Medicine side effect of edgeness

[Zen Peddler]

Im on a medication that at times makes me feel a little edgey. Not hugely so, just mildly. its not terrible but I wonder whether there is anything I could take that might calm it down just a little

The medications are an alpha 1 adrenergic agonist and an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. they work well for what they are supposed to treat but the side effect is a little annoying at times.

i was thinking tulsi tea but I guess i need to find something that doesnt mess with these meds.

[Foo]

Heroin, definetly.

[Zen Peddler]

Good call...

They are a weird combo - one makes me sleepy as fuck the other makes me wired and I swing between the two... I went from jumpy to sleepy within two hpurs and had to live off caffeine for most of the arvo. How the fuck im going to work on these meds is gonna be interesting. LOL

[Torsten]

theanine? seems to take the edge off without causing sedation.

[chilli]

I use L-theanine every day, its always hard to tell if it is having much an effect or placebo but for whatever reasons I haven't had a lot of anxiety lately, despite factors that should have caused some. Certainly hasn't caused any drowsiness.

I would be interested if you try it to hear if you think it makes a difference. I've been using this one.

There is also evidence it may have a beneficial synergy with caffeine:

L-Theanine is an amino acid found naturally in tea. Despite the common consumption of L-theanine, predominantly in combination with caffeine in the form of tea, only one study to date has examined the cognitive effects of this substance alone, and none have examined its effects when combined with caffeine. The present randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind, balanced crossover study investigated the acute cognitive and mood effects of L-theanine (250 mg), and caffeine (150 mg), in isolation and in combination. Salivary caffeine levels were co-monitored. L-Theanine increased 'headache' ratings and decreased correct serial seven subtractions. Caffeine led to faster digit vigilance reaction time, improved Rapid Visual Information Processing (RVIP) accuracy and attenuated increases in self-reported 'mental fatigue'. In addition to improving RVIP accuracy and 'mental fatigue' ratings, the combination also led to faster simple reaction time, faster numeric working memory reaction time and improved sentence verification accuracy. 'Headache' and 'tired' ratings were reduced and 'alert' ratings increased. There was also a significant positive caffeine x L-theanine interaction on delayed word recognition reaction time. These results suggest that beverages containing L-theanine and caffeine may have a different pharmacological profile to those containing caffeine alone.

Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm....pubmed/18006208

Edited February 19, 2012 by chilli

[Zen Peddler]

thanks! Ill give it a go!

[Torsten]

I react pretty badly to caffeine, but can drink tea and guayusa, both of which contain large amounts of theanine. Guayusa contains more theanine [and also more caffeine] and I tolerate it best of all.

So I tried taking theanine with coffee and with pure caffeine and same thing happens. It takes away all of the jitters, agitation and anxiety.

For sleep it seems to do the same as gaba in that it helps fall asleep, but then the dreams get all weird.

It also lowers urine output. I used to take gaba for this when taking off for a long day in the city, but now I use theanine instead.

[coin]

where can I get guayusa??

[Torsten]

sorry for late reply...

organic sustainably harvested guayusa is available at www.kodaphytorium.com.au in a couple of weeks.

[Zen Peddler]

Great, thanks again T. Might be good for energy but calm.

[coin]

thanks Torsten ... looking forward to trying it.

Torsten - how do you find theanine now? My crappy memory seems to recall that at some stage you were having negative reactions to theanine ??

I find theanine mysterious!....it has *some* effect but it's kind of like I can't really notice it except over days where I might notice I will have a reduced stress response, but I have a close friend that loves having days off work where he takes 1/2 teaspoon every hour for half a day and it reminds me of when he has taken mild benzos (o/s holidays) to the point where he starts having short-term memory loss, gets really introverted/insular, etc. (I find it annoying)...it seems mildly addictive to him. Not a big deal.