For most of my life, I have been interested in supplements. I know I’ve wasted thousands of dollars on supplements that are worthless but eventually I find one that does work. This is why I am writing about GABA today, or also known as gamma aminobutyric acid.
I enjoy fitness and working out but in the past several years I had also been looking at nootropics to assist in my mental health. By mental health, I am not talking about a mental disorder but as in my overall brain health in order to have it function as best as it can be.
Trading is part of my life as a whole. It is not a segmented aspect of my life that I can put into a box and open it to treat it like a separate section. Everything you do in life impacts every other area. Trading is no different. That is why this article and articles in the future are going to focus on information that can assist in improving your life.
Just about everything I write about are products or services I use that have helped me. The longer I trade the more I have realized that when I improve an area outside of my trading that my trading slightly improves as well.
Such as when I get a good night’s sleep I have energy the next day and I feel great. This, in turn, improves my trading because I make better decisions and have the energy to do what needs to be done.
Nootropics are supplements that are believed to help or assist with your cognitive function with caffeine nicotine being the most popular one that I will write about at a later date. This helped lead me down the road to discovering GABA.
I wanted to share with you today the impact GABA has had on my life. I am constantly looking for any edge I can get when trading and I believe gamma-aminobutyric acid has helped.
Of course, I believe meditation is the most important key to improving your trading performance but GABA is something that can assist all the way around. Think of meditation as the foundation and even most of the house to your trading journey.
To me, GABA is the climate-controlled air conditioning that helps keep my temperature at a very comfortable state. It helps keep me cool under pressure.
As a full disclaimer please know that this is not medical advice. You have to use your own decision as to what is best for you and your scenario. I am just writing about what has helped me.
What is GABA?
From WebMD, GABA is a neurotransmitter that blocks impulses between nerve cells in the brain. Low levels of GABA is a neurotransmitter that blocks impulses between nerve cells in the brain. Low levels of GABA may be linked to:
- Anxiety or mood disorders
- Epilepsy
- Chronic Pain
Researchers suspect that GABA may boost mood or have a calming, relaxing effect on the nervous system.
This is one of the main reasons why I started taking GABA, to help with stress and anxiety.
Here is more information from some dude who calls himself the “Sleep Doctor:”
As a natural chemical, the body produces, GABA’s primary role is to diminish the activity of neurons in the brain and central nervous system, which puts the body in a greater state of relaxation and alleviates stress and anxiety. Supplemental GABA may benefit sleep by aiding relaxation and providing relief from anxiety and stress. There remains debate among scientists about supplemental GABA’s effectiveness in reducing anxiety and stress, because of longstanding questions over supplemental GABA’s ability to enter the brain from the bloodstream. (It’s important to note that GABA, in supplement form, may have other ways of relaxing the body and relieving, including possibly through GABA’s activity in the gut microbiome.)
While that scientific debate goes on, some studies have shown GABA to be effective in lowering anxiety and boosting relaxation. One small study of a group of 13 adults showed GABA effective as a relaxant and anxiety reliever, with slowed brain waves seen within an hour of taking the supplement. This study also found a boost to the immune system also occurred with GABA, suggesting supplemental GABA may enhance immunity in people who are undergoing mental stress.
Another larger study investigated the effects of 100 milligrams of GABA among a group of people who’d recently undertaken a stressful mental task. Scientists measured a slowing down of brain waves in the people who’d taken GABA, pointing to alleviation of mental stress. Another study tested the effects of GABA in people who were about to take a stressful math test. People who ate chocolate infused with GABA rebounded more quickly from the test-related stress, including stress-lowering changes to heart-rate variability.
As you will see below, I use a quantity that is almost 400X more than what studies use. In my opinion that is why I believe the studies that only use 100 mg of GABA do not produce positive results. They are not using enough.
How I Discovered Gamma Aminobutyric Acid (GABA)
Going on 10 years ago I started a new sales job. This was the first sales job I had where the main aspect of it was cold calling and prospecting. For the other sales jobs, I had in the past the majority of leads were warm leads so I didn’t have to do much prospecting if any at all.
Well, when I started this new job I quickly realized that cold calling and prospecting were something I was severely lacking in my skills.
I hold stress and anxiety in my stomach. What this does is create extreme nausea, indigestion, and plenty of trips to the bathroom for me. So after 2 weeks, I had to go to the doctor to get some anti-anxiety medication because during work I had to either go sit in my car to ride out extreme nausea or go home.
At the doctor, he said this isn’t uncommon when you take a new job so he prescribed Xanax to “short-circuit” my brain pattern for how the anxiety latches onto my nervousness and also some other slower-acting anti-anxiety drug that would take a while to build up in my system.
I had heard about Xanax and how addictive it can be. After taking it for a week I can see why. I remember when I first took it I was at work walking down a hall. When it kicked in I felt nothing. What I mean is I felt great, like nothing mattered and I was totally relaxed.
It was a weird feeling because I wasn’t used to being so relaxed and at ease. The good news was the anxiety went away. After about a week on Xanax, I threw it away.
I see how people get addicted to it.
For the other anti-anxiety medication I took it for about a month and then stopped. It had done its job and I no longer had the anxiety attacks from the stress I put upon myself from my new job.
The reason I tell this story is because once I bumped up my GABA intake I experienced this same sort of sensation where I became relaxed and at-ease. The impact of GABA is of course not as big as the first time I took Xanax but the sensation has been similar.
It relaxes me which I need before I start winding down for the night. From the limited research I have done about gamma aminobutyric acid it isn’t addictive and you don’t have to keep on taking more and more of it to experience the same effects over time as you do with Xanax.
Now I am not trying to say GABA is a replacement for Xanax but it is the closes thing I have experienced to where I have been extremely relaxed and at ease. It takes between 30 min to 1 hour before I start to feel the relaxing effects of it.
That is why I take it at least 30 minutes before I lay down for the night.
I first started taking GABA when I read an article from Mike Cernovich and how it has positively impacted his life:
His articles made sense and after seeing how inexpensive GABA is from the link I posted earlier I purchased some.
The Dosage I Use
I use 3 scoops of 1/2 teaspoon which is 1,432 mg according to the bad. Since I use 3 scoops it comes out to roughly 4,200 mg. The exact number might be a little higher or lower depending on how much excess is in the scoop but it is usually between 4 – 5 grams.
I purchase GABA from Bulk Supplements and it is very affordable: https://www.bulksupplements.com/products/gamma-aminobutyric-acid-gaba?_pos=1&_sid=25c5aaadb&_ss=r (no affiliate link)
The taste is pretty much nothing. It gives a little tingle but for the most part, it is pretty tasteless. There might be a hint of tartness but as soon as I gulp it down with water I don’t taste anything. I don’t really take it with food. If for some reason I have a late-night then I’ll take it with food but normally I don’t take it with food.
I first started out taking 1 teaspoon which would be around 2,800 mg but I really didn’t notice too much. I did feel a little drowsy but nothing spectacular. I would be more sleepy if I took Benadryl. It wasn’t until I bumped the dosage up to 4-5 grams which are when I felt the impact of GABA.
Most supplements don’t go over 500 mg of GABA and you will find it in many sleep aid supplements. I’ve taken several in the past but for the most part, none of them helped at all. It wasn’t until I ramped up the dosage to 4-5 grams that I felt the impact.
Are There Any Negative Side Effects on Using GABA?
So far since I have been using gamma aminobutyric acid there have not been any negative side effects at all. No nauseous, indigestion, bleeding, headaches, or any of those other horrible side effects you hear when watching some type of drug being sold on tv.
The only “side effect” is it makes me very drowsy with the dosage I take. If I knew I was going to go driving then there is no way I would take my GABA dosage.
I only take gamma aminobutyric acid when I am getting ready to climb into bed to go to sleep.
I’ve thought about taking GABA during the day but seeing how it relaxes me to the point of drowsiness I have not done so yet.
I might start off with 500 mg or 1 g for a couple of servings spaced throughout the day to see how that would impact me but for now, I am going to stick with taking around 4-5 grams per night before bed.
The conclusion to Gamma Aminobutyric Acid (GABA)
Here are the main bullet points as to why I like taking GABA and how it has helped my trading:
- I get to sleep faster so I get more sleep
- I sleep more soundly so I get a better deeper sleep
- I make better decisions from my increased energy from more and better sleep
Since I am now getting more and better sleep I have more energy throughout the day, especially when I get home from work.
I now have more motivation to do the things I know I need to do each day such as:
- Meditate
- Write these posts for my website
- Meditate for new trading setups
- Work on writing my books and Youtube videos
- Workout
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, everything you do impacts each daily event or routine in your life. If you can improve in one area then more than likely another area will be improved as well.
Since I’ve found a supplement that helps relax me and get a deeper and better sleep then this means the more energy I have improves my trading.
I am looking at trading as a part of my whole life, not just as a separate compartment.
If you think GABA might improve your life then I would look into taking it. It has helped me which is why I wanted to share it with you. In fact, I just purchased 500 g of it to make sure I won’t run out anytime soon.
Please do your own research to determine if it is safe for you to take it because this article is my own opinion on how it has helped me.
