DOPAMINE & ITS CLUTCHES

DOPAMINE & ITS CLUTCHES  

Are we becoming “Vagabonds of Social Media”?  

And the emergence of “Diabesity” as an epidemic!  

What are the activities that exhilarate you? I bet many of these activities include eating your favourite dish, online gaming, online recreation, surfing on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or watching your favourite Series/Anime.

While all these activities are different from each other, their effect on our brain is the same. The surge of happiness, motivation and thrill that fills us while pursuing these activities is due to “Dopamine”.

So let me introduce you to the protagonist of this blog – DOPAMINE (drum roll!)

Figure 1 Dopamine molecule (looks so poised here)
Scientific name - 4-(2-aminoethyl) benzene-1,2-diol

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter (a chemical that ferries information between neurons in our brain) that contributes to the feelings of pleasure and satisfaction. It creates a reward system which gets triggered while seeking out an experience of pleasure. And more often than not, this system of rewards forms a loop where most of us find ourselves intently seeking out addictive behaviors. (NOTE - Dopamine is not the only neurotransmitter involved.)

Dopamine’s presence is found in the whole animal kingdom. There is dopamine in jellyfish, hydra, corals, monkeys and humans. But as humans, because of our imagination (which knows no boundary), we are a step ahead of other animals. Humans find dopamine even after death (yes I’m talking about our many belief systems preaching about life after death).

·      FUNCTIONS & BENEFITS OF DOPAMINE

Dopamine was first synthesized in 1910 by George Barger and James Ewens at Wellcome Laboratories in London, England. Dopamine's function as a neurotransmitter was first recognized in 1958 by Arvid Carlsson and Nils-Åke Hillarp at the Laboratory for Chemical Pharmacology of the National Heart Institute of Sweden. Arvid Carlsson also described its role in our ability to move. This led to the realization that Parkinson's disease is caused by a lack of dopamine, allowing for the development of drugs for the disease. Carlsson was awarded the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for showing that dopamine is not only a precursor of norepinephrine (noradrenaline) and epinephrine (adrenaline), but is also itself a neurotransmitter, and its role in our ability to move.

Figure 2 Neuron (in this moment let's express our sincerest gratitude to our Neurons)

The reward system built by dopamine's release in our brain has evolutionary significance and led to the survival of many species, especially humans. Dopamine creates a cycle of motivation, reward, and reinforcement. Sticking to the crux of its functions, Dopamine's release in brain is important for our movement, cognition, regulation of prolactin secretion and motivation and pleasure (food, sex, drugs).

Dopamine is so crucial that its deficiency in our system can lead to diseases like Parkinson's disease, ADHD, Tourette syndrome, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder.

While dopamine's importance in our biological system is undeniable, its certain “pleasure-seeking” effects have been causing more harm than good to humans, causing disorders like drug-addiction (smoking, alcoholism,etc.), food-addiction, social-media addiction, internet gaming disorder, exercise addiction, etc. 

This blog called “DOPAMINE & ITS CLUTCHES”  aims to elucidate two of the above mentioned addictions.

·     ARE WE BECOMING “VAGABONDS OF SOCIAL MEDIA”?

 

I don’t know about you, but I can certainly speak for myself that I’ve been a “Social-Media-Vagabond”. And the truth is that it’s really difficult to conquer the habit of being glued to the screen.

But it’s not (entirely) our fault! These digital devices and online platforms are designed and strategized intensively to grab our attention. The endless scrolling feature in some apps, the bright-red icons, the pop-up sound when receiving a new message are a few sly ways through which our attention is captured by our phones and the anticipation which follows, leads to the release of dopamine-flood in our brain. 

·      DIABESITY – AN EMERGING EPIDEMIC

 

Diabesity refers to the complicated condition of diabetes, occurring simultaneously with obesity within the same individual. The leading cause of “diabesity” is regular consumption of empty calories, quickly absorbed sugars, liquid calories (soda, juice, sports drinks), and refined carbohydrates and lack of exercise. Other causes are sedentary lifestyle, increased accessibility and low price of processed food items, lack of awareness and knowledge about nutrition and good diet habits, socio-economic situation of a person, stress & depression and genetic conditions. 

Worldwide 422 million people are afflicted with diabetes and about 650 million with obesity. The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that, by 2030, developing countries will have three-fourth of the world's estimated 900 million diabetics. India is bracing for a massive surge in diabesity cases, with an estimate of  more than 100 million sufferers by the next 20 years. India is thus in a grave situation considering the double burden of malnutrition (coexistence of under-nutrition along with overweight, obesity, within population.)

 

Well here too we as consumers are a vulnerable target…. And let me throw some light on the “sugar conspiracy”…

“Harvard nutrition scientists, led by D. Mark Hegsted, had just completed a study showing that consuming saturated fat from foods such as butter raised cholesterol levels-to the dismay of the dairy industry, which had funded the research. The study also looked at sugar, which showed little effect. The sugar industry later learned of the findings and gave the Harvard scientists money to review the literature and elaborate upon their theories.” (Source - https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180215141755.htm)

If you are persuaded to cut-off fat rich foods from your diet, for the sake of health, you’ll try to find its replacement. (Why? I urge you to read the title of this blog right away to find the answer!) Thus, you’ll find shelter in sugary foods. (Oh the manipulation!)

The reward system built by dopamine's release in our brain has evolutionary significance and led to the survival of many species, especially humans. When we eat food, our brain recognizes this action as something beneficial for our survival, growth and nourishment and thus releases the “feel-good hormone” – Dopamine. And with repeated consumption of energy-dense foods like fat and sugars in the form of processed food items, we enter the cycle of craving and reward, which becomes stronger (in terms of amount & frequency of food consumption) with time.  This pattern of over-eating shifts to a stage where it has nothing to do with the body’s need for energy or nourishment, and this is called as “food addiction”, and most of the times this turns into “emotional eating”. And there is no easy way out of this vicious cycle.

Amidst our fast-paced lifestyle (not so much now due to the pandemic) we are failing to meet the nutritional demand of our body and continually finding ourselves in the vicinity of fast-foods (not just proximity but also excessive consumption). Another chemical that is being flushed in fast-foods is monosodium glutamate (MSG) which significantly increases the amount of dopamine in our brain, thus making the food highly addictive.

Such effects of dopamine remind me of Halsey’s lyrics, “It's crazy when the thing you love the most is the detriment. Let that sink in.” 

While indulging in these activities is effortless and almost inevitable, we must not lose ourselves. We must learn to channelize the powers of dopamine so that we seek pleasure in the activities that are actually meaningful in life.

When technology and the world had not developed so much as now, I believe each one of us used to cater more time to our hobbies, like reading novels, taking part in outdoor activities/sports, etc. And life was not so monochrome/ dull. So let us all devote time to transform ourselves into “thinking beings” before this mayhem of “easy-accessibility of things” devours us and uproots us mentally, emotionally and physically.