Serotonin
Serotonin = Happiness
I am all about the Serotonin, it is the scientific molecule I associate with my Skin Science/Skin Happiness!
The happy hormone and neurotransmitter (chemical messenger). Hormones are chemicals produced by different glands across your body. They travel through your blood steam acting as messengers and playing a part in many bodily processes. One of these is regulating your mood! Certain hormones are known to promote positive feelings, including happiness and pleasure. These ‘pleasure hormones’ include;
Serotonin
The ‘happy’ hormone. Helps regulate your mood as well as your sleep, appetite, digestion, learning ability and memory.
Endorphins
The ‘positivity’ hormone. Your body’s natural pain reliever, which your body produces in response to stress or discomfort. Endorphin levels also tend to increase when you engage in reward-producing activities, working out or having sex.
Dopamine
The ‘feel good’ hormone. Important part of the brains reward system, associated with pleasurable sensations, along with learning, memory, motor system function & more.
Oxytocin
The ‘love hormone’ essential for childbirth, breastfeeding and strong child-parent bonding. This hormone can also help promote trust, empathy, and bonding in relationships, oxytocin levels generally increase with physical affection like kissing, cuddling and sex.
To focus on the happy hormone – Serotonin
Wide variety of functions in the human body. Contributes to well-being and happiness. It is the precursor to melatonin, therefore, helps regulate the body’s sleep/wake cycles and the internal clock. Plays a key role in maintaining mood balance and low levels are linked to depression.
If you have low serotonin you might feel anxious, low or depressed, have sleep issues or feel fatigued, feel impulsive, have a decreased appetite, experience nausea and digestive issues, crave sweet and carbohydrate-rich foods.
6 ways to boost Serotonin without medication
Food
You cannot directly get serotonin from food but you can get tryptophan, an amino acid that is connected to serotonin in your brain, Tryptophan is found primarily in high protein foods, including turkey and salmon. It gets a little more complex - eating tryptophan rich foods cant always get past the protective blood-brain barrier (a protective sheath around your brain that controls what goes in and out of your brain). Tryptophan rich foods are usually even higher in other amino acids and because they are more abundant these are more likely to cross the blood-brain barrier. you may be able to hack the system by eating carbs alongside tryptophan rich foods.
Snacking for serotonin;
whole wheat bread with turkey or cheese/oatmeal with a handful of nuts/salmon with brown rice/plums or pineapple with your favourite crackers/pretzel sticks with peanut butter and a glass of milk.
Exercise
Exercising triggers the release of tryptophan into your blood. It can also decrease the amount of other amino acids creating an ideal environment for more tryptophan to reach your brain.
Aerobic exercises for serotonin
swimming/bicycling/brisk walking/jogging/light-hiking.
Bright Light
Serotonin tends to be lower after winter and higher in summer. Seasonal Affective Disorder and mental health concerns are linked to the seasons. spending time in the sunshine helps increase serotonin levels and there is research to suggest your skin may be able to synthesise serotonin.
Light for serotonin
spend at least 10-15 minutes outside each day/take your physical activity outside to increase the boost of light and exercise/light therapy (SAD’s light - not for bi-polar).
Supplements
Some dietary supplements may help jumpstart production and release of serotonin by increasing tryptophan. if you are taking any other supplements and/or medication you need to check with your healthcare provider. The only supplement I will cover here as a generalisation is Probiotics. Research suggests that getting more probiotics in your diet may increase tryptophan in your blood helping more of it to reach your brain.
Massage
Massage therapy helps increase serotonin and dopamine and decrease cortisol (a hormone produced when stressed). Does not have to be a therapist a study showed that 84% of pregnant women with depression who received 20 mins of massage therapy from their partner twice a week were less anxious and depressed and had higher serotonin levels after 16 weeks of this study.
Mood induction
Too little serotonin can negatively impact your mood, but a good mood increases serotonin. Thinking about something that makes you feel good has been shown to increase serotonin in your brain.
Try
visualising a happy moment from your memory/thinking about a positive experience you had with a loved one/look at photos of things that make you happy.
When to seek help
If you are looking to increase serotonin to improve mood related symptoms including those of depression these methods may not be enough. some people simply have lower serotonin levels due to their brain chemistry and there is not much you can do about this on your own, in addition most mood disorders involve a complex mix of brain chemistry, environment, genetics and other factors.
if you find that your symptoms are starting to impact your day to day life, consider reaching out for support from a therapist. Depending on your symptoms you may be prescribed a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) these help keep your brain from reabsorbing the serotonin that is released. This leaves more available for use in your brain. For many people an SSRI can help them get to a place where they can make the most out of treatment as they learn how to effectively manage their conditiion.
Our Gut
Our nervous system is the ultimate human supercomputer, it can evaluate an enormous amount of information coming from the far reaches of our body while sending out specific, targeted instructions that direct the body’s functions. For example, your nervous system knows you have burned your tongue before you even comprehend what has happened and similarly without thinking about it your nervous system is coordinating an intricate process, critical to your health and well-being, in your digestive tract as you eat your dinner.
The gut is sometimes called the second brain, your gut and your brain are in constant communication. Far more communication reaches the brain from the gut than you may realise. The number of nerves in your gut outnumbers your spinal cord! In fact, our guts can act semi-independently of the brain.
The Happiness Hormone
It is estimated that over 90% of our serotonin is made in the gut, remember the mouth is the top of the gut, oral health/systemic health and Gut health are all intricately linked. Digestive system activity may affect cognition (thinking skills and memory).
