Ray, for anxiety, I highly recommend a different amino acid, taurine. It is a close chemical cousin to GABA, and gets far too little attention. It directily inhibits glutamate, so it can also suppress manic activity to some extent.
Taurine is a derivative of methionine, the sulphur-based amino acid that gives you SAMe (S-adenosyl methionine). When SAMe is spent, it becomes homocysteine. If you have a good supply of B6, some of that homocysteine gets diverted up the trans-sulfuration pathway, which ends at taurine. The take home point is, there's a lot can go wrong before you get to taurine.
Unlike GABA, taurine readily crosses the blood/brain barrier, so an oral dose is effective in minutes. You can pick up taurine in the kind of shop that caters to weight-lifters, as taurine has some reputation for helping muscle recovery after workouts.
There are dedicated taurine reuptake pumps in every synapse. It's released with every burst of neurotransmitter. It's a very under-appreciated molecule, one in the class sometimes called neuromodulators. It regulates brain intensity, to some extent. 500-2000 mg, taken as needed. Excessive use will lead to irritability and insomnia.
About the omega supplement. Ditch the omega-6 and omega-9. I can virtually guarantee you're getting far too much of those classes of fatty acids already. No reason to pay through the nose for capsules that contain olive oil and canola (most likely sources of omega-9 and -6, respectively). If the source of the omega-3 in the 3-6-9 is flax (usually, it is), your yield of the longer chain omega-3s is close to zero. Females might hit 3-6%.
Better yet is just switching over to fish oil. It contains two very specific extra-long omega-3 fatty acids, that are horribly deficient in the modern diet. Estimates of our ancestral (pre-agricultural) diet put the omega-6: omega-3 fatty acid ratio at 1 or 2 (i.e. equal, or maybe a little heavier in omega 6). Today's diets are estimated to supply omega-6: omega-3 fats at 60:1. You don't need any more omega-6. Trust me on that.
You could easily have gotten a dopamine buzz from your tyrosine/phenylalanine cocktail mixture, but it's nearly impossible to repeat, eh? The body quickly sorts out the game you're trying to play.
Nothing wrong with a moderate diet, Ray. Mix it up a bit, right?
Lar
|