Your Digestive Tract, Neurotransmitters, and Hormones

Your Digestive Tract, Neurotransmitters, and Hormones

HOW YOUR GUT BRAIN AND RESPONSE OF YOUR BRAIN ARE ALL TIED TOGETHER

Neurotransmitter deficits caused by our diets correlates to changes in personality and behavior.  In severe cases there can be mental illness and eating disorders.  What happens in our gut will affect our brain and how the brain affects the body. Keep reading below to learn more.

WHAT ARE THE FOUR MAIN NEUROTRANSMITTERS?

The main four are Serotonin, Acetylcholine, GABA, and Dopamine.  There are many others but for the sake of this discussion they are not important.

These main neurotransmitters (NT) are built from amino acids that come from proteins except acetylcholine (Ach). Ach is built from dietary choline or recycled choline and acetyl groups.  To make all parts of the NT for us to function properly we need all macronutrients.  We can’t ignore any food groups and still have proper NT function. Neurotoxins of the diet such as nicotine, phytic acid, mineral depletion, vitamin depletion, lectins, excess caffeine, and alcohol can affect NT production. If we don’t have the right amounts of certain building block amino acids (AA) we may actually lack the building blocks to construct NT for best function. This can lead to changes in emotions or behavior when we change our diets.

WHAT DO THEY DO AND MEAN?

Serotonin begins with the AA tryptophan. It requires Vitamin B6, B12, Magnesium, and Folate as co factors in building. B Vitamins are the major methyl donors in the production of many NT so they are vital for brain function and development. If you do not eat them or absorb them you can be certain that you will suffer from serious mental issues at some point later. 

https://en.abvitamin.com/search?query=b+complex

https://en.abvitamin.com/search?query=folate

https://en.abvitamin.com/search?query=magnesium

Tryptophan is found in fish, poultry, and dairy products but eating these foods do not necessarily increase serotonin levels. It is difficult to absorb in the brain. The reason for this problem is because other foods compete with tryptophan for absorption in the gut. It has to compete with other AA. Eating carbohydrates raises the tryptophan level in the body more quickly than does eating a higher protein diet! The reason for this is that carbohydrates stimulate insulin release and this insulin spike favors the absorption of tryptophan in the gut over other amino acids. This is a reason why eating some carbohydrates is important.

Studies done at MIT, Harvard and Oxford have shown that women on a high protein and low carb diet are more likely to have low serotonin levels. In the paleo community this is called the “low carb flu.” If the person was previously very serotonin depleted this could cause initial weight gain while dieting, severe cravings, binging, bulimia, and severe PMS in women.

Dopamine which is the pleasure NT, is made from the AA tyrosine. Eating a high protein diet promotes dopamine production. It is abundant in poultry, meat, dairy products, almonds and avocados. It’s why we formed our large brains from an evolutionary point of view. Dopamine is the NT of our newest part of our brain, the frontal lobe.

People low in dopamine tend to crave caffeine a lot. Addictions of all types are associated with dopamine deficits and neuron damage in the hypothalamus. Someone with low dopamine levels usually has high cortisol levels and large amounts of abdominal obesity and many infectious diseases. This is another reason it is vitally important to lose excess body fat especially if you have it around the abdomen.

Acetylcholine (Ach) tends to control processing speed inside the human brain. Brains high in Ach usually are extremely sharp. This is the NT that is lost the most in Alzheimer’s disease. It provides for quick reaction time and thinking ability. Ach production is linked to dietary fat intake particularly cholesterol and saturated fats. The Acetyl CoA comes from the breakdown products of glucose and fructose and the choline comes in from phosphatidyl choline, found in the membranes of plants & animals. Eggs and organ meats are rich in compounds for Ach production. Choline is found in high amounts in both egg yolk and organ meats. It is in the B vitamin family. Vitamin B5 is used in its synthesis as well.
What symptoms will you have if you are deficient in Ach? Your thinking quality will be slower. Memory lapses will be more common and you may notice more frequent times to the toilet for bowel movements and urination. Sexual dysfunction also is more frequent. The behavior of those with Ach deficits are that of a worrier.

GABA is γ-Aminobutyric acid. A lack of GABA has been linked to anxiety disorders, Parkinson’s syndrome, panic attacks, cognitive impairment, insomnia, headaches, addiction, and seizure disorders such as epilepsy. GABA is the natural “off” switch of life. It is the NT that causes you to relax. GABA directly counterbalances the stress of life from the NTs dopamine and serotonin. GABA is built from glutamate, but not in the gut. GABA does not go through the blood-brain barrier; it is created in the brain and spinal cord. It is synthesized from glutamate utilizing the enzyme, L-glutamic acid decarboxylase plus pyridoxal phosphate (the active form of vitamin B6) as the cofactor. The way to optimize GABA in the brain is by supplementing its precursors in the right way, specifically Pyridoxal Phosphate, the active form of vitamin B6. Vitamin B6 usually comes in animal proteins of the diet (sorry to say, Vegans!). One of the key controllers of GABA is Taurine. Taurine, itself a powerful inhibitory NT helps balance and modulate the effective use of GABA in the brain.
This slow-it-down NT is utilized in modulating rhythms of the brain and muscle tone. People very low in GABA tend to eat fast and frequently. They often have problems with portion control during meals and rarely skip any desserts.

WHAT AFFECTS THEIR PRODUCTION?

1. Stress/Cortisol… causes depletion of transmitters and increases their turnover especially from exercise overtraining and being overweight
2. Aging… 60% of people past 40 years old are lacking some kind of neurotransmitter. Older neuron cells also make less NT than younger ones.
3. Poor dieting… leaving out food types greatly affects brain chemistry within three weeks.
4. The leaky gut… this is probably the main cause of NT loss because of altered absorption and inflammation in the brain. Glutamate, glycine, arginine and ornathine are tremendously important AA for gut structure health. A paleo type diet provides these in abundance.
5. Diminished sleep… creates Interleukin 6 (IL-6) and changes the serotonin to melatonin conversion and greatly reduces DHEA
6. Medications… diet pills, recreational drugs, stimulants cause NT loss from the body. Ephedra and ma huang will deplete NT’s
7. Neurotoxins… heavy metals, cleaning solvents, BPA from plastics, pesticides, ecstasy, nicotine, alcohol, MSG (monosodium glutamate).
8. Hormones… if there is a hormone imbalance there will be major NT production problems in our brains. It is highly recommended that bioidentical hormone replacement be considered in difficult cases with stalls and severe mood disorders.

9. Epigenomics/genomics… people with family histories with frequent mental illness are very usually poor in production of some NT’s. Drug addiction, autoimmune illnesses along with alcoholism also can tell of future NT disorders.

10. Our brain is the center of it all… we are all losing neurons all of the time. In a two hour timeframe, most people lose about 6500 neurons! But some of us can lose even more.

One of the ways we can work against the loss of neurons, is if we provide the brain with the proper nutrition and amino acids. We can let our genes to rework the brain while we sleep.

During sleep these pathways become hardwired. If you don’t sleep your learning and metabolism suffers greatly. If you don’t sleep well, you become more vulnerable to develop mental illness also.  When people correct their diet to the evolutionary approach (epi-paleo being most optimal) they see their cognitive scores improve. Another indication is that their sleep quality improves.  

CITATIONS:
1. https://jackkruse.com/your-gutneurotransmitters-and-hormones/
2. Kandel, Schwartz and Jessell Principles of Neural Science.