Comment · Sat, February 6, 2021 · ND Owner
Herbal GABAergics and dependency
Original post in this thread
bejaq · 20 points
It seems that it's generally assumed that herbal supplements that work on GABA like gotu kola, skullcap, lemon balm, magnolia are not prone to causing dependency and withdrawal.
However there have been (relatively rare) claims to the contrary.
To be honest I am a bit concerned with the lack of information on this subject, and my intuition is that in the absence of contrary evidence, it should be assumed that substances that have similarities in receptor-action to benzodiazepines, alcohol, phenibut (if only by working on gaba) might be prone to inducing dependency and withdrawal.
Personally I like the feeling of benzos a lot and if there is safe alternative I certainly would like to take it more than occasionally.
It would be awesome to have a substance that helps the GABA system regulate itself better, and the complex pharmacology of herbs might be better suited to that?
But I feel it might be a little bit naive to believe that unless there is actual evidence for that.
It should be noted that when it comes to benzos and opiates, it took a long time and many people using them for the understanding of their true addictive potential to become clear, so that also seems good t…
What they were answering
umbrella_term · 1 points
Lemon balm will increase GABA by slowing down its breakdown
Just out of curiosity -- how come this doesn't result in increased tolerance? I know you said that with Sleep Support, you wanted a product that could be taken every day.
Edit: My crystal ball tells me the answer starts with "It's complicated".
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
LOL, it's always complicated. Generally, slowing down the breakdown of something is a much more gradual modulation than acting directly on a receptor. For instance, L-theanine increases endogenous GABA as well, and it doesn't really have tolerance either. Most of the time full on tolerance happens because of over-activation of a receptor, causing down-regulation or changes in conformational state. That's not to say that there can't be SOME tolerance, but the levels we are talking about are mild.