alternative medicine for anxiety
Alternative medicines for anxiety that'swhat I'm going to be talking Today's though is about anxiety even though there's a lot of medicationoptions to treat anxiety there are a lot of biases against taking a medicationfor it. Ain't nobody here crazy.
And some people will just feel more comfortabletaking something over-the-counter if they're gonna take anything at all. Sohere are five options or alternative medications non prescription that areused for anxiety. Number one chamomile. Chamomile is aplant from the Daisy family and it has a number of uses and one is a sedativewhich is where it helps with anxiety and sleep but it's also used as anantispasmodic agent which assists with digestion and respiratory things likeasthma.
You can get it as an essential oil to use in aromatherapy or you canget it as a tea or in pill form. There haven't been a lot of randomized trialsfor this and randomized trial is just code for a rigorous scientific studythat scientists take seriously. But one scientific study showed benefit for mildto moderate generalized anxiety. The suggested dose is 1100 milligrams a day.Chamomile is pretty well tolerated without side effects however it isderived from the plant family that includes ragweed and chrysanthemums andthese plants commonly cause allergic reactions in people.
So those prone toallergies should be cautious because the chamomile could trigger a similarreaction and some of these reactions can be pretty serious such as wheezing orchest tightness or even hives. Another issue with chamomile is it containscoumarin a naturally occurring blood thinning agentfound in plants. Now this is not to be confused with coumadin which is asynthetically produced blood thinning agent and it's made from coumarin andother agents. The generic name for coumadin is warfarin and people willtake coumadin in to treat blood clots and other blood clotting disorders.
It's notexpected though that regular doses of chamomile will cause bleeding but if youare someone who is taking blood thinning agents such as coumadin, aspirin or evenhigh doses of vitamin E, you should avoid the combination of chamomile along withyour other medications because it could cause bleeding problems.Next is kava. Kava is a plant found in the South Pacific and it's been used foryears to treat anxiety and insomnia. The typical dose for insomnia is 125 to 250milligrams taken at bedtime and here's the ugly of kava. There's been some casereports of liver toxicity attributed to using kava and it's mostly beenoutside of the United States.
Liver injuries include hepatitis which isinflammation of the liver, cirrhosis of the liver which is hardening of theliver and even liver failure. The incidences of liver toxicity are lowenough to be considered rare, but the FDA's nevertheless has issued warningsabout the possibility of this and urge people with pre-existing liver problemsto consult their physician before taking any products that contain kava. In factCanada and European countries have banned the use of kava entirely.Another precaution to keep in mind is that kava has a lot of drug interactionsso this means it can negatively affect other medications that you're taking.Some people who've taken kava for months have noticed a slight yellowing of theskin or a scaly rash on their skin.
The yellow skin disappears once you stoptaking the kava. So for all of the above reasons although Kava may be helpful, it's generally not recommended. Next is L-theanine. Theanine is an aminoacid which is a building block for proteins. L-theanine is one form or oneversion of the bigger theanine that can be found in green tea. Theanine resemblesglutamate which is a neurotransmitter that's important in memory and learning.The research shows that it may help with relaxation but it's not really robustenough to take care of an anxiety disorder. The recommended dose is 200 to400 milligrams a day and that's a lot of tea to drink. But it does come in a pillform as well and there aren't a lot of reported side effects.
So even thoughit's not really seen as a real heavy hitter when it comes to helping withanxiety it still may be helpful for general relaxation. Next is valerian.Valerian is a plant that's native to Europe and South Africa. The dietarysupplement is made from the plant's root which is why it's often called valerianroot. iIt works by increasing and blocking the reuptake of the brain chemical gammaamino butyric acid which is also called GABA.Unfortunately the studies for valerian are extremely limited in poor and theyreally haven't shown benefit over placebo. The recommended dose though isanywhere between 500 and 1200 milligrams in divided doses so that's for thewhole day.
And then you need to take it between 2 and 3 times a day so if you'resomeone who can't really handle or don't want to have to think about takingsomething multiple times a day, it may not be the supplement for you. The commonside effects are headache and diarrhea. Incidentally I have acquired it in anessential oil form instead of a pill and used in an aromatherapy I thought it wassomewhat relaxing but it did not smell good. But that is one alternative optionfor the use of it rather than needing to take thesupplement. And lastly there's GABA. As I mentioned GABA stands forgamma-aminobutyric acid and it's an inhibitory neurotransmitterwhich means that it's a chemical in the brain that's made by the nerve cells andit works to inhibit or slow down cell activity so you can think of it as likeputting water on a fire.
So in this analogy the hot fire would be your brainactivity and the GABA would be the water. So in theory this sounds like theperfect drug to make, but we haven't been able to harness oral gaba that acts thesame way that our native gaba does and part of the problem is that noteverything we take by mouth crosses the blood-brain barrier. So here's someserious science here. The blood-brain barrier is a special boundary thatseparates your brain from the rest of your body and the brain is very pickyabout what it's going to let through that barrier. So not everything that youtake by mouth actually makes it across that threshold.
So we do have drugsthough that make it across the barrier and activate the gaba receptors andthese would be things like xanax and klonopin which are benzodiazepines andthese drugs act through binding to the gaba receptors once they get past thethat blood-brain barrier. Binding to the receptors increases gabaso this is a roundabout way of increasing gaba in the brain withoutactually taking gaba. So that's it. Out of this list what would I say is probablyyour best bet based on research? I'd say probably chamomile number one l-theaninenumber two.
Not based on research and just based on what I've heard peopletell me I've seen more people use GABA and chamomile mostly in the tea formwith the chamomile like maybe having a warmchamomile tea at bedtime or in the evenings things like that. Let me know inthe comments have you've used any of these and how they've worked for you. Andalso share this with someone if you think it could help them. Thanks forwatching.