Glutamate: The Spark That Powers the Mind

Michelle Donath
Sep 9, 2024
4 min read

Updated: 4 hours ago

Why too much of a good thing can feel like too much of everything

Glutamate is often framed as the problem child. The excitable one. The cause of brain fog, overwhelm, and sensitivity.

And while too much glutamate can absolutely tilt the nervous system toward chaos, it’s also not the villain.

It’s one of your most essential neurotransmitters. A spark. A driver. A messenger that helps you think, focus, and move. You wouldn’t be able to learn a new skill, or even hold this sentence in your working memory, without it.

Glutamate is what gives your brain its fire. The key is knowing when the flame’s been left too high for too long.

What Glutamate Does

Glutamate is your primary excitatory neurotransmitter. It’s involved in:

Memory formation
Learning
Attention
Motivation
Neural plasticity (how your brain rewires and adapts)

It activates neurons, tells them to fire, to speak, to pass the message on.

It also supports energy production inside mitochondria by feeding directly into the Krebs cycle.

In the right amount, it’s brilliant. But like most powerful things, it’s all about balance.

Glutamate Is Meant to Convert

Here’s the part that doesn’t get talked about enough: Glutamate doesn’t just build up randomly. Your body is supposed to move it along, into calmer compounds like GABA or glutamine.

This is how the cycle is meant to work:

Glutamate → GABA:

With the help of vitamin B6, glutamate converts into GABA, your main calming neurotransmitter.

This is how your brain switches from go to slow. From engage to rest. From think to feel.

Glutamate → Glutamine:

In glial cells, excess glutamate is “mopped up” and converted to glutamine—a safer, more transportable form that can re-enter neurons when needed.

Think of glutamine as a holding tank, keeping the system from overstimulation.

This cycle is known as the glutamate–glutamine–GABA loop, and it’s one of the most elegant self-regulating systems in your nervous system.

Unless something gets in the way.

What Happens When the System Gets Stuck?

When the conversion pathways aren’t working properly, glutamate accumulates. And you feel it, not in a test result, but in your body.

You feel wired but mentally foggy.
You can’t switch off.
Your thoughts race but your focus scatters.
Light, sound, or busy environments feel too much.
Sleep might come, but rest doesn’t.
You’re quick to startle, and slow to settle.

This is what high glutamate feels like. It’s not anxiety. It’s overexcitation, a nervous system that’s been asked to stay “on” too long.

And when there’s not enough GABA to balance it, or the glial cells aren’t converting it back to glutamine, the spark becomes static.

What Disrupts the Conversion?

This is where we zoom out. Because glutamate excess isn’t always about making too much, it’s often about not converting enough.

Here’s what interferes:

Low B6 levels – without it, glutamate can’t turn into GABA.
Chronic stress – raises cortisol, which impairs conversion and increases glutamate signalling.
Inflammation – damages glial cells, slowing the clean-up process.
Poor liver function – the liver plays a role in clearing excess excitatory byproducts.
Blood sugar swings – destabilise the system, increasing excitatory drive.
Gene variants – such as in GAD1 (the enzyme that makes GABA), or in glutamate transporter genes, can tilt this system further.

And over time, a system that was meant to self-regulate gets locked into a pattern of excess signal, low relief.

Why This Matters

Because your body isn’t just reacting. It’s trying to adapt.

Glutamate is the call to action. GABA is the exhale. Glutamine is the reset button in between.

When these three work together, you have resilience. Not just in mood or sleep, but in your ability to respond to life without burning out.

This is why glutamate matters.

What You Can Do

You can’t avoid glutamate completely, it’s made by your body and present in many foods naturally. But you can support the conversion pathways that keep it in balance.

That includes: