My 16-month theanine self-experiment • Hacker News Board

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#21

Post by briHass » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:00 AM UTC

ein0p wrote: post #20

Good to see such experimentation, especially when the person conducting the experiments takes the results with a grain of salt. I was first exposed to supplements when I started lifting seriously, a decade ago. Man oh man, some people go crazy on supplements in that space, literally wasting hundreds of dollars every month, for years. And in the end the only three things that seem to do anything for lifters are: whey…

And of course, the ones that come from the end of a needle.

If most supplements actually worked, a pharma company would analyze it and reformulate it to get a patent, and then you'd hear about it on commercials.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#22

Post by ggm » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:00 AM UTC

biophysboy wrote: post #18

I don’t understand why they used another supplement hypothesized to mitigate stress as a control.

D's effect on mood is well known so yea. They said slow acting but.. well I dunno. Felt like a bad pick. They should have got empty caps and filled them with chalk.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#23

Post by abraxas » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:01 AM UTC

baby wrote: post #12

I tried it and it never did anything, I tried all sorts of CBD products as well (while in SF) and I never noticed a thing. The only thing that worked was microdosing shrooms which I've done twice in SF. I felt very calm and had a lot of novel ideas during these two days. Would recommend trying. Never microdosed LSD.

My issue with dosing shrooms (micro or otherwise) is that I find myself building up tolerance extremely fast. Literally within a couple of days my tolerance of psilocybin shoots up so much that even doubled doses seem to have little effect. I then need to stop taking it for weeks or months before my tolerance drops back to baseline.

Does anyone else have this issue with shrooms? FWIW I believe I'm generally quite resistant to psychoactive substances having been treated with benzos for anxiety and depression and finding they did almost nothing to allieviate any symptoms. The curious thing was that despite being warned against their "incredible addictiveness" I was able to increase my dosage way beyond prescribed levels only to find out they still did nothing and then quit them cold turkey with no effect whatsoever. It was almost like swallowing sugar pills.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#24

Post by freedomben » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:01 AM UTC

OutOfHere wrote: post #8

Murfalo wrote: post #7

Glutamate is fascinating! The latest and greatest hypothesis for mood, learning, etc. hot off the press. Suddenly everything targets NMDA/AMPA receptors and increases plasticity

Be very careful targeting NMDAr/AMPAr directly. I made this mistake. Those receptors are extremely prone to causing permanent damage due to excitotoxicity.

If you are willing to share more about your story, I'd love to hear it. Did you cause permanent damage? What were you using and how much? What are the symptoms like now?

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#25

Post by secunit » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:01 AM UTC

baby wrote: post #12

I tried it and it never did anything, I tried all sorts of CBD products as well (while in SF) and I never noticed a thing. The only thing that worked was microdosing shrooms which I've done twice in SF. I felt very calm and had a lot of novel ideas during these two days. Would recommend trying. Never microdosed LSD.

L-Theanine has a noticeable effect when I drink my morning coffee, it totally eliminates the jittery effects and smooths it out.

I've tried a lot of CBD products and some work VERY well (Feals, Soul) and some might as well be gummy bears (Cornbread Hemp). I generally disbelieve "internet" PR claims as well, but the two I mentioned are legit.

I'll eat 3 Feals gummies or 1 Soul "Out of Office" quad, and it rocks me. (M, 40's, 6', 170lbs).

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#26

Post by ggm » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:01 AM UTC

brianpan wrote: post #15

ggm wrote: post #4

TL;DR single test at best inconclusive but broadly said no evident benefit. Good randomisation but so many variables. I am convinced the author is in a persisting out of body state. Also, placebo is great!! I have reverse white coat syndrome, paying my GP attendance fee to have a nice doctor measure my BP consistently shows it better than when I do it at home.

Do you measure it in a chair similar to your doctor's office? I thought my couch was similar and I was careful to have my feet flat on the floor. But I "lowered by BP" by 10-15 by moving to the dining room table.

This is a self reported anecdata over many years. I do measure mainly on a couch, yes. Odd that reclining would be higher than sitting but I will try some variation. You'd think being more corpse like was net beneficial to BP

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#27

Post by MichaelDickens » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:02 AM UTC

brcmthrowaway wrote: post #2

What does gwern or guzey think of this? I only trust them

How did you determine that they were trustworthy? Whatever process you used to evaluate their trustworthiness, use the same process on this article, and then decide whether you trust this article.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#28

Post by ein0p » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:02 AM UTC

briHass wrote: post #21

ein0p wrote: post #20

Good to see such experimentation, especially when the person conducting the experiments takes the results with a grain of salt. I was first exposed to supplements when I started lifting seriously, a decade ago. Man oh man, some people go crazy on supplements in that space, literally wasting hundreds of dollars every month, for years. And in the end the only three things that seem to do anything for lifters are: whey…

And of course, the ones that come from the end of a needle. If most supplements actually worked, a pharma company would analyze it and reformulate it to get a patent, and then you'd hear about it on commercials.

Yeah. But I never took any of the steroid stuff. I only compete with my former self. Not being able to throw 400lbs overhead is fine. I also want to be able to walk when I'm old.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#29

Post by havaloc » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:03 AM UTC

Ironically Now Foods L-theanine used to be a variant of a special extraction method named Suntheanine but that’s no longer the case, probably due to cost.

I’ve had good luck with the Suntheanine brands. GNC brand has been effective for me. YMMV.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#30

Post by MichaelDickens » Sun, Mar 09, 2025, 5:04 AM UTC

OutOfHere wrote: post #9

It is strange to discuss L-theanine with vitamin D as one has nothing much to do with the other. It could've been better to compare L-theanine with a placebo (cellulose) which is how research conventionally works. L-theanine at 200-300 mg before bed is extremely useful for canceling excessive caffeine while trying to sleep at night. Add piperine to the mix for possible further cancelation of caffeine. [PMID 35684048]

> It is strange to discuss L-theanine with vitamin D as one has nothing much to do with the other.

That's the idea, vitamin D was used as a placebo. They bought vitamin D supplements rather than cellulose because the supplier sold both L-theanine and vitamin D and the pills looked (nearly) identical.