James, I already thanked you for your question about GABA, but I want to do so
again! Because in writing the explanations, it made me think of something that
has helped me.
I have this picture in my mind of a toddler trying to learn to walk, but of
course he keeps stumbling and falling down. The parent gets impatient with him
and yells at him saying, "If you can't walk without stumbling, just don't walk
at all!" So of course, the child never learns to walk, b/c he was never
allowed to practice until he could do it perfectly!
I have wondered if meds that relieve nerve pain don't work in a similar
fashion. Our nerves have been damaged by the inflammation of the myelin in our
spinal cords. Now they are struggling to 're-learn' how to fire. In doing so,
they are making a lot of mistakes - they over-fire a lot, giving us weird,
irritating, and sometimes just plain painful sensations. So we grab a pill,
saying to our damaged nerves, "If you can't fire correctly, then just don't do
it at all!" So they stop firing and they never get the practice they needed to
become strengthened enough to eventually re-learn how to fire correctly.
Okay. I may be way off. Or if I'm even close, this is surely an
over-simplification. And the real problem would still come for those people
for whom the pain is just unbearable. But I still wonder if STOPPING the
source of that pain is really beneficial to our healing???
So when you asked me about GABA, I remembered my little theory, and realized
that if there's any truth to it, GABA would have the same effect as meds.
However, it would be better in one way - it's not so dangerous as it is with
meds, to increase and decrease the dose, ourselves, in order to find the
minimal amount needed to be helpful to us.
As for my own problem, about the time I answered the question, I was wondering
to myself why, when a few weeks earlier, my legs seemed to be getting more
feeling, and healing a lot, they were now (then) seeming to get more numb again
and I was feeling way less functional, physically. Then I realized that I had
been increasing my GABA from 1/4 to sometimes 3/4 a day. (You have to note
here, that I'm super-sensitive to meds - I can usually take about 1/6 of what
is prescribed.) Anyway, when I realized that, I cut back, and started getting
more of those weird nerve feelings - but then my legs seemed to improve and I
can walk better again!
And in thinking back, I also remember a night when I hardly slept for all the
nerve pain. It was pretty discouraging, but then I was surprised to find that
the next day, even though I was sleepy, I could walk so much closer to normal
than I ever had since I got TM!
Let me know what you think here.
Sally
