Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My 16-month theanine self-experiment

dynomight.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 447 posts

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#231

Post by quintushoratius »

iamflimflam1 wrote: post #179
pazimzadeh wrote: post #48

> I’ve long found that tea makes me much less nervous than coffee, even with equal caffeine. Many people have suggested theanine as the explanation, but I’m skeptical. Most tea only has ~5 mg of theanine per cup, while when people supplement, they take 100-400 mg. Apparently grassy shade-grown Japanese teas are particularly high in theanine. And I do find those teas particularly calming. But they still only manage ~2…

Coffee and tea are very interesting. I can drink caffeinated tea without any issues. But for some reason caffeinated coffee will trigger an acne break out several days later. It took a long time for me to connect this link.

Are you sure it's the caffeine and not another substance in coffee?

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#232

Post by qiine »

grumpy-de-sre wrote: post #206
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read that mites can't survive temperatures above 60C, and wondered then about just a big plastic bag around the item then fill it from a hot air source (hair dryer, fan heater)? I think the problem would be temperature control, as you don't want to damage the item, but need to maintain an even, specific air temperature, you'd need turbulence. Then vacuum clean afterwards. Maybe a wallpaper remover style device with…

Yeh I've thought about whether it'd be possible/safe to use something like an "overclocked" electric blanket to sterilize the mattress daily. They also need humidity (~50% RH), hence why I got the dehumidifer, which has definitely knocked them back.

I got the exact same idea sadly most electric blanket i could find on amazon where kinda small and had disappointingly low heating power...

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#233

Post by davidanekstein »

bbstats wrote: post #219
davidanekstein wrote: post #212

If anyone is interested in running their own self guided experiments, I made an app for this called Reflect [1]. You can run self guided experiments for anything you can model as a metric in the app. We got in the top 3 on ProductHunt not too long ago [2], and I just wrote about an experiment I did with nootropic coffee [3]. [1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reflect-track-anything/id64638... [2] https://www.producthu…

Android app?

Android is on the roadmap, but we haven't started yet. Please comment on and upvote the issue!

https://changemap.co/ntl/reflect/task/9239-android-version-o...

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#234

Post by naruhodo »

rwyinuse wrote: post #110

I tried 200mg L-theanine pills for some days. I noticed a slightly calming effect, but after the supposed effect wore off, I suffered from unusually high level of anxiety. So I guess it can give you withdrawal symptoms. CBD worked much better for me in that regard.

I started taking 1 x 50mg CBD gummy in the morning about 2 months ago and I can confirm that it is better than L-theanine. My analysis-paralysis is gone. I am moving forward with my life better than I have in 15 years.

I was one of the commenters in the HN thread linked by the blog post, and I do find that L-theanine reduces my coffee jitters.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#235

Post by davidanekstein »

Aaronmacaron wrote: post #226
davidanekstein wrote: post #212

If anyone is interested in running their own self guided experiments, I made an app for this called Reflect [1]. You can run self guided experiments for anything you can model as a metric in the app. We got in the top 3 on ProductHunt not too long ago [2], and I just wrote about an experiment I did with nootropic coffee [3]. [1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/reflect-track-anything/id64638... [2] https://www.producthu…

This sounds exactly like what I want! Alas, no Android app it seems, anyone aware of apps that do the same and are available for web or Android?

What is the feature set you're looking for? There are symptom-specific apps and track anything apps, but I'm unaware of any that combines both into a generic solution. We have a roadmap item to implement things on Android. https://changemap.co/ntl/reflect/task/9239-android-version-o...

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#236

Post by Aerroon »

Novosell wrote: post #209
maccard wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

have you tried a pre-workout style dose (it’s about 8-10 coffees in one)? The first time should give you a pretty good idea of what the “jittery” feeling is.

I googled some pre-workout and it seems to be about 200mg of caffeine, same as a can of Monster. I've drank 2 cans of Monster back-to-back a few times in my life and still not felt jittery. I largely share experience with Kiro, I don't feel like caffeine makes me perk up at all really. I just drink Monster cause I love the flavor of some of them.

I'm the same. I've taken caffeine pills and not noticed it. I can also just drink tea/coffee and then sleep.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#237

Post by daneel_w »

This is the first time I've seen a self-study with l-theanine in the context of stress relief. In fact, somehow, it's the first time I've ever seen stress relief mentioned on the topic. For me it has always been about providing a small cognitive boost. The result is clear: for this particular individual, and the specific goal of stress relief, l-theanine does not work.

My anecdote: I used l-theanine supplement for about a year straight. To me, the noticable effect was similar to that of a cup of coffee but with practically none of the jitters.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#238

Post by luqtas »

K0balt wrote: post #225
mg wrote: post #126

This is great. The author defines their own metrics, is doing their own A/B tests and publishes their interpretation plus the raw data. Imagine a world where all health blogging was like that. Personally, I have not published any results yet, but I have been doing this type of experiments for 4 years now. And collected 48874 data points so far. I built a simple system to do it in Vim: https://www.gibney.org/a_syntax_…

Citizens science used to be much more common and there were several publications initially built around the concept. Unfortunately, the idea has all but been obliterated by inadequate public education and the chronic lack of time that now embattles the middle classes.

fortunately* citzen science was replaced by solid methods... this is a long fancy self reported post on a metric that is easily figured out by biomarkers (stress levels). what's the consequences if the author decided to make some claim about a substance?

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#239

Post by rapfaria »

kqr wrote: post #176
calmoo wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you not think it’s interesting that if affects both of you the same way, as far as to cause panic attacks in both of you? For an individual I could just about accept that it’s just how you react to caffeine, but the fact both you and your partner have the same result suggests some sort of influence on each other?

Assortative mating. Partners' genetics are not independent.

Even more crazy than caffeine interaction.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#240

Post by card_zero »

kqr wrote: post #193
card_zero wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, the plural of anecdote is confirmation bias. Why do people keep trotting out this "plural of anecdote is data" line, is it a quote from some high-profile idiot? Of course data can also give you confirmation bias, maybe that's the point, maybe that's why people defend anecdotes. What you have to do to find out if something is really happening is reason about it, then test your theories by doing your best to knock…

> Nah, the plural of anecdote is confirmation bias. Why do people keep trotting out this "plural of anecdote is data" line, is it a quote from some high-profile idiot? It is standard Bayesian reasoning[1]. But it requires independence between observations, which many people forget! [1]: https://entropicthoughts.com/bayes-rule-odds-form

The things people say aren't truly independent, even when they are. Like when Charles Sheffield and Arthur C. Clarke wrote novels with the same plots at the same time, they were working independently, but they weren't culturally independent.

Besides, even if several people independently assert "tying a ribbon to a wishing tree cured my warts", that's not an explanation of what actually took place. If repeated observations with unbiased instruments confirm this, then there's something wrong with the instruments (or something), until you have an explanation.

(But saying things like that usually prompts people to bring up cosmology or particle physics or other fields where we really do have to resort to saying "the measurements say it's happening, we'll have to assume it's happening" without understanding much.)

Post reply on HN