Completely eliminated my severe anxiety symptoms with three supplements!

[Dude]

Hello, I felt that this might be the right thread for my concern. Unfortunately, I've developed new symptoms in recent weeks. My heart rate is now over 100 when I'm standing, which is completely new for me. Another issue, which is probably the cause, is a constant feeling of anxiety, as if my body is constantly releasing adrenaline. I also have cold extremities.

The thread is quite long, so I’m asking again: what are the best methods to manage this problem? I think sleep would be helpful, but it's almost impossible to sleep when feeling so wired. Additionally, my resting heart rate sitting is 104, and my blood pressure is 97, which worries me a bit. I’ve already considered taking propranolol. Unfortunately, physical activity is quite limited for me; on good days, I manage around 3,000 steps. Does anyone else have any tips or has experienced this feeling?

 

[Hip]

Another issue, which is probably the cause, is a constant feeling of anxiety, as if my body is constantly releasing adrenaline.

Most of the info from this thread has been summarised in the first two posts, so no need to read the whole thread.

If you have generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), then N-acetyl glucosamine (detailed in the first post) often works very well. And if you like you can add in other supplements I found effective for anxiety, such as flaxseed oil, turmeric, and others, to get a strong anti-anxiety effect.

If you have high heart rate, and suspected adrenaline surges, then this is reminiscent of panic disorder (PD), which usually involves short-live anxiety and adrenaline surges in the form of panic attack, which typically last for 5 to 20 minutes. I am not sure if N-acetyl glucosamine will help PD.

 

[CristianSerious]

Which supplements did you find helped the most the racing thoughts ?
If you had any

 

[Hip]

Which supplements did you find helped the most the racing thoughts ?
If you had any

I don't have racing thoughts, but if I had, I would probably try something like kava kava, as I find this generally quells my thought processes. It is the heady kavas which calm the mind, whereas the heavy kavas relax the body and are sedating.

 

[asymmetry]

I’ve found low dose instant release methylphenidate (Ritalin) good for this, sometimes in combo with low dose benzodiazepines. Appreciate these are pharmaceuticals though.

 

[pixel3cs]

After carefully reading about anxiety and brain inflammation on this topic, I made some connections and decided to give NAG, NAC, and glycine a try. And WOW. I am now completely cured of anxiety and have stopped the psychiatric medication. Full story is on my "Introduce Yourself" topic. My gastritis was induces by my anxiety and anxiety was induced by latent lumbar inflammation and didn't knew this until took the aminoacids.

 

[Nosferatu80]

Has anyone noticed any gut side effects? I saw another thread about NAG feeding candida and mutating it to a virulent state but at the end of the thread it was inconclusive, and another about NAG causing nausea. Thanks!

 

[Wayne]

The following comprehensive article may have some information on anxiety that would be of interest to readers of this thread:

https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/what-they-dont-tell-you-about-anxiety

 

[pixel3cs]

Have some updates. My source of anxiety is amygdala hyperactivity which capture most of my dopamine and leave a little for prefrontal cortex. I am so relaxed and focused when I engage in socialization and all kind of activities that raise dopamine and serotonin in the prefrontal cortex. Have bad anxiety episodes mostly when I'm alone and get sucked in ruminations. My fear/emotion center in the brain gets activated instantly on different abberant triggers and this gives me a constant brain strain (mental tension). Sometimes my mental tension is gradually raising without letting me notice anything. I use to not feel tiredness and my signals that there is something wrong in the brain are all kind of psychosomatic events. NAG is still the best supplement for me together with Resveratrol.

 

[Guwop2]

Have some updates. My source of anxiety is amygdala hyperactivity which capture most of my dopamine and leave a little for prefrontal cortex.

Did you find this out by having some sort of brain scan?

 

[gelliott]

Hi xrayspex.

I tried a low-lectin diet along with taking lectin binders like NAG a while ago, based on Dr Gundry's recommendations. But in my case it did not help (although I only did the diet for 2 months, and Dr Gundry says you need to do it for longer to see benefits on your illnesses).

I've forgotten most of the details, but looking at my notes it says:

[Take N-acetyl-glucosamine (NAG) with potatoes, rice, tomatoes, barely and rye, as these foods contain chitin-binding lectins, 1 which bind to glucosamine. (got dropped from my quote)]​

NAG also binds to and neutralizes the dietary lectin wheat germ agglutinin, which is found in wheat products. However, I don't think the anti-anxiety benefits I get from NAG come from its lectin-neutralizing action, because I usually take NAG on an empty stomach, away from any meals (if you take NAG with meals, some of it may be lost due to binding with dietary lectins, so for that reason it is advised to take NAG on an empty stomach, unless you are specifically using NAG for its lectin-binding actions).

When I first accidentally discovered the anti-anxiety effects of NAG, and starting taking around 3 x 700 mg daily, I noticed it would cause some mild depression in me too. So I reduced the dose to 1 x 700 mg, and the depression side effect more or less disappeared, but the anti-anxiety effect still worked.

So you can consider reducing the dose, and seeing if that works for you.

I know these are very old posts, but still wanted to see if replying goes anywhere. I very specifically study Gundry's diet methods (out of necessity).

I would have an inflammatory response to any of "potatoes, rice, tomatoes, barely and rye". I take a Gundry supplement ("Lectin Shield") occasionally that contains "N-Acetyl D-Glucosamine" (don't know if the "D-" is significant).

But this is only in a context of virtually completely obeying the elimination (restrictions) part of the Gundry diet method, and then take that supplement when I wind up eating minor amounts of the items with lectins. It seems to work reasonably well in that context, in that it reduces or shortens the duration my symptoms perhaps by half or better depending on what I ate and how much.

Even though Gundry's supplement advertising suggests use like you discuss, my opinion is that one with leaky gut must follow the elimination part of the diet almost perfectly and only use the supplements to improve after small deviations on the elimination of foods with lectins. (Like going to a restaurant and getting a sandwich.)

A side note: The grains, barley, rye, and even wheat varieties can only be handled by elimination and a bit of reduction by supplementation as discussed. However potatoes, rice, and tomatoes' lectins can be mitigated by pressure cooking. I personally have varied response to pressure cooking these items. I can tolerate most white (e.g. nightshade) potatoes quite well if pressure cooked, and rice pretty well also pressure cooked. Tomatoes in very small quantities especially deseeding and removing skins like common in Italian cooking can be tolerated, the pressure cooking of tomatoes doesn't seem to work well for me personally.

I don't think that using these supplements will produce a significantly positive result for anyone with leaky gut (high gut permeability) unless combined with elimination of almost all the lectins and similar compounds. Then such supplements can help mitigate the last vestiges of these compounds in the diet to allow a bit more variety when done carefully, but should not be used as the primary treatment.

My main point about trying the Gundry diet method is the almost completely rigorous adherence to the elimination or "no" lists, as even one or two slipping through can raise inflammation near the levels before trying the method. It is hard to do so and many people fail to get results that sill may be possible because they don't actually get all the lectins out of their diet. I agree that results get better over months, but one should see some improvement in inflammation in a short time period if actually getting all the lectins out.

There is a "phase 1" diet step in the books that is extremely restricted. If you can tolerate that it will almost guarantee that there are no lectins, and this phase lets some of the bad actors in the gut microbiota phase out.

Another interesting aspect is that gut microbes that eat lectins like gluten can die out if not "fed". So a person who has some leaky gut might be able to eat some white bread (without dough conditioners or whole grain) without symptoms, if having relatively often in small quantity. But then stopping cold for a while the gut microbes that eat the lectin die out, and resuming the food will produce a spike in inflammation even at the same quantity as before, until the mitigating gut microbe population is rebuilt.

 

[bioengineer]

Dear Hip,


Thank you so much for your suggestion to try NAG. I’ve suffered from debilitating anxiety for all my life, and NAG has provided significant relief.


Since then, I’ve been diving into every paper I can find on the molecule, including those related to O-GlcNAcylation and associated mechanisms. However, I have one major concern: the potential cancer risk that even moderate doses of long-term supplementation might pose.


Please take a look at the study below. What are your thoughts on this?
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9077085/


I would love to take NAG daily for the rest of my life, but based on the conclusions I’ve drawn from this paper, I’m afraid it might not be as safe as it's often suggested.


Best regards,

bioengineer

 

[Hip]

Thank you so much for your suggestion to try NAG. I’ve suffered from debilitating anxiety for all my life, and NAG has provided significant relief.


Since then, I’ve been diving into every paper I can find on the molecule, including those related to O-GlcNAcylation and associated mechanisms. However, I have one major concern: the potential cancer risk that even moderate doses of long-term supplementation might pose.


Please take a look at the study below. What are your thoughts on this?
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9077085/

Glad you found NAG worked for your anxiety.

Thanks for the link to that paper, interesting. When I first looked at this paper, it seemed possibly worrying, but having now examined the study more closely, as far as I can tell, I don't think it is much cause for concern (so I have edited my post here).


Apparently the DNA damage observed in mice in the paper occurred at NAG doses of 7500 mg/kg per day. Dividing this number by 12.3 to get a human dose, that equates to 610 mg/kg for a human. So for an 80 kg human, that would be a NAG oral dose of around 50 grams.

This dose is much higher than the daily dose used for anxiety, which is around 1 gram.

The study also examined the DNA damage that a high glucose diet created in mice, feeding mice glucose doses of 15,000 mg/kg per day, which is an equivalent human dose of around 100 grams of glucose daily (the study says average Americans actually consume 126 grams of sugar per day).

High-dose glucose also resulted in increased DNA damage, but only in the pancreas, whereas high-dose NAG resulted in increased DNA damage in the pancreas as well as other organs tested (brain, kidney, liver, lung, and colon).

If you look at Figure 5 of the study, you see that in the mice pancreas, the DNA damage from a high glucose diet at 15,000 mg/kg per day is comparable to the DNA damage caused by consuming NAG at 7500 mg/kg per day (which is a human equivalent dose of 50 grams of NAG daily).

So even at this very high human dose of 50 grams of NAG daily, the DNA damage in the pancreas is no more than you would get from a diet high in sugar, which most Americans consume anyway.

From this paper, I find it hard to work out what the increased risk of developing cancer might be from supplementing with NAG at low doses of around 1 gram daily, but my guess is that it will be minimal. It might require further animal studies, looking to see if long-term NAG administration leads to increased cancer rates.

I posted the study on Reddit biochemistry and molecular biology forums (see this thread and this), asking whether this study was a cause for concern, but people on Reddit were generally dismissive that this study had uncovered any risks for people taking NAG at low doses.