Anxiety 2 Calm

October 2, 2009

Anxiety Stress







Filed under: anxiety, stress, symptoms — Tags: , — admin @ 4:48 pm

Anxiety and Stress go hand in hand. They have a symbiotic relationship meaning that they both feed off each other.

What’s the difference between anxiety and stress?

Anxiety has specific mental and physical symptoms, and is clinically identifiable. Follow this link for an explanation of anxiety symptoms. Stress on the other hand is a much more common phenomenon. Stress also much more commonly expresses itself as anger, irritation, short patience and irritability. Anxiety, on the other hand, tends to manifest itself as fear, hyperventilation, dizziness, feeling dislocated, or having stomach discomfort.

Both Anxiety and stress have been related to IBS .

If one lives constantly in a state of stress then anxiety and even an anxiety disorder are likely to follow. However this is not the case for everyone. Some people “thrive off stress” in the same way that adrenaline junkies effectively thrive off anxiety. but that does not mean that daily stress is good for you. In fact it is much better for you to be able to unwind and de-stress.  While stress might motivate you through the day and give you a buzz, when the working day is over your body needs a chance to relax.

The same tricks that help you overcome anxiety cam help you deal effectively with stress: meditation and yoga, exercise, herbal supplements and everything else mentioned on this site.

One of the main features of stress may be difficulty in getting to sleep. Insomnia can be caused by muscle tension, dwelling on the events of the day or worrying about the future or by having too many stimulants in your system.

Caffeine is an obvious candidate for removal if you want to sleep better. It can stay in your system for as long as twenty hours (although it effects different people in different ways.) Also, some people think they are unwinding from stress when they have an alcoholic drink. This is in fact not the case. Alcohol actually becomes a stimulant after it is broken down by your liver and this is one reason why many anxiety sufferers get anxiety with a hangover or even while drunk!

September 17, 2009

L-Theanine for anxiety







Filed under: supplement — Tags: , , , , , — admin @ 5:39 pm

L-Theanine has been described by some as Nature’s Valium – a miracle natural anxiety cure. This is not a bad description, as L-Theanine increases levels of the Amino acid GABA, which works in the same way as drugs like Xanax and Valium to calm anxiety and panic.

GABA can, in some countries be bought over the counter, but it is not really known if it crosses the blood-brain barrier sufficiently to make a difference to stress levels, anxiety and panic attacks. By contrast L-Theanine does cross the blood-brain barrier and is known promote alpha wave brain state, the state in which the awake mind is at it’s best: relaxed but able to to concentrate.

Does It Work?

So does it work? My personal experience has revolved around taking the Solgar Brand although others are available. It is claimed that L-Theanine gets to work in 40 minutes, helping beat insomnia and promoting relaxation. Relying on drugs and suuplents might not be wise, why not also consider things like Panic Away to help you relax and get over anxiety.

I must say, to me the results were very subtle. I have experienced taking Xanax and found L-Theanine to be quite different. I have also only ever taken one 100mg capsule (as per the instructions), but some people advocate taking much more, up to but not exceeding 600mg in 6 hours.

I am not sure if taking such a high dose is a good idea because like most supplements L-Theanine has not been thoroughly tested in the same way a new prescription drug would be. All in all, I would say for me the recommended dose provides some level of relaxation, but it isn’t revolutionary.

The supplement of L-theanine in capsules is expensive. Alternative sources are basically limited to tea, practically speaking. The problem with taking l-Theanine in tea form is that you have to drink a lot of tea to get enough, and there is no way of knowing how much there is in the tea, so it is much harder than getting it in supplement form where the standardized dosage is trustworthy, broadly speaking.

Another problem is that drinking tea ups the amount of caffeine in your system. Black tea has plenty of caffeine and green tea, despite what “gurus” may say, also stimulates you…in high doses both start to do the things you are taking L-Theanine to avoid. So why not get L-Theanine from decaffeinated tea? Because as luck would have it the process of decaffeination removes the L-Theanine!

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