In article <8B95179.012C05D8E3.uuout at mandic.com.br>,
dihelson.mendonca at mandic.com.br (DIHELSON MENDONCA) wrote:
> In other letter, I've seen someone saying that GABA was
> the natural benzodiazepine, if so, why, someone who ingest
> GABA doesn't become "calm" ? I personally used GABA (yes, we
> buy it in the drugstore, here, long time ago!) and it didn't
> make any apparent diference, on the contrary , I didn't
> feel very well...perhaps the endogenous benzodiazepine, only
> potencializes the GABA action.
> Waiting for answers:
Perhaps it should be pointed out that benzodiazepines work by
facilitating the GABA receptors in the brain. GABA and BZs
are thus very different. As well as the benzodiazepines (which are
BZR agonists), you can get BZR antagonists (drugs which stop
benzodiazepines from having an effect) and BZR inverse agonists,
which cause the opposite effects to BZs (ie: they cause fitting and
anxiety). [BZR = benzodiazepine receptor].
Since GABA is an amino acid, eating it is going to have no effect
whatsoever, as it'll just get used in building proteins in the
rest of the body. what counts is what gets released into the synaptic
cleft.
---
Charles King
charles at anat.ucl.ac.uk
