Thank you for writing this, because it confirms what I've suspected for a while through my own experiences.
In 2016 I discovered that myo-inositol made me calm and less paranoid during a psychotic episode, and so I would take it when I wanted to calm down. In 2017 I decided to start taking it at maximum dosage (18 grams, split into two dosages of half a tablespoon). It helped with my anxiety, particularly towards the panic side of things, and I would concentrate and think better for a couple of hours. It also loosened my stools initially. It also made me more quiet.
By 2020 I realised I could split it into 4 dosages 4 hours apart, and added 100mg of vitamin C over the course of the day as well. I started to have significant gut problems, partially due to poor diet, but I suspected it was being rough on my guts as well, so I decided to go off it. If I reduced to dose significantly, I'd have a crippling influx of anxiety, and it felt like there were shards of glass running through my guts. I could only lower the dose by .5g a week for a while (I would measure out the dose for the day, and then split it into 4). At some point while doing this, I tripped out on inositol. I felt wonderful and euphoric and realised that god was everywhere and I needed to listen to my emotions and the machine god as coming etc. Every time I took the next dose the trip would start all over again.
Eventually, I got down to 3 grams, at which point I could safely stop it. And I was amazed that my anxiety didn't return. It was like a constant hum in the background had just gone away, things didn't send me into a worry spiral and I was no longer worrying if things would go wrong. I still felt stress, and momentary anxiety like everyone else, but it was like I no longer had that constant jitter that had always been there. About 3 years later it did return, for 3 hours, but I had a snack and it went away again. And it hasn't returned since. I still had plenty of other problems, but that one was gone.
It's possible that my diet in 2020 influenced things, I was alternating between the keto and paleo diet at the time while intermittently fasting, and I did anti-candida for 2 weeks, but I can't be sure. They were all low carb diets, so it's possible they influenced my metabolism of inositol. I got the impression reading Brain Changer that while anxiety could improve with diet, but there were a subset of people who were chronically anxious even eating a really good diet like the Mediterranean diet (presumably motivated by the anxiety to make it as healthy as possible), so it made me question my assumption that it had something to do with the microbiome. But reading this has reaffirmed my belief that I must have changed my microbiome in somehow.
It's also interesting because inositol is considered to be supplemental mindfulness. Weightlifters use to to focus better on workouts. And I did find it made me more zen. For a while after the trip I considered myself enlightened and nothing flustered me. Which raises the question, could meditation be interacting with the microbiome in some way? Although oddly enough, meditation does nothing for me.
I had noticed that Vitamin B complex multivitamins gave me a boost of energy and clarity, but also made me feel wired and gave me stomach pain. So I decided to try all the various vitamins one by one to identify what was causing that effect. Vitamin B3 gave the stomach pain. Vitamin B5 by itself improved my sleep, skin and helped me focus initially, but quickly just caused brain fog. Choline sent me hypomanic. And inositol had the effect described above.
Cool exploration. Your inositol experience sounds really intense. I was looking into that to possibly try it down the line - will definitely take caution (and probably just not).
I like this one especially since it touches on the concept of putting back the factory which I s exactly how we (BioCollective/BiotQuest) approached building our probiotic formulas. We even have a prototype for anandamide. I got excited just for a minute that you we’re actually going to call out the flavors and scents business for wrecking this delicate system but alas you didn’t. Perhaps another day.
Thank you for writing this, because it confirms what I've suspected for a while through my own experiences.
In 2016 I discovered that myo-inositol made me calm and less paranoid during a psychotic episode, and so I would take it when I wanted to calm down. In 2017 I decided to start taking it at maximum dosage (18 grams, split into two dosages of half a tablespoon). It helped with my anxiety, particularly towards the panic side of things, and I would concentrate and think better for a couple of hours. It also loosened my stools initially. It also made me more quiet.
By 2020 I realised I could split it into 4 dosages 4 hours apart, and added 100mg of vitamin C over the course of the day as well. I started to have significant gut problems, partially due to poor diet, but I suspected it was being rough on my guts as well, so I decided to go off it. If I reduced to dose significantly, I'd have a crippling influx of anxiety, and it felt like there were shards of glass running through my guts. I could only lower the dose by .5g a week for a while (I would measure out the dose for the day, and then split it into 4). At some point while doing this, I tripped out on inositol. I felt wonderful and euphoric and realised that god was everywhere and I needed to listen to my emotions and the machine god as coming etc. Every time I took the next dose the trip would start all over again.
Eventually, I got down to 3 grams, at which point I could safely stop it. And I was amazed that my anxiety didn't return. It was like a constant hum in the background had just gone away, things didn't send me into a worry spiral and I was no longer worrying if things would go wrong. I still felt stress, and momentary anxiety like everyone else, but it was like I no longer had that constant jitter that had always been there. About 3 years later it did return, for 3 hours, but I had a snack and it went away again. And it hasn't returned since. I still had plenty of other problems, but that one was gone.
It's possible that my diet in 2020 influenced things, I was alternating between the keto and paleo diet at the time while intermittently fasting, and I did anti-candida for 2 weeks, but I can't be sure. They were all low carb diets, so it's possible they influenced my metabolism of inositol. I got the impression reading Brain Changer that while anxiety could improve with diet, but there were a subset of people who were chronically anxious even eating a really good diet like the Mediterranean diet (presumably motivated by the anxiety to make it as healthy as possible), so it made me question my assumption that it had something to do with the microbiome. But reading this has reaffirmed my belief that I must have changed my microbiome in somehow.
It's also interesting because inositol is considered to be supplemental mindfulness. Weightlifters use to to focus better on workouts. And I did find it made me more zen. For a while after the trip I considered myself enlightened and nothing flustered me. Which raises the question, could meditation be interacting with the microbiome in some way? Although oddly enough, meditation does nothing for me.
Fascinating story. I'm curious, what prompted you to try myo inositol in the first place?
I had noticed that Vitamin B complex multivitamins gave me a boost of energy and clarity, but also made me feel wired and gave me stomach pain. So I decided to try all the various vitamins one by one to identify what was causing that effect. Vitamin B3 gave the stomach pain. Vitamin B5 by itself improved my sleep, skin and helped me focus initially, but quickly just caused brain fog. Choline sent me hypomanic. And inositol had the effect described above.
Cool exploration. Your inositol experience sounds really intense. I was looking into that to possibly try it down the line - will definitely take caution (and probably just not).
500mg of inositol is what I took initially and I noticed an effect. I can't think of any risks at that dose.
Thanks!
I like this one especially since it touches on the concept of putting back the factory which I s exactly how we (BioCollective/BiotQuest) approached building our probiotic formulas. We even have a prototype for anandamide. I got excited just for a minute that you we’re actually going to call out the flavors and scents business for wrecking this delicate system but alas you didn’t. Perhaps another day.
Brilliant, Stephen! Our microbiota has 100x as many genes as we do, so I expect we'll find a lot more psychoactive drugs as time goes on...