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10 Ways to Boost Your Serotonin Naturally

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10 Ways to Boost Your Serotonin Naturally 1 10 Ways to Boost Your Serotonin Naturally by Peter Bongiorno, ND, LAc www.InnerSourceHealth.com www.drpeterbongiorno.com note: this paper is purely informational, and is not a substitute for medical advice. When anxiety and depression is discussed, at some point, the word ‘serotonin’ gets into the conversation. Known in the scientific community affectionately as “5-hydroxytryptamine” (or 5-HT, as a fun nick-name), serotonin is the focal point for many antidepressant and anxiety drugs. Some biologists called this molecule enteramine (‘entera’ is a word that refers to anything pertaining to the digestive system) because it is found high levels in the digestive tract. Others researchers who found it in the blood named it serotonin (‘sero’ refers to the blood). One of the hundreds of molecules of emotion, serotonin has a widespread distribution in the body and brain. It is considered to be a calming neurotransmitter, and important for best sleep and balanced appetite. This is why sometimes drugs that affect serotonin can help sleep, and cause increased eating which leads to the weight gain side effect of the serotonin reuptake inhibitor medications (SSRI’s). Gaining confidence and feeling like you’ve been respected by others also trigger serotonin. Maybe Rodney Dangerfield might have been low in serotonin – he never felt like he got any respect. Low levels will also contribute to depression, panic attacks and anxiety. When levels are too high, a person can feel agitated and irritable. 2 Happy Clams and the History of Serotonin Interestingly, serotonin was originally discovered as the molecule which allowed the happy clam to keep it’s shell on nice and tight with minimal energy expended. Think about it – if the clam had to constantly flex that retractor muscle, it would never be able take in enough nutrients and calories. Maybe serotonin is the reason the happy clam is so happy? Mmmm. Anyway, the reason why it works to keep a muscle contracted is because serotonin creates chemical impulses that lock the muscle in place. In 1952, Dr. Betty Twarog, a newly minted PhD student (at 25 years of age) figured out this serotonin connection, and disrupted a male-dominated world that, up until that point, believed only in electrical (not chemical) impulses in the body as the causes of movement and emotion. A few years later, it was figured out there was a connection between mood and serotonin. Tuberculosis patients were given a new drug at the time called isoniazid to help with their TB. What they noticed is that the drug allowed serotonin to stay at higher levels in the body. It turned out that it didn’t really help the TB, but it was noted that depressed patients became less depressed. The drug changed the body’s ability to brake down serotonin properly – since it was not broken down, serotonin raised up, and people seemed to feel better. Since then, modern pharmaceutical companies have scrambled to make more and more medications to increase serotonin. The monoamine oxidase inhibitors came first, then the tricyclic antidepressants, then the first generation SSRI’s (like Prozac) and today we have second generation versions. 3 Serotonin and the Digestive Tract The gut is so inextricably related to good mood that someday, psychiatrists are going to to want to become competent nutritionists and holistic gastroenterologists, as they realize it is hard to fully fix imbalances in mood and serotonin without working on a healthy digestive system. Serotonin is found in many tissues, including the blood, platelets, the intestines, and the central nervous system. About 90% of our serotonin supply is actually found in the digestive tract – a likely connection between mood disorder and digestive dysfunction. With this pleiotropism (a fancy word for “broad effects throughout many parts of the body”), serotonin is implicated in many physiologic effects, including inhibition of gastric secretion (stopping enzymes needed for digestion), stimulation of smooth muscles (which can lead to diarrhea when the stimulation is in your digestive tract), vasoconstriction (tightening vessels for higher blood pressure), as well as brain communication and mood effect. The digestive tract breaks down protein (from foods like meat and nuts) into the component amino acid tryptophan. In the digestive tract, tryptophan is transformed into the neurotransmitter serotonin. When your digestion isn’t working well (often due to stress, poor diet, sleep problems, and toxins), there is a lot more inflammation in the digestive tract. And when inflammation is high, the body is much less prepared to absorb tryptophan into the brain. A prime example of this is in patients who have celiac disease, where chronic inflammation leads to poor nutrient absorption. Additionally, irritating foods and inflammation will spur the digestive tract to send high amounts of serotonin into the digestive system as a protective mechanism, where it encourages fast movement as a means to empty out the gut. 4 Did you ever get frightened and later on end up with diarrhea? This action of serotonin is a prime cause of diarrhea in people who have mood disorders, poor diet, and high stress. The Serotonin- Light Connection Three ways healthful exposure to sunlight can calm and balance mood are by maintaining healthy levels of serotonin, balancing your circadian rhythm, and building up your vitamin D stores. John Denver sang “Sunshine, on my shoulder, makes me happy.” While I am not sure he ran a full human research trial on this, he did seem to have a clear understanding of sunlight’s benefit on mood. Serotonin levels are known to increase with brighter light, and not surprisingly, research sampling the vein blood of 101 men suggest serotonin levels are at their lowest in the winter. Even more, the rate serotonin is produced depends on how long a person was exposed as well as the light intensity. Other studies have also shown how serotonin transporters, which will bind up and inactivate serotonin, are more plentiful in the brain during dark periods. Darkness sends a signal to our bodies to stay ‘low.’ But, Is Serotonin Really Important? We’ve been talking about serotonin like it's the only or most important factor in mood. Certainly, conventional biomedicine, with its use of drugs that manipulate neurotransmission is pretty convinced that serotonin and the neurotransmitters are the key for proper mood. Me? I think serotonin and neurotransmitters are part of a much larger picture. And some research will suggest this as well. In Gary Greenberg’s excellent book, Manufacturing Depression, he retells an old joke about a drunk man looking for his car keys outside the bar in the only lighted spot in a large parking lot. A cop comes up to him and says “hey man, why are 5 you only looking here, when there’s the whole parking lot to check?” The inebriated man answers “cause the light’s better here.” Greenberg goes on to explain that this joke exemplifies what we do with neurotransmitters in psychiatry. Because serotonin and neurotransmitters is the focus of research (and patented medications), this is what is focused on for treatment. And this may be a mistake - pretty strong research by Fournier in the 2010 Journal of the American Medical Association shows that with anti-depressant drugs, SSRI’s drugs may not work any better than placebo in mild and moderate cases of depression – the majority reason these are prescribed. Also, research from 2009 looking at genetic differences in receptors for serotonin. Receptors are the little docking stations that serotonin binds to in order to create an effect. What they concluded was that there is “no evidence of an association between the serotonin gene and the risk of depression.” Even more confusing is research on the drug Tianeptine (Coaxil). This is a serotonin reuptake enhancer, which works completely opposite of SSRI’s by helping to break down serotonin at faster rates (instead of keeping it around, the way SSRI’s do). This drug has been shown to be as effective in depression and interestingly more effective than some medications at lowering anxiety. This shows you we really don’t know what’s going on – we do know some can drugs work for some people in the short term, but not for many others. In the long term, they can stop working anyway, and side effects are typical for most people anyway. Even more, these drugs do not fix any of the underlying issues that caused the imbalance, if indeed it is an imbalance to begin with. Mood disorders like anxiety and depression are really just symptoms of a greater physiologic imbalance that requires adjusting lifestyle, diet, and getting in the right nutrients. To be fair to the drugs, when SSRI drugs do clearly work for an individual, then it is possible that for that person, serotonin may be more of a factor, and is worth focusing on. We can learn from the medication use to focus on natural ways to support serotonin and fix the underlying cause. 6 How to Naturally Enhance Serotonin In this spirit, I would like to offer a number of ways that I find helpful to enhance and balance serotonin, in order to lower anxiety and lift mood. 1 – Work On Relationships Our interactions with one another is a very important part of the process of balancing the brain. It is true that we need each other. The first step is to focus on those who love and respect you. Take the time to thank them for all they do for you. Sometimes - and this is the hard part, it may also mean disconnecting with people in your life who are toxic. Relationship with yourself, in some senses, can be measured by a sense of self- esteem.
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