Endocrinologist with 24 years of experience - about the importance of dopamine and endorphin in our life
4 hormones are responsible for our happiness - serotonin, dopamine, endorphin and oxytocin. What is the difference between them and how to learn how to manage them?
Happiness hormones are of a protein nature and belong to neurotransmitters or neurotransmitters, that is, they carry impulses or signals along the nerve trunks. We can say that through them the nervous tissue communicates with the entire body.
Endorphin: relieves pain
The most famous molecule of happiness is endorphin. It is produced in the body itself and acts on the so-called opioid receptors (there are such in our body) and thereby relieves us of pain when the need arises. The same receptors are also affected by drugs (everything is clear here) and anesthesiological agents that are used in medicine.
Under what conditions do we get endorphins? For example, when contemplating works of art, watching your favorite movies, during sex, and even after good physical activity. There is such an expression as "runner's high" - people like to run because it causes pleasure.
Nature uses this hormone to make our life bearable. For example, in the third trimester of pregnancy, when it is all heavier and heavier for a woman to carry a baby, there is a sharp rise in the synthesis of endorphins.
Dopamine: the hormone muse
About dopamine I have already written more than once, it is a hormone that is responsible for anticipating some kind of joy. For example, it is happiness that you are finishing your dissertation or a complex accounting report, you will see your loved one soon, etc.
It is also called wellness hormone - with a low level of dopamine synthesis, it is difficult to imagine excellent health and, in general, the desire to get up from the couch. From bad dopamine, for example, even testosterone decreases - indirectly through a decrease in the synthesis of the hormone LH.
It is also associated with memory and the ability to build associations: for example, children learn the alphabet by associating letters with animals or birds. With low dopamine, this can be difficult.
Good dopamine accompanies creativity, it is he - our real muse, and not some ancient Greek girls in bed sheets.
Remember Vysotsky's song "there are few real violent, so there are no leaders"? Here are all violent - revolutionaries, leaders, curious, inquisitive and other restless personalities - people with high levels of dopamine, which does not allow them to be indifferent and led.
If your friend comes to a strong joy from a flower, chocolate and other pleasant little things, then he has good dopamine. It is he who makes you react so to small surprises. But there is a downside: constantly stimulating the pleasure center can be addictive. So, for example, there is a shopaholism, the cause of which is a disorder or loss of impulse control.
Be that as it may, it is dopamine that motivates us to act and seek pleasure. I will not say that this is bad, because many people get a special thrill in work, caring for loved ones, etc.
To be continued.
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