Dr. Nicole Cain explains why GABA-boosting supplements can backfire in anxious kids. If a child's body can't convert glutamine to GABA properly, or lacks enough B6, those supplements may increase glutamate instead, worsening anxiety. She recommends direct GABA plus B6 over precursor supplements.
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Hi, this is Dr. Nicole Cain, and today we're going to talk about why giving GABA support to your kids might actually be making their anxiety worse. Stress and anxiety is the worst. And when you have a loved one, a kiddo who's dealing with it, you'll do anything that you can to make it better. And you've heard that supplements like theanine and other things that increase GABA can actually help calm anxiety. Maybe you've actually taken it yourself and it was game changing. But then you give it to your kiddo and their anxiety gets way worse. I'm going to show you the pathway and it's going to make so much more sense. It all starts with gaba. But how do we get to gaba? First, you start with glutamine. I love glutamine. It's one of my favorite solutions for healing the gut and reducing inflammation. But that's a video for another time. Glutamine has another important role, and it's in making gaba. Glutamine goes to glutamate. This is when half of you are going to be like, oh, hold on, I know that glutamate is excitatory and can make anxiety worse. And you're not wrong. If we get stuck at glutamate, glutamate gets made into gaba. I'm listening. So why is GABA making my kids anxious? Two reasons. Number one, in order to make GABA, you need B6, and number two, you need the pathway. If you don't have enough B6, you're not going to make GABA properly and you're going to feel worse because you're going to back up to glutamate. And in those kids, those pathways aren't fully matured, so you're stuck at glutamate. So instead of precursors, try GABA and B6.
