L-glutamine for anxiety and gut
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In module three you mentioned GABA for anxiety.
L-glutamine is the precursor for GABA and I believe it crosses the BBB.
I’m curious if you’ve tried l-glutamine and if it works well with autistic kids?
Some people respond to L-glutamine really well for anxiety, much better than GABA and I’m not sure why.
L-glutamine potentially has a double-benefit effect because it helps heal the gut.
But, some say L-glutamine can sometimes alternatively convert to glutamate which is excitotoxic (exactly opposite of what we’re looking for). Wondering if you’ve seen that.
The biggest issue with L-glutamine, at least initially, is the potential for hyperstimulation within the nervous system, i.e. glutamate effect on the NMDA receptors. I have seen this on a number of occassions. I feel it is okay to add later after you have had a chance to assess for infections, quinolinic acid levels, food sensitivities, etc. and work at reducing toxicity overall. If added too soon it definitely seems to cause more problems than good. At least that has been my experience.
Sincerely,
Dr. WoellerDr. Woeller,
I have a question concerning this.
I started my daughter on L-Glutamine 4/15/15, does not seem to have adverse effects so far. I started her on 500 mg non flush inositol Hexiniacinate on 5/22/15. With this addition have seen good results. She is much more calm and seems to be watching surroundings more, has said Mom, is building blocks again.. Can I attribute these things to the combination?
My question is this, I am giving L-gluatmine at 9 am and niacin at 3. Would it be better given together since I see good results.
Also, you mention high quinolinic. Hers did show high on test before starting these supplements. Is there anything I should watch out for. I think I remember you saying non flush niacin was good at lowering quinolinic markers.Dolly,
The inositol helps to increase serotonin release which could have a positive effect on mood. The L-glutamine may be helping with GABA levels too. Combined together helping more…? maybe? It is easy enough to try. There are many things in biomedicine for autism that are unknown, and every situation is a little different. Therefore, you could try as a combination. The one thing about your daughter is her overall sensitivity which has made things more difficult to figure out as you know. Therefore, if the combination doesn’t work you should know quite quickly.Quinolinic acid can lead to over-stimulation of the nervous system. That might manifest as anxiety and irritability. The difficult issue is knowing whether those issues are directly related to quinolinic acid specifically as anxiety is quite prevalent in autism anyway even in those with normal quinolinic acid.
Dr WoellerDr. Woeller,
I have a few patients, who although are not diabetic, fasting BG is always in mid-80s…when they take glutamine 500-1000 mg, their fasting BG shoots up 30-40 points. Go off glutamine and levels go back to normal. No gut issues going on. I know glutamine plays a role in the control of blood glucose so I assume these persons have an abnormal glutamine metabolism. Would this have anything to do with the NMDA receptors?Kim,
It doesn’t control blood sugar through NMDA receptor activity that I know of. Instead it helps to control blood sugar via a couple mechanism: Inhibits insulin’s further decreasing of blood sugar and stimulate glycogen release for glucose production. Therefore, what you are describing likely has to do with both of these and definitely the second one – glycogen release. This is a link to an interesting article on L-glutamine – http://www.thewayup.com/newsletters/041501.htm.Dr. Woeller
Thanks, Dr. Woeller, for the link to the article and my wondering if the NMDA receptor had any involvement. So what would you advise for a patient that would benefit from glutamine supplement, yet has the adverse effect of it elevating their FBS? I assume there is an issue with adequate enzyme levels involved in the conversion. I did note the article stated that any free form amino acid should always be taken with P-5-P and other co-factors. Those are already in their multi-vitamin…so should I recommend they take an additional amount of those co-factors above what is already in the multi?
Kim,
Just using Pyroxidine HCL (vitamin B6) is sufficient. Check out the product Support Glucose from BioHealth – http://www.biomatrixone.com. This is specifically tailored for blood sugar issues and there is a lot of information that goes along with it.
Dr. Woeller
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