How to Improve Your Anxiety and Cognition, Even If You Think You’ve Already Tried Everything

cognition
  • Selank is a peptide that is extremely effective in treating Generalized Anxiety Disorder, anxiety issues, stress and depression. It works as well as benzodiazepines drugs, a common category of anti-anxiety medications.
  • It has immune modulating effects and helps and modulates brain health.
  • Selank can help with alcohol withdrawal symptoms.
  • It has no known side effects.

Do you experience a lot of anxiety? Do you have generalized anxiety disorder? Then meet a peptide called Selank. Like other peptides, it can provide a novel remedy to health issues. Selank is especially great for anxiety issues. Please read on for the details!

** Please note: If you want the longer, more detailed version of this article, then please click here **

We have recently written many blogs about peptides. To recap, a peptide is a small protein, made up of a chain of amino acids. They can be used therapeutically to help with different health conditions. Click on the links to see our articles on peptide therapyHGHCJC 1295/IpamorelinBPC 157PT 141Ta1VIPThymosin Beta 4KPVTrio, and SS-31. 

To Read About Blog Topic, Scroll Down

Want To Work With Our Clinic?

Do you have a chronic or mystery illness that no one has been able to help you with? Are you simply wanting to re-connect with a healthier version of yourself? It’s Time To Finally Feel Better!

Anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and mood issues are quite common. There are many different causes of anxiety and many different approaches to resolving it. We frequently help patients resolve their anxiety issues in our functional medicine clinic, Medicine with Heart. 

What is Selank?

The peptide Selank is an interesting and cutting-edge tool to use with anxiety. Selank is a nootropic and a synthetic peptide. A nootropic is a drug, supplement or other substance used to improve cognitive function, particularly memory, creativity and motivation in healthy people. There are many substances that can support cognition. Research is at an exciting and early stage on nootropics. A synthetic peptide is an analog of a natural peptide. It typically contains natural amino acids in its structure, like natural peptides.

We commonly use new approaches and the latest medical research to help our patients regain their health in our functional medicine clinic.

Selank is highly effective in the prevention and treatment of generalized anxiety disorder, stress and anxiety (Filatova E, 2017)

What does the Research Say?

Selank affects both the immune and the nervous systems.

The Immune System

  • Selank helps to maintain the balance of the immune system (Kolomin T, 2014). Selank can increase IL-6 in blood cells. IL-6 is an inflammatory protein that fight off infections.
  • Selank can be used as an immunomodulator in patients with anxiety disorders (Uchakina ON, 2008). When Selank was tested on people with depression, it led to changes in the Th1/Th2 cytokine balance in the serum of patients with generalized anxiety disorder (Uchakina ON, 2008).

The Nervous System

  • Selank can affect GABA (Filatova E, 2017). GABA is the chief inhibitory neurotransmitter of the central nervous system. Its principal role is reducing neuronal excitability throughout the nervous system. It is involved in the regulation of vigilance, anxiety, muscle tension and memory functions.
  • Selank is involved in changes in the expression of 84 genes related to the functioning of the GABA and neurotransmission (Filatova E, 2017). The amount of GABA in the brain changes in the presence of Selank (Filatova E, 2017).
  • As a result, Selank has a distinct anxiety-relieving effect (Filatova E, 2017). It is comparable to benzodiazepine drugs, which are used to reduce and treat anxiety and insomnia. The benzodiazepines drugs act via GABA receptors and enhance the GABA effect (Filatova E, 2017).

The Brain

  • Selank can affect the concentration of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin in the brain (Semenova TP, 2010). It helps to induce serotonin metabolism and can be used to correct disturbances caused by low serotonin metabolism (Semenova TP, 2009).
  • In rats, Selank can enhance memory storage processes due to its effect on serotonin levels in the brain (Semenova TP, 2010). Serotonin plays a significant role in learning and memory, in particular by interacting with GABA (Buhot MC, 2000). In mice, when serotonin release was increased, neuronal communication became stronger, improving the mice’s spatial memory (Buhot MC, 2000). And when serotonin release was artificially blocked, spatial memory in the mice was impaired (Buhot MC, 2000).
  • Selank can help with brain health by increasing BDNF or Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Inozemtseva LS, 2008). BDNF is a protein in the brain, active in the connections between nerve cells (synapses), where cell-to-cell communication occurs. BDNF helps regulate synaptic plasticity, which is important for learning and memory. Selank can quickly increase the expression of BDNF in the hippocampus of rats (Inozemtseva LS, 2008).
  • Selank affects enkephalins in the brain, which help to counteract the stress response (Miller P, 2013). Enkephalins are small opioid peptides in the brain that transmit messages. They primarily inhibit pain perception. Selank can help stabilize enkephalins in the blood (Miller P, 2013).
  • Selank can also decrease depression in rats (Sarkisova KI, 2008). Selank in high doses can counteract symptoms of depression in the rats’ behavior (Sarkisova KI, 2008). It has mechanisms of action which are similar to antidepressants, such as activating neurotransmitters and dopamine synthesis (Sarkisova KI, 2008).

Alcohol Withdrawal

  • One study looked at the effects of Selank on alcohol withdrawal in rats (Kolik LG, 2014). A single injection of Selank eliminated anxiety induced by alcohol withdrawal, suggesting that Selank is effective in eliminating alcohol withdrawal symptoms (Kolik LG, 2014).

Are there any Side Effects?

In terms of side effects, Selank is actually better than traditional anxiety treatments. Benzodiazepines, for example, can have adverse effects. With Selank, there are no sedating or negative cognitive side effects and no associated addiction or withdrawal problems (Filatova E, 2017).

**  Please stay tuned for our next blog on more Peptide Therapy!  **

Are You Suffering From A Chronic Illness?

Does your current health situation look like this…

  • Do you feel that you have tried many things and either nothing works, or the treatment does not hold?
  • Have you been told that there is nothing that can be done to reverse your illness and you just need to manage symptoms?
  • Does your illness impact your work, your family, your happiness and your social life?

We specialize in finding answers and solutions for complicated chronic illness when people feel like they have tried everything. If this sounds like you, book a free call with us to see if we are the right fit for your health goals. 

Dr. Miles has spoken for the following organizations:

Related Articles