutamate is taking over?

Thoughts on decreasing glutamate?

thanks

LN

Theanine and Lavender both work by blocking glutamate receptors. They do not touch GABA.

If you can tolerate them, you might want to give them a try and see if they help you?

I started having glutamate storm just couple days off valium (jumped 0.1mg) after a slow taper. Had to eliminate 80% of food items I usually eat.

Complete restrictions from histamine, glutamate containing food helps. Also avoid all chemicals, cleaning products, hygiene products etc.

Really sucks though

There really isn't anything out there that decreases Glutamate.  The best you can hope for is to "mask" some of its effects, however, in my experience TIME and TIME alone are the only healers.

There are no shortcuts, supplements or potions to take to speed up sleep returning.

The good news is the damage is temporary and your body knows how to fix the damage and put GABA and Glutamate back in balance

The bad news is no one knows how long that will be as WD and recovery are unique to each person.

Good luck!

"There really isn't anything out there that decreases Glutamate.  The best you can hope for is to "mask" some of its effects, however, in my experience TIME and TIME alone are the only healers. There are no shortcuts, supplements or potions.."

Ummm, potions?

Really, theway2? Do you have any evidence to back that up, or is this another of your opinions? Because I've done some reading about the how the brains of people with autism are out of gaba-glutamate balance and that reducing excess glutamate, and restoring the balance, in the brain can lead to reduced symptoms.

Suggestions for glutamate reduction for them range from the use of medications to dietary changes. Am I wrong?

I was wondering if anyone decreasing or discontinuing benzodiazapines, and experiencing a similar imbalance, had similar experiences, such as dietary, behavioral, medication adjustments.

Thank you to other posters.

"There really isn't anything out there that decreases Glutamate.  The best you can hope for is to "mask" some of its effects, however, in my experience TIME and TIME alone are the only healers. There are no shortcuts, supplements or potions.."

Ummm, potions?

Really, theway2? Do you have any evidence to back that up, or is this another of your opinions? Because I've done some reading about the how the brains of people with autism are out of gaba-glutamate balance and that reducing excess glutamate, and restoring the balance, in the brain can lead to reduced symptoms.

Suggestions for glutamate reduction for them range from the use of medications to dietary changes. Am I wrong?

 

I was wondering if anyone decreasing or discontinuing benzodiazapines, and experiencing a similar imbalance, had similar experiences, such as dietary, behavioral, medication adjustments.

 

Thank you to other posters.

What TheWay2 meant, is that there is no permanent way of reducing glutamate. I'm sure if you took a glutamate agonist for a few weeks, the body would downregulate the glutamate receptors. It would be absolute hell on earth to endure it, but once off, your body would just upregulate the receptors again.

What there is, is supplements that "mask" glutamate.

I mentioned Theanine and Lavender. These supps bind to the glutamate receptors, but they themselves that very weak glutamate activity. So they work by blocking the receptor from being affected by the much stronger glutamate molecule. They are too weak to make a permanent change, but for the 2 - 3 hour half-life they have, excess glutamate sides will be reduced.

"There really isn't anything out there that decreases Glutamate.  The best you can hope for is to "mask" some of its effects, however, in my experience TIME and TIME alone are the only healers. There are no shortcuts, supplements or potions.."

Ummm, potions?

Really, theway2? Do you have any evidence to back that up, or is this another of your opinions? Because I've done some reading about the how the brains of people with autism are out of gaba-glutamate balance and that reducing excess glutamate, and restoring the balance, in the brain can lead to reduced symptoms.

Suggestions for glutamate reduction for them range from the use of medications to dietary changes. Am I wrong?

 

I was wondering if anyone decreasing or discontinuing benzodiazapines, and experiencing a similar imbalance, had similar experiences, such as dietary, behavioral, medication adjustments.

 

Thank you to other posters.

Yes, really.  If there was something someone could take to speed up the healing and recovery process, it would be all over this forum.  How do you reduce excess glutamate?  You can "mask" the effects of excess glutamate which then reduce symptoms, but how can you reduce it permanently?  What is out there that does that?  Masking excess glutatmate doesn't reduce it any more than taking a pain killer, such as Tylenol, to eliminate the root cause of pain.  The Tylenol simply "masks' the pain, it doesn't treat or cure the cause of the pain. 

Sure, you want to avoid foods that could spike your symptoms and that are high in glutamate, but the BENZO down regulates GABA so it no longer functions properly.  GABA and GLUTAMATE are normally in a balancing act so one doesn't dominate the other.  Unfortunately after a Benzo takes GABA out of the picture, Glutamate dominates.  Even if there are medications or OTC supplements to take that lower Glutamate, they still don't restore the GABA/Glutamate balance; they only work like Tylenol at masking the severity of symptoms.  They can't do anything else, because they can't restore GABA...only time can do that.

Plus I have my own experience with having a Benzo induced WD that allowed glutamate to rule the day and night, so yeah, I think my opinion is just as valid as anything you are "reading."  In desperation, people in WD want to have an "out" or a supplement or Rx drug that can improve their suffering by reducing symptoms and/or symptom severity.  For some people, for example, Gabapentin works well and reduces the severity of symptoms, but it doesn't make those symptoms go away faster than they would have if they took nothing!

Sleep has way more to do with sleep drive and circadian rhythm.  Just like GABA and Glutatmate need to be balanced, sleep drive and your circadian rhythm need to be balanced or in "sync."  If they are off one way or the other, sleep is hard to come by even without Benzos in the picture.  That's why tens of millions around the world suffer from sleep issues that have nothing to do with taking Benzos or other Rx drugs.  Benzos temporarily destroy your sleep drive, by taking GABA out of the picture.  While your circadian rhythm might be fine, your sleep drive isn't so you can't sleep because they are not in sync.