Neurotransmitters are the body's delivery system. Just like in a relay race, they hand off your brain's intentions from one to the next. If you want a book on the top shelf, your brain instructs your hand to reach for it. Your hand can't do that unless neurotransmitters pass on the message to your muscles. Dopamine is a vital neurotransmitter, according to the Northwest Association for Biomedical Research. Too little or too much can cause wide-ranging problems from mood disorders to Parkinson's disease. Your body produces it in sufficient quantities, but sometimes lifestyle factors interfere and your brain might need a little help.
Origin
Your body's production of dopamine begins in the substantia nigra area of your brain. It converts phenylalanine, an amino acid, into tyrosine. Tyrosine then synthesizes dopamine in the right quantities for optimal functioning.
Effects
When your body's level of dopamine is on target, you are happy. You can process pleasure, think clearly and move smoothly. You are motivated and have the desire to reach goals, according to Jeff Jones, a psychotherapist and addiction counselor. Stress prompts your body to automatically produce more dopamine to regulate your mood.
Depletion
According to the website Med Help, too little dopamine can affect your capacity for love and compassion and can erase your conscience. Jones says that major causes of dopamine depletion are substance and alcohol abuse. Drugs and alcohol can disrupt the processing of dopamine in your brain because they produce their own neurotransmitter, effectively telling your brain to shut down its production. Over time, your brain becomes dependent on the substance-induced dopamine so you need more and more of that to maintain a balance. Then addiction occurs. While coffee does not decrease dopamine production, Jones says that caffeine can restrict blood flow in the brain and hamper the ability of dopamine to pass its messages along.
Replenishment
If you are craving a certain food, your brain might be telling you it needs help synthesizing dopamine, according to Med Help. Your diet plays an instrumental part in your brain's production of this neurotransmitter. Bananas contain tyrosine. Wheat germ is rich in phenylalanine. Beets contain the amino acid betaine, which prompts the production of S-adenoslemethionine, also related to the creation of dopamine. Chicken, eggs and cheese also help your body produce dopamine, as does any other food high in vitamin B6 or protein. Jones also suggests that mental activity can help your brain produce this neurotransmitter.
Other Considerations
Dopamine also plays an important part in some smoking cessation drugs and in antidepressant medications. Dopamine reuptake inhibitors prevent cells from reabsorbing dopamine, which increases levels in the brain. Higher-than-normal quantities of this neurotransmitter might facilitate its messenger qualities, lighten mood and fight depression, according to MayoClinic.com. Varenicline, marketed under the brand name Chantix, is a drug that attaches to the receptors in the brain that would normally receive nicotine, which prompts its own dopamine production just as drugs and alcohol do. Chantix works on the theory that by preventing nicotine from reaching these receptors, it is blocked from producing the artificially high levels of dopamine that cause addiction to the nicotine.
References
- Med Help: Foods That Increase Dopamine Naturally
- 1TherapyPlace: Do You Know How Alcohol Use Progresses From Pleasurable to Addictive? (The Dopamine Story)
- MayoClinic.com: Norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitors (NDRIs)
- Northwest Association for Biomedical Research: Parkinson's
- Chantix: How Chantix Works
