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My 16-month theanine self-experiment

dynomight.net

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Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#81

Post by kristiandupont »

discodonkey wrote: post #76

For a community that prides itself on critical thinking, I'm always surprised to see HN lap this sort of pseudoscientific witch-doctor stuff up. This poorly-controlled, N=1 experiment tells you nothing, not even about the author. There's absolutely no reason to consider these novice self-experiments when professional scientific experiments are available (unless you're hunting for a specific result).

Oh come on! Studies about supplements over time are almost always "poorly controlled" because you have to ask people to do something while living their lives.

Also, N=1 experiments can absolutely be interesting and give us ideas for further study, even if they don't say anything about a population.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#82

Post by d--b »

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.

Yeah I tried CBD as well. After a few days of being frustrated with the recommended doses, I gobbled the whole bottle (100€ or so worth of CBD), and absolutely nothing happened.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#83

Post by jeffybefffy519 »

discodonkey wrote: post #76

For a community that prides itself on critical thinking, I'm always surprised to see HN lap this sort of pseudoscientific witch-doctor stuff up. This poorly-controlled, N=1 experiment tells you nothing, not even about the author. There's absolutely no reason to consider these novice self-experiments when professional scientific experiments are available (unless you're hunting for a specific result).

Arent all humans different and therefore N=1 actually ok in this scenario??

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#85

Post by d--b »

I suspect that the placebo effect can be very strong in anxiety situations.

And on top of pure placebo. The whole rite of going to the kitchen and prepare your little pill has a calming effect in itself.

And maybe matcha is the same. Its preparation is slow and requires attention.

Much like smoking, it’s difficult to know how much of the calm it provides come nicotin or from slower/deeper breathing, just going outside and talking to strangers.

I have chronic insomnia that is turning severe, so I really want to believe these things work, but so far, they’re all very pricey and completely useless on sleep.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#86

Post by teekert »

This is nice. I love that people can be so rigorous and honest as well.

I just want to add that what brings my stress down (although I didn’t research it so thoroughly) is small rituals. Things to focus on, to do well, to “take a moment”. For me it’s making morning coffee. Making/baking bread, filling the dishwasher.

Maybe I’m borderline OCD. But maybe many people are and just the rituals of taking pills (actually) relieves some stress. It seems so based on the study.

Edit Fwiw, being about 20 years into my scientific career I’ve also come to prefer just looking at the data.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#87

Post by simion314 »

fragmede wrote: post #66
djfivyvusn wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Skip the pills. Make the app.

how do you blind the contents of the pills unless someone else does it?

>how do you blind the contents of the pills unless someone else does it?

My idea ( you need to adapt the numbers)

1 you build say 30 paper small bags

2 you then get 15 pills of vitamins/drug you test and 15 of placebo , you need them to be similar in shape/color

3 you put the pills in bags and make two piles, say on left side you have the vitamin and right side you have the placebo

4 you make a script to generate 30 long code numbers , you print the codes and stick them on the bags(or use a pen), my idea is that even if you now see that the code you are sticking on the bag, since it will be some long code you should forget it, or have someone else stick the codes . You save the code nubmers in a file, the first 15 codes are the medicine the last 15 the placebo

5 each day you take a bag, open, take the pill and record the code on the bag

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#88

Post by ripped_britches »

teekert wrote: post #86

This is nice. I love that people can be so rigorous and honest as well. I just want to add that what brings my stress down (although I didn’t research it so thoroughly) is small rituals. Things to focus on, to do well, to “take a moment”. For me it’s making morning coffee. Making/baking bread, filling the dishwasher. Maybe I’m borderline OCD. But maybe many people are and just the rituals of taking pills (actually) r…

I know what you mean here, but valuing small rituals is normal and not anywhere in the same ballpark as OCD.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#89

Post by 4gotunameagain »

teekert wrote: post #86

This is nice. I love that people can be so rigorous and honest as well. I just want to add that what brings my stress down (although I didn’t research it so thoroughly) is small rituals. Things to focus on, to do well, to “take a moment”. For me it’s making morning coffee. Making/baking bread, filling the dishwasher. Maybe I’m borderline OCD. But maybe many people are and just the rituals of taking pills (actually) r…

> It seems so based on the study.

I would argue that it does not, as we have no "no pill" baseline.

All it shows is that if the author is stressed, chances are he is less stressed one hour later.

Re: My 16-month theanine self-experiment

#90

Post by andsoitis »

petesergeant wrote: post #51
briHass wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> then you'd hear about it on commercials Unless you lived in a normal country where marketing pharmaceuticals direct to consumers is -- of course -- banned.

That doesn’t invalidate the idea, because we’d see it happening in countries like the US, but we don’t.
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