Low self-worth and no motivation? Check your dopamine

When a person has low self-esteem, low motivation, feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness, and is prone to temperamental outbursts, it’s common to pin that on some deep-rooted psychological issue. Although that is often the case, sometimes simply being low in the brain chemical, or neurotransmitter, dopamine can cause these symptoms.

Do you suffer from these symptoms of low dopamine?

• Inability to self-motivate
• Inability to start or finish tasks
• Feelings of worthlessness
• Feelings of hopelessness
• Lose temper for minor reasons
• Inability to handle stress
• Anger and aggression while under stress
• Desire to isolate oneself from others
• Unexplained lack of concern for family and friends

These symptoms not only make one’s life miserable, they also can lead to loss of relationships, jobs, and a sense of meaning in life.

Dopamine is linked with pleasure in the brain. We need dopamine to feel enjoyment, a sense of reward, and for motivation to get things done or even go do something fun. Dopamine is what enables us to focus and concentrate and see a task through to completion. It also helps with libido.

Dopamine also allows us to stay calm under pressure and not lose our temper. People with low dopamine snap or explode easily or become aggressive. Then they may feel bad about it later.

At the extreme end, chronically low dopamine is associated with Parkinson’s disease. Dopamine is also linked with addictions.

Dopamine and hormones

It’s common to see symptoms of low dopamine in aging men. This is because dopamine activity depends on sufficient testosterone in men. In women it’s linked with low progesterone.

In functional medicine we like to try to address the underlying factors of why hormones are low in the first place. However, some people may need bioidentical hormone replacement therapy to address chronically low hormones and thus low dopamine symptoms.

Nutritional compounds that support low dopamine

Although it’s important to address the causes of why dopamine may be low, the problem with people who are dopamine-deficient is they have poor motivation and follow-through. As a result, they are often terrible at complying with changes to their diet or lifestyle that would help them.

In these cases, some supplemental dopamine support can help boost their motivation to address their neurotransmitter imbalances.

Ingredients that have been shown to help support dopamine include mucuna pruriens, also known as cowhage, and the amino acids D, L-phenylalanine, beta-phenylethylamine, and N-acetyl L-tyrosine. Vitamin B-6 (P-5-P), selenium, blueberry extract, and alpha lipoic acid provide cofactors and additional support.

Foods that support dopamine contain high amounts of phenylalanine and include primarily animal products in addition to oats and chocolate. Phenylalanine is an essential amino acid, meaning our bodies can’t make it and it must come through diet. As such, vegans and vegetarians may need to make sure they are getting enough of this amino acid supplementally.

However, if you eat animal products and still have a dopamine deficiency, eating foods high in phenylalanine likely won’t do much.

The more important thing to do for many people is eat a diet that stabilizes blood sugar. Eating foods high in sugars and processed carbs on a regular basis will sabotage healthy dopamine activity.

Additionally, sufficient iron is necessary to make enough dopamine. If you are iron deficient this could explain your low dopamine symptoms. Many factors can cause iron deficiency, including anemia, gluten intolerance, and uterine fibroids.

Dosing dopamine support supplements

If you are trying to support dopamine activity, gradually increase the dose of dopamine precursors until you notice an effect. This takes trial and error. Then increase the dose again to see whether you experience even more improvement. Once you no longer feel any improvement, go back to the previous dose at which you felt improvement.

How often you take dopamine support also takes trial and error to see what works for you.

If dopamine support causes intense fatigue, those neurons affected by dopamine may already be overly fatigued even though you need dopamine support. In this case it’s more important to address issues of brain inflammation, oxygenation, and general support.

Dopamine clearance is important too

Just as making enough dopamine is important to feeling good, so is being able to clear dopamine out of your system. This makes dopamine activity more efficient. Proper clearance requires magnesium and methyl donors, such as betaine, folic acid, and methyl B-12.

The use of diuretics, over exercising, estrogen replacement therapies, low stomach acid, and long-time use of dopamine-based antidepressants can all hamper proper clearance of dopamine.

Ask my office for both nutritional and functional neurology support for your low dopamine pathways. One way to build dopamine is to pick something you have low motivation around and do one very small, positive thing in that direction regularly. For instance, if you want to build an exercise habit, start with one push up a day and build from there. The rewarding feeling of accomplishment is effective in building your dopamine pathways whereas beating yourself up for never getting around to that hour long intense Crossfit workout can further drive it down.

Sexual violence changes the shape of the female brain

Crazy, hysterical, overly sensitive, hyper sensitive — these are the labels often given to women. Although it’s true the female hormone estrogen is associated with feeling and being more emotional, research also shows that sexual violence, which is believed to affect about 30 percent of women, can change a woman’s brain in a way that may make her prone to PTSD-like symptoms.

A 2016 study on rats showed that pre-pubescent female rats paired with sexually experience older males showed higher stress hormones, an inability to learn as well, and reduced maternal behaviors.

Researchers said the study was significant because adolescent girls are more likely than the general public to be victims of sexual assault.

Despite the fact many women who experience sexual violence go on to suffer with depression, PTSD, anxiety, and other mood disorders, there is little research demonstrating the effects of sexual violence on the female brain.

This study was the first of its kind to observe the effects of stress on the female rat brain as males are usually used. It was also the first of its kind to observe changes in the developing female brain related to sexual violence.

Fortunately, the National Institutes of Health now requires that in order to receive federal funding, studies must observe the impacts on both male and female animals.

Women and PTSD

Sexual violence is estimated to be the most common cause of PTSD in women. As such, PTSD affects about twice as many women than men, women have more PTSD symptoms, and the condition lasts longer in women than men.

Studies also show this applies to various cultures and that the effects are worse in cultures where women have fewer rights and less safety.

It’s important to note that it isn’t women who are affected so much as people who fall into traditionally female roles. Therefore, it stands to reason that men who are victims of sexual violence would also fall victim to the same dynamics.

PTSD versus complex PTSD (CPTSD)

Both PTSD and complex PTSD (CPTSD) happen as a result of trauma, but both researchers and the World Health Organization acknowledge them as two distinct disorders.

While PTSD is more typically the result of an acute trauma, such as combat, witnessing a death, or being in an accident or natural disaster, CPTSD is the result of repetitive and prolonged trauma.

How functional neurology can help treat C/PTSD

The roots of the effects of PTSD can be traced to a part of the brain called the amygdala, a cluster of neurons that govern fear responses. Studies show a woman’s fear response lasts longer than a man’s, which may explain why women develop PTSD at higher numbers. Anger and threats also more activate the fear response in women than in men.

In functional neurology we help rewire the stress responses. We also address metabolic factors that can hinder recovery from PTSD, such as chronic inflammation, gut health, thyroid function, and hormone balance. These efforts, along with good counseling, can help people recover from PTSD and CPTSD.

For more information about how functional neurology can help you, contact my office.

Study links schizophrenia with specific gut bacteria

It’s the age of the gut microbiome — researchers are finding our gut bacteria influence multiple aspects of our personality, mood, and health. New research has now recently shown a connection between the gut microbiome and schizophrenia.

Researchers analyzed stool samples from three groups: Patients with schizophrenia taking medication, patients with schizophrenia not taking medication, and people who did not have schizophrenia.

The results showed that people with schizophrenia had gut bacteria the control group did not. Likewise, the control group had gut bacteria the patients with schizophrenia did not. In other words, researchers identified a schizophrenic-specific strain of gut bacteria.

To further test the connection, the researchers then inoculated mice with sterile guts with the gut bacteria from the patients with schizophrenia.

The mice then exhibited behavioral changes resulting in symptoms similar to schizophrenia.

Gut bacteria influence the brain and body health

Schizophrenia symptoms aren’t the only disorders scientists have been able to promote in mice through gut bacteria inoculations.

In other studies researchers have used gut bacteria inoculations to:

• Make fat mice thin
• Make thin mice fat
• Make anxious mice calm
• Make calm mice anxious

Human studies as well have shown gut bacteria influence obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, anxiety, depression, autism, irritable bowel disorders, and now schizophrenia.

Although researchers have not yet developed treatments based on gut bacteria, it’s clearly a promising path in treatment of chronic health and mood disorders with profound implications.

How to promote healthy gut bacteria in yourself

When it comes to a healthy gut microbiome, the key is diversity: both of your gut bacteria and the vegetables you eat.

Promote a brain-friendly gut microbiome in the following ways:

Eliminate foods and chemicals that kill good bacteria. Things that can kill your good bacteria and promote the bad include sugars, processed foods, alcohol, energy drinks, fast foods, food additives, excess salt, antibiotics, hand sanitizers, and household disinfectants.

Eat plenty of lots of different kinds of vegetables. Be sure and eat a large diversity of veggies on a regular basis. Avoid eating the same thing every day, your bacteria need constant diversity of plant fiber. Shoot for 25-30 grams of fiber a day.

Take probiotics. Taking a combination of pre- and probiotic support can help support your good gut bacteria. Try different probiotic strains to see if some help more than others.

Consume fermented foods. Sauerkraut, kimchee, kombucha, and yogurt contain live bacteria that can help boost your own populations.

Exercise your vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is a large communication nerve that runs between the brain and the gut. Brain injuries, aging, brain inflammation, or other factors that affect your brain health can impair function of the vagus nerve and thus communication between your brain and gut. This can impact gut function in a way that degrades the gut microbiome.

Ask my office for ways functional neurology and functional medicine can better support the health of your brain and gut microbiome.

Art: Lower stress and feed the right brain in a left-brain world

A new study shows that making art — sculpting, drawing, or collage-making — lowers stress hormones, even if you aren’t an artist. This is important for brain health as stress ravages the brain. We also know in functional neurology that our information-overload society hammers away at the left brain non-stop. Art is great way to exercise the right brain, thus improving overall brain function.

The study collected samples of stress hormones before and after the subjects spent 45 minutes drawing, sculpting, or making collages. Three quarters of the subjects showed lower levels of stress hormones after the art-making period. The results were similar regardless of whether the person had prior experience creating art regularly.

Subjects also reported feeling calmer, less anxious, and less obsessive.

What’s interesting is about a quarter of the subjects registered higher cortisol levels after the artistic experience. Researchers say this is not necessarily a bad thing as it may indicate increased excitement or engagement. The older subjects in the experiment exhibited the lower cortisol responses.

The study is important because stress is one of the most significant contributors to accelerated brain degeneration in our modern society. It is especially damaging to the hippocampus, and area of the brain that regulates stress and serves as the seat of learning and memory.

Chronically high levels of cortisol from chronic stress very quickly erode and degenerate the hippocampus. This not only makes the brain more conducive to experiencing stress, it also more quickly erodes learning and memory.

Taking adrenal adaptogens can help buffer the brain from the damages of high cortisol. But it’s also important to engage in more right-brained stress-relieving activities such as creating art.

Using art to support the right brain

The study shows another value in taking time to create art, even if you’re not an artist — exercising the right brain. For most of us, life is dominated by a left-brain existence as we navigate long hours at work, digital information overload, and the logistics of survival in modern America. Left brain characteristics include being analytical, logical, numerical, fact-oriented, very structured, and thinking with words.

However, optimal brain function requires that both sides of the brain work equally. For many of us, the right brain is sorely neglected. Consider these right-brain traits that may be going overlooked in your life:

• Visionary
• Big-picture thinker
• Intuitive
• Creative
• Free-thinking
• Think in terms of visuals more than words

In functional neurology we realize brain rehabilitation is more complex than simply left vs. right brain dominance. But if you find right-brain traits missing from your life, taking some time to engage them can not only lower stress, but also improve cognition, learning, and memory.

Ask my office how we can use functional neurology to help improve your brain performance, recover from brain injuries, or manage brain-based disorders.