38 replies to this topic

[winston]

Even on the fairly large dose of 100mg I don't notice anything, unless I try to work out or something. I guess I don't naturally have much adrenaline bouncing around in my system to block haha

[Guacamolium]

As said, Theanine will suffice. There's something else, but it's commercially unavailable and too high of price at this time.

[chrono]

As said, Theanine will suffice. There's something else, but it's commercially unavailable and too high of price at this time.

You're such a tease. You know I like the unavailable substances the best

But yeah, I've been having good luck with L-theanine. Seems not to interfere with cognition or motivation as long as I don't take more than 200mg or so.

Oddly enough, I seem to have the best experience with caffeine when I haven't had enough sleep, or am staying up much longer than normal. Seems like I can get away with much less theanine in those circumstances, or none at all in my lower dosages.

[xontek]

Anyone else noticed anything synergistic between tyrosine and caffeine/theanine?

Absolutely. A vivarin or similar over the counter 200 mg caffeine pill will last me about 30 minutes. I don't feel anything with 100 mg of caffeine. Mixed with tyrosine or theanine, it will last about 2 hours or more, for me.

[aLurker]

I'm quitting caffeine entirely myself. Perhaps I'll use it sometime when staying awake is more important than my state of mind but until then I'm staying clean.

What about dark chocolate? It doesn't seem to give me as much anxiety. Admittedly it has very little caffeine but the other xanthines might perk you up in a similar or better manner.

[xontek]

What's your favorite dark chocolate aLurker?

[medievil]

This was posted on mind and muscle.

Neurosci Lett. 2010 Jul 1. [Epub ahead of print]
(-)-Epigallocatechin-3-O-gallate (EGCG) reverses caffeine-induced anxiogenic-like effects.

This study was designed to determine whether (-)-epigallocatethin-3-O-gallate (EGCG) could reverse caffeine-induced anxiogenic-like effects in animals. In mice, EGCG antagonized the caffeine-induced reduction in both the open arm entry number and time-spent in open arm on elevated plus-maze. In addition, EGCG also antagonized the caffeine-induced reduction in both the central zone distance and central zone time-spent on an open field apparatus, respectively. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded from the rat anterior cerebral cortex. Caffeine increased the power density-ratios of fast (FW: 8.00-20.00Hz) and slow (SW: 0.75-8.00Hz) frequency spectrum bands in these EEG recordings. However, EGCG reduced the caffeine-induced increase of FW/SW ratios. Thus, EGCG reverses caffeine-induced anxiogenic-like effects. We also provide additional evidence that the EEG FW/SW (or SW/FW) ratios can be a useful tool for the prediction of anxiogenic and/or anxiolytic effects in an animal model. Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

PMID: 20599478

[chrono]

Nice find. Will grab that paper next time I'm in town.

I'm curious about what doses were used. I've been taking 2x300mg GTE (50% EGCG) for about two months now. Can't honestly say that I've noticed a big change in my response to caffeine. Perhaps a slightly better response to a given dose, but nothing like an elimination of anxiety.

[health_nutty]

So, I've never been a fan of caffeine, because it gives me some pretty strange anxiety. I just started a thread aimed at exploring some methods of alleviating this.

The thread above is a dead link so I will answer here. Taurine is pretty amazing at taking the edge off of caffeine. Try 1g with 100mg of caffeine. Also try getting your caffeine with green or white tea which has L-theanine which also takes the edge off. Or combine the two methods.