Sleep Reduction with ALCAR + l-theanine

Both ALCAR and l-theanine cannot be shipped to Cananda.

 

####!!! any ideas??maybe some health food store here would have it under the counter??

 

Hi,

This sounds too good to be true !!

Any longish term side effects we should be aware of ?

TIA

 

There has been nothing to indicate long-term ill effects. But this is not to say there isn't one, there has not been sufficient feedbac/study on it.

The best it can be said is that there has not been any reported ill-effects in the studies I have seen, for the INDIVIDUAL ingredients (ALCAR or l-theanine) long term.

There is a possibility that a prolonged use of ALCAR may deplete choline supply in the body. For this, you may want to take choline bitartrate (or other choline supply), at 1:1 ratio in weight.

 

I'm really really interested in trying this especially since next year is my senior year of high school and then I have college after that...so lots of time ahead of me when I'm not going to get the ideal 9 hours and 15 minutes of sleep (that's what I've read is best for my age anyway).

I just asked my father about it briefly since he's involved in sleep medecine (though mostly sleep apnea since he specialized in pulmonalogy). Anyway, he quickly dismissed it as the same thing as using tryptophan to aid with sleep. He basically said that using this supplementation of this amino acid was dangerous because of the impurities that the supplement companies allowed in their products and that using tryptophan as a sleep aid, therefore, was discontinued.

However, I was not entirely swayed by his arguments considering that all doctors seem to be inherently conservative and sometimes pessimisstic towards any treatments that are unorthodox. Also, he misspoke several times (not remembering whether the amino acid of which he was speaking was tryptophan or tyrosine...) which made me doubt the accuracy of his arguments. Plus, he thinks that ephedrine and even creatine are very dangerous.

Anyway, I really can trust that when I buy l-theanine and alcar, that they are safe and without impurities, right? And, what was my father talking about???

Thanks,

Sean

 

Do search here on ALCAR and at www.AvantLabs.com's forum. Also, do a search on l-theanine at www.AvantLabs.com. Make sure you do a search from the beginning of AvantLabs, not just the last 30 days. You will find LOTS of reading material.

In fact, you will see that there is simply too much material for me to summarize and post.

Let us just say that l-tryptophan and l-tyrosine are not the same amino acid as ALCAR. ALCAR's effect on human body is very different from that of l-tryptophan or l-tyrosine.

 

Thanks Virtualcyber,

Quick question, must it be specifically ALCAR or is L-Carnitine acceptable ?

Edit : Scrap that, did the search on Avant. I guess the question is how much to up the dosage of L-Carnitine as opposed to 700mg of ALCAR.

I've managed to track down L-Carnitine in 600mg caps which I thought might be a good start give the initial ~700mg recommendation. I guess 1200mg of L-Carnitine is probably too much.

Back to the supp search I guess.

Thanks.

 

smee: please ask any specific questions. I will be glad to answer them, if I can. In the previous post, I just didn't want to get too general, as it involves too much material.

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As for your question on l-carnitine and ALCAR.

I believe that at this point, consensus is that, EVEN though l-carnitine and acetyl-l-carnitine (ALCAR) do the same thing once inside the body, they are not absorbed at the same rate.

From what I have read, ALCAR seems to be far better absorbed due to its acetylation.

Also, it is cheaper.

 

Sorry, it ended up a bit of a ramble rather than a question after I deleted the actual question when I edited.

I'm just going to order the ALCAR and L-theanine powders and give it a go.

May have more specific Q's then, but the Avant discussion should probably take care of those too.

Thanks for the heads up on this !

 

Smee:

One thing I started finding out from reading other people's feedback is that there seems to be significant variance in DOSAGE.

You are going to have to be somewhat patient in getting the right dosage and timing. Some take as little as 500 mg ALCAr to see the effect. Some take much, much more -- one friend I had felt nothing with 1 g/day and he took it for 1.5 week (this was rather unusual case, because every body else who tried it seemed to find SOME effect).

 

Thanks I saw that mentioned.

I'm planning on starting at 500mg ALCAR and 600mg Theanine for a couple of days and will start playing from there.

Regards,

Justin.

 

Blade:
What if someone bought it for you and mailed to you? Any regs against that in Norway? I am sure someone, even me, would be willing to do that for you and let you pay them back. You have done a lot of work here, so a little help sent your way is called for I think. Let me know...
BIZ

 

My results so far (which isn't that long)

Day 1 500mg ALCAR + 300 mg l-theanine
Slept okay, not great, but felt better than usual
during the day, but could be placebo effect
Day 2 500 mg ALCAR + 400 mg l-theanine
Slept badly, and feel tired today - think I waited
too long to go to bed after I took supps.

Starting with reduced doseage to see how it affects me.
Trying 500 mg ALCAR + 500 mg l-theanine tonight
Will post every 2 - 5 days on how I feel

VC - reading avantlabs and saw several mentions of ala and choline with regards to ALCAR supplementation, can you tell me why I might need these (in english)?

 

proteus:

1. ALA -- I think ALCAR administration was shown to slightly increases the rate at which cells produce harmful waste products (in mice experiments). ALA neutralizes it.

2. choline -- Continuous consumption of ALCAR increases the rate at which ALCAR is eliminated from one's body, after few weeks. Choline helps one retain ALCAR.

------------------------------

Also,

choline + ALCAR = increased fat loss
ALA = less oxidative damage from ALCAR.

 

Update

Days 3-5 500mg ALCAR + 500 mg l-theanine
Really bizarre - I can't fall asleep to save my life.
Take supps @ 8 pm - bed @ 11 - sleep @ 2 am
but I'm not feeling tired the next day!!

Sleep like crap (light sleep) when I do fall asleep.
What's going on?? It's not a big deal now, but if I stop feeling as good the next day - life is gonna suck!

VC - any ideas??
Proteus

(not taking stack tonight - going back to 1mg melatonin + diphenhydramine HCL stack - works for about 3 days, but only taking it tonight - will return to ALCAR + theanine tomorrow because I like how I feel)

Will also add ala

Thanks
Proteus

 

proteus:

(1) Some people are very sensitive to ALCAR.
(2) It seems that ALCAR is building up inside your body, so greater effect as days go by.

I bet that, even if you stop taking it for a day, you will still feel fine (until ALCAR leaks out of your system).

===================

I can think of THREE ways to deal with it:

(1) reduce the dosage
(2) take ALCAR one to two hours earlier
(3) or take the stack once every other day.

I will probably try the option (2) first.

 

wait is the alcar from 1fast400 good? Where should I buy this stuff? I got l-theanine without the green tea extract at natural high inc. How do you make your own capsules...is it tedious?

thanks,

Sean

 

Thanks VC

Just to make sure I've got it

500mg ALCAR @ 7pm
600mg l-theanine @ 8pm
sleep @ 11pm

The ALCAR is for alertness and the l-theanine is for relaxation right?

Proteus

 

proteus:

Sounds good. Hopefully, you can fall asleep earlier.
Also, you can experiment with taking l-theanine a bit later, closer to 9 p.m.

===============

Sean:

It sounds good. Also, ordering from 1fast400 should be fine. Making your caps is tedius.