Taurine For Anxiety - Evidence/Efficacy as an Anxiety Treatment
I'm going to be talking about Taurine, which is an amino acid, and I'm going to talk about what it can do for your mental health. First of all, you may have heard of Taurine before, it's put in a lot of energy drinks, and the question is why? If there's a substance put in an energy drink, you probably don't want it for your mental health because it's probably going to cause some anxiety or maybe even make some symptoms worse.
Why is it put in energy drinks? It is likely due to its hypothesized effect on athletic performance. Now, it's not proven to increase athletic performance, at least not through scientific studies that are valid in the eyes of the scientific community. It may have effects on athletic performance, but it might not. We don't really know. While its exact mechanism in the body is unknown, it is thought to help with muscle maintenance. After a workout or something like that, it might help your muscles repair afterward.
What can it do for your mental health? Taurine can actually help with anxiety. It helps tone down the neurotransmitter glutamate, which is one of the primary excitatory neurotransmitters. When this is toned down, it helps you stay calm. What Taurine does is it hyperpolarizes neurons. A neuron, when it's hyperpolarized means that it's less triggerable, it's less likely to be set off. This is a problem with anxiety because you can get triggered so quickly by something so little when you have anxiety. Hyperpolarizing neurons can help prevent that. This mechanism of hyperpolarizing the neuron, also prevents the neuron from becoming excitotoxic. This is where it's so quickly triggerable that it causes issues and problems, which can be the case with anxiety.
Where can you find taurine? Taurine is actually in a lot of foods, especially meats and seafood, as well as energy drinks. It is also available as a supplement. You can buy this at the store, have the little capsules, and take it as a supplement. Now, this is not something that I've tried for myself, so I can't really tell you if it worked for me or not, but it may be something that you want to look into and ask your doctor about.
One side effect that occur with Taurine is that it can cause some drowsiness. it's probably best if you're supplementing with it to take it at bedtime. With all these medications that we talk about here on the Anxious Resistance, make sure you check with your doctor, ask them if this is something that can help you, that will work for you.
Again, Taurine is something that's cheap. It's easily found in meats and foods, so make sure you're eating enough of those foods and you're probably getting enough in your diet, but it also might be beneficial to supplement with it.
