Dopamine Explained: What It Is and How To Balance It
What we eat and how our brains function have a direct correlation and this is strongly related to a neurotransmitter called dopamine.
To understand this relationship, we need to explore and learn about dopamine. What it is, how it works and what is the connection to food. Learning about dopamine gives us the tools to understand behavior, make better choices, and improve emotional well-being.
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What is Dopamine?
Dopamine, a hormone in our brain we produce naturally, is a neurotransmitter that signals pleasure, attention, movement, motivation, learning, memory, and reward processing. It creates motivation to seek more.
Let’s use sugar as an example as how dopamine works. We eat sugar, which creates a pleasure response in the brain. Sugar gives us energy and changes our mood. But the more we eat, we eventually dull the dopamine pleasure response and that leads to overeating sugar to get to the feeling we want. With the dopamine response so high from the sugar consumption, acetylcholine (another brain transmitter) which signals satiety in the brain is delayed. (We will discuss the role of acetylcholine and other neurotransmitters in upcoming newsletters).
Dopamine is an important messenger and a critical component to every system in our body. We don’t want to get rid of it, but want to keep it at a healthy balance.
Things That Drain Our Dopamine.
Short answer to what drains our dopamine…Anything that provides you pleasure and reward and you continue to do it over and over again. Such as:
excessive social media use
compulsive shopping
binge watching videos
gambling, watching porn
emotional eating
consuming junk/ultra processed foods, high sugar foods
excessive caffeine
Low dopamine levels can lead to apathy, fatigue, boredom, low motivation, impulsivity, sugar cravings, and thrill-seeking and conflict-seeking behavior. It’s also associated with chronic constipation, memory issues, restless leg syndrome and some neurological and medical conditions such as Parkinson’s disease. Low dopamine is also associated with ADD/ADHD (short attention span, distractibility, disorganization, procrastination, and impulse control issues).
On the other end, you can have too much dopamine as well. Too much dopamine has been associated with mental health problems like agitation, obsession or compulsions, psychosis, and violence. High dopamine also leads to heightened focus and attention. Euphoria and an increased drive for pleasure seeking behavior is a common symptom of high dopamine, which can be a driving factor in addictions.
So, How Do We Keep Dopamine In A Healthy Balance?
Keeping dopamine in balance is like walking a tight rope. Removing or cutting back on those things that drain our dopamine and at the same time remove or cutting back on the things that create high dopamine (see list above). Yes, all the things listed that drain your dopamine, also create an excess of dopamine.
So here are a few things that you can do to balance both sides:
exercise/movement
maintain a sleep routine
get outside and get some sunlight - Vitamin D helps regulate dopamine levels
practice meditation/mindfulness
set goals and celebrate the wins
alter what you eat to support natural dopamine production and balance
get a massage
vagus nerve stimulation
Check out this post from
on how to support your vagus nerve
What You Eat Matters
Our brain requires high quality protein to provide it with complete amino acids like tryptophan. Tryptophan is required to build other neurotransmitters, serotonin and tyrosine which are building blocks of dopamine.
A high protein/low carbohydrate diet ( ketogenic diet) has been shown to to balance dopamine in the brain. Highly processed and high sugar foods lead to cravings and overeating and can activate the pleasure/reward impulse. Animal studies show a lot of promise with this way of eating.
Ketogenic diet alters dopaminergic activity in the mouse cortex - PubMed
Foods high in B12, iron, magnesium, zinc, omega 3 fatty acids. Red meat, chicken, eggs, avocados, fish, and dairy are just a few of the foods high in these nutrients.
Removing high sugar foods, ultra processed foods, excessive caffeine.
Dopamine plays a role in wanting food. Research shows that you can crave food even if you do not enjoy it anymore. Repeated exposure to ultra processed, high sugar foods with unhealthy additives can rewire the dopamine pathways. You eat these foods not for pleasure but because your brain is looking for a reward. So to create a more healthier diet, you need to seek another pleasure - reward system when it comes to food.
Reclaiming control over your eating habits starts with understanding how food rewires our brain.
Dopamine, like all neurotransmitters (acetylcholine, serotonin, oxytocin, norepinephrine, epinephrine) are vital to our brain function and don’t need to be eliminated but need to all be in balance (or as much as possible) to experience pleasure, motivation, and maintain cognitive function. All an important part of life.
In our fast-moving world where over stimulation, and unhealthy food is being pitched to us at every level, achieving a healthy balance has become more crucial than ever.
Start looking at the simple things of life and make small steps to create a healthy dopamine balance. Our brain is an amazing organ and like other parts of our body, has the ability to heal itself with time, given the right tools.
Stay tuned for upcoming newsletters on neurotransmitters and brain health.
Danni
Of the healthy behaviours you listed, I was surprised by two: getting enough sunlight and the effects of a massage. Those are great things to do for yourself in so many ways!