Whenever I take bacopa I find I get an anxiety reduction effect in the short term (within the first week or two), and then a massive increase (above baseline) with longer term usage (say at a month or beyond).
I (perhaps incorrectly) attribute the long term increase of anxiety to the fact that bacopa is a acetylcholinesterase inhibitor resulting in a buildup of acetylcholine. In fact, I have found that if I consume a substantial choline source while taking bacopa long term, the anxiogenic effect is profound. I seem to find other users who report a similar experience.
Is this a reasonable theory for why bacopa has such different short term and long term effects for some users?
In the long term, I of course find this to be an undesirable effect of bacopa. I'd like to get the GABA receptor upregulation/anxiolytic aspect of this supplement without the acetylcholinesterase inhibition which I find to be anxiogenic.
Is it known exactly which components of Bacopa monnieri are responsible for it's acetylcholinesterase inhibition activity? If there different components creating these different effects it would of course in theory be possible to get the one without the other.
Edited by Daniel Cooper, 20 February 2018 - 10:35 PM.