Is twitching a symptom of fibro newly diagnosed

[JayCS]

Yup, sure I've explained it quite often here (so you can search for it), as it isn't well known and it's not the first thing people try, not me either. But I think I'll explain it again now.
GABA is short for Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid. Itself it is a "supplement", not a medication or a herb=plant, so it is available over the counter (OTC). It is a neurotransmitter, which we have inside us. It increases serotonin, which relaxes us, as opposed to dopamine and opposed to cortisol/adrenaline. It was long thought it can't cross the blood-brain-barrier, so some docs still believe that. Recent research and my experience shows that it does. To increase GABA and serotonin people otherwise use similar supps 5-HTP and L-tryptophan. I don't tolerate either though. Also they are both mainly for sleep, while GABA helps me quite a bit with almost everything.
Pharmacy has made the medications gabapentin and then pregabalin from it. But these have many side effects.
The only problem with GABA is that it can be overdosed, so it's good for most to start low and move slow, 125mg sublingually.
You know you are overdosing if the problems get more again instead of less, then you can adapt. It may change in time, so sometimes you can't be sure if you need more or less, so you have to make an educated guess: Do you think you need more relaxation or less? for some reason. As it increases muscle relaxation I have several pains that come back when the dose isn't right. But to take more it sometimes has to be balanced out with other amino acids, e.g. glutamine which balances the serotonin with dopamine, or theanine which changes both.
If you want to read more details, you can look up things I've written here, or see Trudy Scott's antianxiety blog and do her amino acid questionnaire. According to that questionnaire I have low GABA and low serotonin, but not of the other amino acids. Or ask me more...

 

[Edit]

Yup, sure I've explained it quite often here (so you can search for it), as it isn't well known and it's not the first thing people try, not me either. But I think I'll explain it again now.
GABA is short for Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid. Itself it is a "supplement", not a medication or a herb=plant, so it is available over the counter (OTC). It is a neurotransmitter, which we have inside us. It increases serotonin, which relaxes us, as opposed to dopamine and opposed to cortisol/adrenaline. It was long thought it can't cross the blood-brain-barrier, so some docs still believe that. Recent research and my experience shows that it does. To increase GABA and serotonin people otherwise use similar supps 5-HTP and L-tryptophan. I don't tolerate either though. Also they are both mainly for sleep, while GABA helps me quite a bit with almost everything.
Pharmacy has made the medications gabapentin and then pregabalin from it. But these have many side effects.
The only problem with GABA is that it can be overdosed, so it's good for most to start low and move slow, 125mg sublingually.
You know you are overdosing if the problems get more again instead of less, then you can adapt. It may change in time, so sometimes you can't be sure if you need more or less, so you have to make an educated guess: Do you think you need more relaxation or less? for some reason. As it increases muscle relaxation I have several pains that come back when the dose isn't right. But to take more it sometimes has to be balanced out with other amino acids, e.g. glutamine which balances the serotonin with dopamine, or theanine which changes both.
If you want to read more details, you can look up things I've written here, or see Trudy Scott's antianxiety blog and do her amino acid questionnaire. According to that questionnaire I have low GABA and low serotonin, but not of the other amino acids. Or ask me more...

that was a very good explanation about GABA thanks for your help, this is a very good group, people like you are very helpful for the dummys like me;-)))

 

[djhsix]

My restless leg symptoms are coming at night and made me very upset, because I can not sleep. I take the medication, get up, going around and go back to bad. sometimes I can not go to sleep all night. nothing helps and I am so depressed. Your limb is twitch when you are in bed or just any time when you relaxing?

My myoclonus mostly occurs at rest, but can also occur during activity. My RLS had disappeared for a few months, which had me thinking the increased iron and magnesium supplements were working. But the RLS came back. Fortunately, it doesn't happen very often. I did have it during the in-lab sleep study I did a few days ago.

 

[JayCS]

people like you are very helpful for the dummys like me;-)))

Hehe, 2 years ago I was a dummy regarding fibro, 1 year I didn't think GABA or even any supps could help me, 2 months ago I was a dummy regarding histamine intolerance & MCAS. A difference may be that I've long before learnt how to look things up myself, because I love to do so & to dig deeper & deeper to understand things as well as possible. And I also enjoy it, esp. if it can help myself and then others (which again helps me too), so esp. medical & psychological stuff. It'd be such a sad waste if everyone only looked things up and no-one asked questions ;-), and it's more fun and more help interacting, because answering for me, including the same thing in a different way, is thinking and learning.... .

 

[Edit]

I find this group very good lot of knowledge and people are kind for each other. I find out the GABA is here Lyrica and because I am on Lavadopa already and on Alprax 0.5 too, the doctor can not priscribe this medication together. I have to choose between Lavadopa and Lyrica . I will think about and talk to my doctor.

 

[JayCS]

I find out the GABA is here Lyrica and because I am on Lavadopa already and on Alprax 0.5 too, the doctor can not priscribe this medication together. I have to choose between Lavadopa and Lyrica . I will think about and talk to my doctor.

'Lyrica' is a brand name of pregabalin, a medication, which helps with restless legs and also with fibromyalgia.
GABA is not pregabalin and not gabapentin. GABA is a neurotransmitter and an over the counter supplement, not a medication, and normal docs don't know anything about it, good docs are willing to learn.
Pregabalin and gabapentin are similar to each other and based on GABA, but they work differently. GABA mainly increases serotonin, they don't influence dopamine or serotonin.
Levodopa ('levo' is supposed to sound like 'increasing the level' of 'dopa' = dopamine) is for the restless legs.
'Alprax' is a brand name of alprazolam ('Xanax') a benzodiazepine.
Alprazolam "can decrease the effects of levodopa in some people" (drugs.com). It's important that your doc knows that.
I'm not sure pregabalin and levodopa can't be prescribed together, but your side effects would get worse.

GABA can theoretically be taken next to levodopa, the same way as I take GABA with glutamine - one for serotonin and one for dopamine.
But as you are taking so many meds already, I wouldn't recommend amino acids like GABA. It's more for people who can't or don't want to tolerate the side effects of meds. You have to focus on it without other influences. It's not like magnesium which you can just add.

 

[Lemon]

I understand going through lots of dairy with kids, and just wonder if lactose free options are better?

Also- how does gabapentin and pregablin come from GABA? Any info/ resources available

I get twitching in all my limbs also, off and on for most of my life that or numbness can both interfere with doing anything sometimes- like when I’m driving and my legs start to shake or if I’m trying to play a game or type sometimes my hands just can’t from either that or numbness etc

 

[Auriel]

Yeah @Lemon fibro does have a tendency to take the fun out of things Also GABA is a different thing altogether @Jemima + @JayCS know a bit more about it well a lot more actually : )

 

[sunkacola]

I understand going through lots of dairy with kids, and just wonder if lactose free options are better?

Also- how does gabapentin and pregablin come from GABA? Any info/ resources available

I get twitching in all my limbs also, off and on for most of my life that or numbness can both interfere with doing anything sometimes- like when I’m driving and my legs start to shake or if I’m trying to play a game or type sometimes my hands just can’t from either that or numbness etc

Lemon, if you do a search on this forum for GABA you will come up with a lot of very informative posts that JayCS has written about it. He is our forum expert on that topic.
Anything else you want to know that he doesn't cover might be found with a Google search.

 

[JayCS]

I understand going through lots of dairy with kids, and just wonder if lactose free options are better?

I've sleuthed to see you're answering the original poster (OP), but she hasn't been around since May 2021 (you can quickly see that by 'hovering' above an avatar). Not sure if you're wondering if lactose free is generally better - because some people are allergic to lactose?

Also- how does gabapentin and pregablin come from GABA? Any info/ resources available

Now THAT's a challenge! . Not to be found via search engines, and no info/resources readily available: you have to know a bit of chemical background for that.
Roughly like this: In the labs of pharmaceutical companies, the neurotransmitter GABA is chemically extracted from human cells, resulting in the molecule "C4H9NO2". As this doesn't work strongly/evidently enough for mainstream medicine/pharmacy, but is very important in our bodies, researchers like with all medicines decided to make similar molecules, to see if - trying them out on animals and then praps people - these might help more better, especially by getting through the blood-brain-barrier. The first with quite a bit of success was the molecule "C9H17NO2", which they called gabapentin, I'd think because the C9 is 5 more C than C4, so 5 = penta. You can see the similarity: there is a 9 instead of the 4 and a 17 instead of the 9. So it's called a GABA-"analogue". As this was OK, but made problems, they continued in various directions and found C8H17NO2, which works a bit different. Since the molecule is identical except one C less C8, it is assigned to the gabapentin family, and because C8 "comes before" C9 they decided to call it pre-gaba...(lin). Further similar ones are phenibut, baclofen, picamilon and mirogabalin.
(Picamilon is a fun one: It's a split between GABA and vitamin B3, synthesized by Russian scientists, which also gets through the blood-brain-barrier. Because it's half amino acid and half vitamin B3 it fits in neither category, so the FDA doesn't really allow it, but you can get it anyway. I know someone who uses it., but I've decided not to try it as GABA works fine for me, vitamin B3 doesn't.
As you can see it's actually not a question for "us" at all. As they're not hard to get and probably not easy enough to make, it's also not something that anyone would make in a home lab for "recreational purposes" (which esp. pregabalin is used for a lot).

What is perhaps important to realize is that if you change body substances like GABA, they can if they are at all helpful also be very harmful. They are designed to (try to) help with a sledgehammer: "Everyone most of the time". And that is why most medicines have to have side effects. They are potent in both directions. Another problem is that they are new as well. Natural substances have been used traditionally for hundreds or thousands of years, so everyone knows that deadly nightshade is deadly. but something like Thalidomide is mistakenly thought OK. The disadvantage of natural, traditional substances is that they are by far not as concentrated, so work slowly, gently, but often too slow, if they work at all. GABA of course is not a traditional substance but a part of our bodies. That alone wouldn't guarantee it not harming, but this of course was also tested in animal and clinical trials and found not to be harmful, so its use is allowed.

 

[Lemon]

Yeah @Lemon fibro does have a tendency to take the fun out of things Also GABA is a different thing altogether @Jemima + @JayCS know a bit more about it well a lot more actually : )

I’m learning about it now and it seems like great info really/ yeah and I don’t like any of my fun taken away hahaha so I’ll keep trying to learn what I can in hopes of feeling better one day ❤