Cheryle Hart, M.D., and Mary Kay Grossman, RD
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 Biochemical Background
The baseline levels of neurotransmitters measured in the initial urine directly reflect reservoir levels of neurotransmitters in the brain. The lower the urinary amount, the more deficient a person is in brain neurotransmitters. With the addition of neurotransmitter enhancing compounds, referred to as neurotransmitter precursor therapy, levels of serotonin and dopamine measured in the urine are expected to rise. This rise would indicate increased brain synthesis of the serotonin and dopamine. |
Steven V. Joyal
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 Most antidepressants work by helping make certain natural chemicals called neurotransmitters (serotonin, norepinephrine) more accessible to the brain. neurotransmitters are necessary for normal brain function as well as the control of mood.
Some people find that taking an antidepressant during the first few months of therapy is just the extra lift they need to get them back on track, and then they stop the medication. This was the strategy Rosemary used to help beat her clinical depression. |
Amarjit S. Basra
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 Neurotransmitters and CNS Function
Neurotransmitters are of several chemical types, and some of them are important in neurotransmission and neuromuscular transmission in the peripheral nervous system. Some neurotransmitters occur throughout the CNS while others are more localized, and they may stimulate or inhibit information transmission. The particular activity of a neurotransmitter varies according to the type of receptor upon which it acts. An increasing number
353 of subtypes within the CNS are being discovered. |
Victoria Boutenko, M.A.
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 The body in producing neurotransmitters uses some essential amino acids, like tyrosine, tryptophan, glutamine, histamine, and others. neurotransmitters are the natural chemicals that facilitate communication between brain cells. These substances govern our emotions, memory, moods, behavior, learning abilities and sleep patterns. For the last three decades, neurotransmitters have been the focus of mental health research. |
Craig Pepin-Donat
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 Neurotransmitters send messages to trillions of neurons across the synapses of the brain. Although there are hundreds of these naturally produced chemicals, there are several prominent neurotransmitters that regulate our thoughts, feelings and actions. Adrenaline controls the "fight or flight" response, giving us the ability to take action in an emergency. Serotonin controls mood and is the primary target of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) commonly used to treat depression. |
Paul D. Blanc, M.D.
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 These agents, or neurotransmitters, traffic back and forth among the nerve cells. Modern medicine has taken advantage of this trafficking to supply the body with synthetic neuro-ttansmitters. The goal of such thetapy is to try to supply the messages lost from missing nerve cells and thus override the interrupted pathways. The most well known of these synthetic neurotransmitters, L-dopa, was the first majot advance in the drug treatment of Patkinson's and was the focus of Oliver Sacks's popular account Awakenings (later portrayed on film by Robin Williams as the exubetant neurologist). |
| For example, manganese-responsive enzymes in the brain tightly control the production of key neurotransmitters. The overproduction and release of such neurotransmitters can lead to the overstimulation of nerve cells. This overstimulation, in turn, appears to be a key factor in wiping out pivotal brain centers, the very brain centers tied to Patkinson's disease. Indeed, this mechanism of overstimulation may be shated among manganese, cycad toxin, and the heroin analogue MPTP. |
Steven V. Joyal
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| Most antidepressants work by helping make certain natural chemicals called neurotransmitters (serotonin, norepinephrine) more accessible to the brain. neurotransmitters are necessary for normal brain function as well as the control of mood.
Some people find that taking an antidepressant during the first few months of therapy is just the extra lift they need to get them back on track, and then they stop the medication. This was the strategy Rosemary used to help beat her clinical depression. |
Paul D. Blanc, M.D.
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| This peculiar adverse effect of Thorazine was linked with other, related neurological symptoms, all of which are tied to excesses or shortfalls of various neurotransmitters. This pattern of toxicity has lent support to a unifying hypothesis of biochemical imbalance linking such disparate conditions as schizophrenia and Parkinsonism.
Manganese is an ideal toxin for illustrating this effect: first, neurotransmitters overload, leading to madness; then, with time, the cells driven to overproduce the neurotransmitter die out, allowing Parkinsonism to become manifest. |
Bryan Hanson, PhD
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 Actually, many neurotransmitters are known, and this is one reason for the complexity of the nervous system. In fact, a single organ is usually controlled by multiple neurons using different neurotransmitters (and don't even ask about the brain!). This creates quite a task for those trying to figure out how these things work, but the multiple points of control do permit our bodies to react flexibly and to respond to a variety of conditions. All of the neurotransmitters are modest-sized molecules. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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 Tyrosine is a precursor of the stimulating neurotransmitters adrenaline, noradrenaline, and dopamine. If supplies of these neurotransmitters are low, your body will use the tyrosine to create more, which can have a stimulating effect. (At this juncture, you may find yourself wondering why that high-tryptophan
Thanksgiving meal featuring turkey induces sleepiness. The answer isn't tryptophan—it's overeating, which directs more blood to your digestive tract, making less blood available to your brain.)
Be Aware of the Timing of Meals
As discussed above, hypoglycemia can disrupt sleep. |
J. Douglas Bremner
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 By blocking the reuptake of these neurotransmitters into the neurons, they increase the amount of neurotransmitter that is available in the space between the neurons (the synapse) and therefore increase the effects of these neurotransmitters. It is by means of this effect that the weight-loss properties of Meridia are believed to accrue, although the exact mechanism is not completely understood.
Meridia is one of the "bad five" identified by Dr. David Graham, an FDA employee who, in his testimony before the U.S. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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 Major Ager toxins influencing the message system of neurotransmitters (through such things as industrial-size doses of MSG, for example). See Figure H.2.
The good part, however, is that food and exercise and sleep work as dials on your neurotransmitter radio, regulating how you feel from day to day and hour to hour, and thus can have a profound impact on the emotional side of aging. Events controlled by neurotransmitters, like insomnia, also affect longevity, not just the quality of life.
Figure H. |
J. Douglas Bremner
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| Drugs that block uptake of the neurotransmitters by the transporter result in an increase in the neurotransmitters in the synapses, which is believed to account for at least part of the reason these drugs work. Many of the antidepressant drugs block the serotonin transporter, the norepinephrine transporter, or a combination of the two. The original drugs, the tricyclics, had a more general effect on blockage of neurotransmitter uptake.
EARLY TREATMENT
The first medication found to work for the treatment of depression was discovered by accident. |
Pam Montgomery
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 There are four ways the heart communicates with the brain: neuro-logically (the transmission of nerve impulses), biochemically (hormones and neurotransmitters), biophysically (pressure waves), and energetically (electromagnetic field interactions).
There are 40,000 nerve cells in the heart as well as neurotransmitters such as noradrenaline and dopamine (known emotional mediators), that the heart synthesizes and releases. "With every beat of the heart, a burst of neural activity is relayed to the brain," Martin explains. |
Mark Sircus
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 The role that magnesium plays in the transmission of hormones (such as insulin, thyroid, estrogen, testosterone, DHEA, etc.), neurotransmitters (such as dopamine, catecholamines, serotonin, GABA, etc.), and mineral electrolytes is a strong one. Research concludes that it is magnesium status that controls cell membrane potential and through this means controls uptake and release of many hormones, nutrients and neurotransmitters. |
Jack Challem
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 The eating habits that shape overweight and prediabetes tend to be low in neuronutrients—that is, protein and B-complex vitamins, which are involved in making mood-regulating neurotransmitters. Meanwhile, overweight people may not like their appearance; they might feel anxious about how they look in public or feel depressed because they cannot change how they look.
In addition, people who are prediabetic, diabetic, or overweight are also more likely to have difficulty in concentrating and thinking clearly, especially after eating, when their blood sugar is elevated. |
John J. Ratey, MD
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 About 80 percent of the signaling in the brain is carried out by two neurotransmitters that balance each other's effect: gluta-mate stirs up activity to begin the signaling cascade, and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) clamps down on activity. When glutamate delivers a signal between two neurons that haven't spoken before, the activity primes the pump. The more often the connection is activated, the stronger the attraction becomes, which is what neu-roscientists mean when they talk about binding. As the saying goes, neurons that fire together wire together. |
| Norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin are essential messengers that ferry information across the synapses, but without enough good connections in place, these neurotransmitters can only do so much. As far as the brain is concerned, it's job is to transfer information and constantly rewire itself to help us adapt and survive. In depression, it seems that in certain areas, the brain's ability to adapt grinds to a halt. The shutdown in depression is a shutdown of learning at the cellular level. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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| A recent study found that patients with dental amalgams had a significantly higher incidence of insomnia (as well as anger, depression, and anxiety) than those without amalgams, because of mercury's effects on neurotransmitters in the brain.16
Candida: Candida infection can directly alter sleep patterns, according to a study with animals.17 Yeast infections can also cause food allergies to develop. |
John J. Ratey, MD
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| The euphoric feeling is likely due to the mixture of extremely high levels of endorphins, ANP, endocannabinoids, and neurotransmitters pumping through your system at this intensity. It's the brain's way of blocking everything else out so you can push through the pain and make the kill.
High-intensity exercise toughens you up, both physiologically and psychologically. It's the reason why we climb mountains and sign up for fitness boot camps and go on Outward Bound trips. Yet you don't need to go to such extremes to reap the rewards I'm talking about. |
| And although the neurons that produce them account for only 1 percent of the brain's hundred billion cells, these neurotransmitters wield powerful influence. They might instruct a neuron to make more glutamate, or they might make the neuron more efficient or alter the sensitivity of its receptors. They can override other signals coming into the synapse, thus lowering the "noise" in the brain, or, conversely, amplify those signals. |
Hyla Cass, M.D.
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 They are turned into neurotransmitters with the help of cofactors, or chemical helpers: vitamins B3 (niacin), B6 (pyridoxine), folic acid (folate), B12 (cyanoco-balamin), and C; and the minerals zinc and magnesium. In addition, you need the essential fatty acids that make up about 60 percent of each brain cell. All of these can be supplemented as you'll see later in this chapter.
Then there's glucose required for fuel. Amazingly, this little three-pound organ called the brain can use up to half of the body's glucose (blood sugar) at any one time. |
John J. Ratey, MD
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| CONVERGING PATHS
When the blockbuster drug Prozac came along, it was the first antidepressant that corrected the chemical imbalance of just one of the suspect neurotransmitters. Prozac is the mother of a class known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), which prevent serotonin from being recycled at the synapse, leaving more available for use, and theoretically restoring normal transmission in the brain. Prozac was exciting because it worked for a lot of people and it pointed to a single problem that could be fixed. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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| Levels of estrogen can directly alter the circadian pattern of neurotransmitters affecting sleep, particularly serotonin and norepinephrine (adrenaline). In one study, 25 menopausal women classified as "bad sleepers" (based on questionnaires about their sleep patterns) were placed on a program of hormone replacement therapy with an estradiol transdermal gel. After three months, 18 of those women were rated as "good sleepers," a 72% response rate. |
| If supplies of these neurotransmitters are low, your body will use the tyrosine to create more, which can have a stimulating effect. (At this juncture, you may find yourself wondering why that high-tryptophan
Thanksgiving meal featuring turkey induces sleepiness. The answer isn't tryptophan—it's overeating, which directs more blood to your digestive tract, making less blood available to your brain.)
Be Aware of the Timing of Meals
As discussed above, hypoglycemia can disrupt sleep. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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 Egg yolks also contain choline, an important substance necessary for fat breakdown, the membranes of nearly every cell in the body, and production of neurotransmitters.
2. Salmon: Salmon is a high-quality source of protein and an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids.
3. Yogurt: An excellent source of high-quality, easily absorbed protein. Has all the nutritional value of milk but with several advantages for individuals with lactose intolerance. Yogurt also boosts the immune system, maintains a healthy gut, and has anticancer effects. Try to find those with the least amount of sugar.
4. |
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