Completely eliminated my severe anxiety symptoms with three supplements!

[Hip]

@Negcreep
I look forward to hearing your results with NAG etc.

On the gastritis side, have you been tested for Helicobacter pylori infection of the stomach? This bacterium may cause gastritis. Up to 40% of the population have this infection in their stomach. Helicobacter pylori can also cause depression and anxiety symptoms.

And you might want to look into whether your municipal tap water supplier puts the disinfectant chloramine (not the same as chlorine) into the drinking water. Chloramine (aka: monochloramine) is an irritant to stomach and intestinal linings, and has been shown to worsen gastritis associated with Helicobacter pylori: this gastric cell line study found that at concentrations found in drinking water, chloramine inhibits gastric cell growth in the stomach lining, and chloramine caused stomach cells to die (via apoptosis).

More info on gastritis and chloramine in this paper.

I had a lot of success in improving my irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) after removing the chloramine from my drinking water. More details on how to remove chloramine found here.

 

[Sidereal]

I've started myself on 700 mg of NAG today; will report back if I notice anything.

 

[Negcreep]

@Hip
I've received my Jarrow 700mg NAG and started on 700mg twice a day.
I can say that for me NAG definitely has a psychoactive effect. Mild relaxation and a noticeable decrease in anxiety related symptoms within a couple of hours of taking it. No real side effects at all so far.
I'm not sure how the NAG is affecting my stomach at this stage as my baseline discomfort is quite high.

I want to stop here and try to remain on NAG for a few weeks/months before giving a full review shall we say. At the moment, I am firmly in my comfort zone, that is home, work, gym only.The real test for me will be to get out in public, socialise etc.

About the other stuff....
Yes I've been tested for H.pylori several times, via blood antibody test and stool samples. Always comes up negative. I even convinced the doctor to give me the antibiotic treatment anyway, but it didn't have any effect.
My gastritis is a complicated story but basically NSAIDs have been involved (regular but not excessive use), along with fairly heavy alcohol intake on occasion (for the anxiety).

The Chloramine /vitamin C sounds like a very easy thing to try with no chance of worsening my condition. So i'll no doubt be giving it a go. Thanks, I really appreciate your suggestions.

 

[Negcreep]

Hi, I'm sorry to say that I've only able to tolerate a few dosages of NAG, unfortunately it's really irritating my gastritis (like most things). I'm very disappointed as it was definitely having an effect, and I wanted to test it much further.

Sigh! I guess it might be something that I can take in the future when my stomach heals, or perhaps I can come up with another method . Although, 700mg 2 or 3 times a day is quite a lot via any method other than swallowing it!

 

[Hip]

@Negcreep
One thing you might want to try is seeing if N-acetyl-glucosamine works transdermally: if you open the NAG capsule and tip the powder into you hand, you can apply this powder to your body skin (use a large area of skin such as on your legs for example). You can add a few drops of water to your skin as well to help the NAG absorb into the skin. I have taken a number of different supplements transdermally in this way, and it often works well.

 

[sueami]

hip would that avoid the shellfish allergy reaction i wonder? i am tempted to try that.

 

[Hip]

hip would that avoid the shellfish allergy reaction i wonder? i am tempted to try that.

I don't really know. It might be worth trying.

 

[Negcreep]

@Hip
Ok, after an evening of grumpiness and stomach burning. This morning I decided to try the trans-dermal method you suggested.
I dissolved the contents of a 700mg cap into 2.5ml of warm water. Then I mixed the water with a few squirts of my girlfriends moisturising cream. Then rubbed said cream on both legs. Felt a bit crazy doing it but its worth a try eh!

Preliminary results: After 1 hour I feel similar to when I'd previously swallowed a cap, just without more stomach irritation. To avoid jumping to conclusions I'll report back when I've been doing this for a while. Thanks for all the suggestions.

If it works, I've found somewhere I can buy what looks like pure NAG powder fairly cheaply which might be easier to use in this method.

http://www.functionalnutritionsupplements.co.uk/ultimate-glucosamine-nag#.VPA4MPmsUXt

@sueami If you are allergic to Shellfish/NAG I would expect you'd still get a reaction with the trans-dermal absorption.

 

[Hip]

@Negcreep
It would be a good idea to buy in bulk powder, though the source you linked to would actually work out more expensive than the Jarrow N-acetyl-glucosamine capsules, which cost around £20 for 750 mg x 120 capsules = total of 90 grams.

I did find a cheap bulk powder source of NAG in Australia, called Morlife N-acetyl-glucosamine. 1 Kg of Morlife NAG powder costs around £66:
Morlife N Acetyl Glucosamine
Morlife N Acetyl Glucosamine 1kg Bag
N-ACETYL GLUCOSAMINE KG - Morlife Store

@sueami If you are allergic to Shellfish/NAG I would expect you'd still get a reaction with the trans-dermal absorption.

You might still get a reaction; alternatively, while absorbing the NAG, the skin might form a barrier to any shellfish proteins within the NAG, and so prevent these proteins entering the body. Although you might get a local allergic reaction on the skin.

 

[sueami]

interestingly, this site indicates glucosamine is safe for those with shellfish allergies b/c it does not include the offending protein.

http://www.everydayhealth.com/allergies/seafood-allergy-fact-vs-fiction.aspx

im off most of my supps for now to help with gut healing but i nmay give it a try in a few weeks.

 

[Negcreep]

Update: Good news, NAG can definitely be absorbed via the trans-dermal route. Bad news, after 2 days of 700-1400mg dosing per day I developed a headache and general malaise with increased anxiety. I was forced to discontinue.
This is a shame, as there was a pronounced anxiolytic effect felt in my first few days. I am generally very sensitive to medications,so perhaps other people might be OK with this method.

@Hip After you suggested I looked into leaky gut syndrome, I decided that it was time to take a hard look at my diet. I've gone gluten free for a while to see how that works out. It may be that since leaky gut and gluten sensitivity go hand in hand that I may have developed problems with gluten after I started drinking alcohol and taking more NSAIDs (circa age 16!).Worth a try I think....

 

[Sidereal]

@Hip, I've taken Jarrow's NAG 700 mg on three non-consecutive days. It is quite anxiolytic and sedating. It kinda knocks me out for a couple of hours after I take it. I think I should switch to nighttime dosing. I'd like to be able to take it early in the day, though, because my anxiety peaks in late morning - early afternoon.

I've also been taking milled flax seed which seems to be doing good things to my gut. Any reason why you think flaxseed oil is better than seed? I would think the seed would be more beneficial due to the fibre/prebiotic content.

 

[Hip]

I've also been taking milled flax seed which seems to be doing good things to my gut. Any reason why you think flaxseed oil is better than seed? I would think the seed would be more beneficial due to the fibre/prebiotic content.

My assumption is that it is the alpha linolenic acid (ALA) in flaxseed oil that has the anti-inflammatory and anti-anxiety effect. The ALA content of flaxseed oil is around 50%. So for dried flax seed to offer similar anti-anxiety benefits, it would also have to contain a good amount of ALA.

I have just been Googling to find the ALA content of dried flax seed, and came across this book which said that dried flax contains 41% fat in total, of which 57% is ALA. So that makes the total ALA content of dried flax seed around 23%, which is about half the amount you find in flaxseed oil.

The anti-anxiety dose of flaxseed oil suggested in this thread is 15 ml daily, which works out at around 15 grams of flaxseed oil.

So I guess if you were to take double that weight of dried flax seeds, that is 30 grams of dried flax seeds daily, that might have the equivalent anti-anxiety effect of 15 ml of flaxseed oil.

As you say, the advantage of flax seeds is that it provides useful fibre/prebiotic.

 

[Sidereal]

@Hip, thanks for the explanation. Btw, I've found several other fibres/prebiotics to be anxiolytic, not only NAG and flax seed.

 

[Hip]

@Hip, thanks for the explanation. Btw, I've found several other fibres/prebiotics to be anxiolytic, not only NAG and flax seed.

Yes, me too. I mention prebiotics in my list of 29 anti-anxiety supplements at the start of the thread; I also started this thread about the ability of prebiotics to significantly reduce my anxiety levels.

My theory is that by fighting against bad bacteria in the gut, prebiotics reduce gut inflammation; and since it is known that gut inflammation can trigger brain inflammation via signals sent along the vagus nerve (which runs from gut to brain), prebiotics should reduce brain inflammation, and the anxiety symptoms that may come with it.

 

[Gondwanaland]

I've also been taking milled flax seed which seems to be doing good things to my gut.

I used to take it on a daily basis, like 1 Tbsp a day with no issues (only benefits). After some abx everything seems to make my joints hurt (psyllium, PS, ground flax etc)

 

[Sidereal]

I used to take it on a daily basis, like 1 Tbsp a day with no issues (only benefits). After some abx everything seems to make my joints hurt (psyllium, PS, ground flax etc)

Sounds like the abx killed off some beneficial gut bacteria. Have you tried NAG? I get no joint pain from this.

 

[Gondwanaland]

Sounds like the abx killed off some beneficial gut bacteria. Have you tried NAG? I get no joint pain from this.

Thanks for the tip, will add it to my wish list.

 

[starlily88]

@Hip Thanks so much for all your work. I read your forums from years ago.
I honestly thought I was going crazy - till I read all your symptoms, which is exactly what I have.
I don't do well with any supplements due to leaky gut, and Gastroparesis, colonic inertia.
Do you think that starting out with NAG, Flaxseed Oil, and Tumeric is the best? Some people seem to react badly to NAG - hurts their stomach.

As alternative to ground Tumeric, is it OK to take the ILifeLink Tumeric-Meiva made by Source Natural?
I have ground Tumeric - wrapped tightly, turns everything orange, and too harsh on my stomach.

 

[Hip]

The NAG, flaxseed oil and turmeric combination may be useful if you have generalized anxiety disorder.

ILifeLink Tumeric-Meiva is curcumin, and is not the same as turmeric.

When you say turmeric is harsh on the stomach, how much are you taking? The turmeric dose I suggested is 1000 mg, which is about half a level teaspoon.