This is the third in a series of episodes going into detail on the five brain chemicals I summarized in Episode 139 on brain chemistry (http://RunningAFEVER.com/139).
A summary of what we already know from that episode:
1. Seratonin is what some call the leadership chemical, associated with pride, status, recognition.
2. It’s why we have graduation, awards, it increases confidence.
3. At graduation not only does the graduate get seratonin, the parents watching in the audience do too.
4. It makes us live to help others.
BUT … YOU CAN TRICK IT
Materialism, brand names, logos, outside of any relationship also release seratonin. Here’s an example of the purpose of this hormone: If the strongest member of the group always gets all the good stuff, food, mate, etc., how likely is the weaker one to wake up the strong one when a wild animal comes to the cave? That’s not good for cooperation and survival of the tribe. We need trust, and seratonin rewards behavior that develops that trust.
How you get it:
1. Think about happy times. Yes!
2. Bright Light. For years this has been a treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder. It’s because it stimulates the release of seratonin.
3. Exercise.
4. Purified tryptophan. Note: aating turkey does not produce brain tryptophan, that’s a myth. L-tryptophan is available as a supplement, and may be effective in treating sleep disorders, seasonal affective disorder, sleep apnea, anxiety, and depression.
By the way, I’m seeing L in front of a lot of these amino acid protein precursors, like the L-argenine I’m taking. And you see it in the names of supplements because that is a free-form, which means it is available in the way your body needs to use it, not bonded in a formed protein.
One of the best and most authentic ways to get that seratonin flowing is to help others.
My purpose is not to say, go out and ramp up all your brain chemicals, but to help us understand how our body works so we can improve our lives. So instead of buying a bottle of L-tryptophan, go volunteer at a food bank.
Swanson
https://www.swansonvitamins.com/blog/vitamins-supplements-faqs/what-does-the-l-mean-in-l-tyrosine-and-l-theanine-
WebMD
https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-326/l-tryptophan
NIH
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2077351/
Simon Sinek Speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmyZMtPVodo
Simon Sinek Book
https://amzn.to/2WqCsWT