INTERESTING TIMES

OK, maybe that's a little exaggerated, but basically any drug causes a dopamine surge that changes your brain such that the rewards of normal life don't seem good enough anymore. This study actually found that pot smokers have a bigger nucleus accumbens (the brain area associated with pleasure, reward, and reinforcement learning). They say that 19 million Americans have smoked pot recently. That's a lot.

Here's the article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/04/16/even-casually-smoking-marijuana-can-change-your-brain-study-says/
( text )

http://www.jarrow.com/product/188/Neuro_Optimizer consider this product via Vitacost



MY QUESTIONS
what are food sources of citicholine? can we get it from eating brains?
there is choline in eggs and liver. is there citicholine?? how much??
how easily does choline convert to citicholine?
can we support the conversion?
can we by pass this supp using diet???

CHOLINE DEFICIENCY is common (not citicholine, mind you!)
suspect if: fatty liver, hemorrhagic kidney necrosis, infertility, growth impairment, bone abnormalities, hypertension, cancer, atherosclerosis, glaucoma, neuro dz: Alzheimer's,. bipolar. LABS: incr ALT, incr HCYS

( notes, some background, links )

Recent research has shown that children who are young relative to the other kids in their school classes are more likely to be diagnosed and treated for ADHD. This is presumably because they are younger, less well socialized and more childish than their classmates. That childishness can be problematic so they are singled out by teachers and sent down that path toward mind bending pharmaceuticals.

Last weekend's seminar supported my impression that ADHD may be a low dopamine state, either due to decreased levels of the neurotransmitter or decreased receptor activity or numbers. It also supported my impression that low dopamine can follow from childhood trauma. We all know how vicious kids can be, so just being the youngest may constitute trauma. We also know that low status primates within a group have lower serotonin levels.

I personally know two adult humans who are beneficially treated for their ADHD with ritalin. Ritalin's mechanism of action is unknown, but it is thought to influence several neurotransmitters, most especially dopamine. Some texts say it is a dopamine and serotonin reuptake inhibitor.

My question is this: How does being a younger, smaller and lower status individual in a group of mammals affect your dopamine function? And what IS the relationship of dopamine function to ADHD?

Just strained out the herb and bottled the tincture: Melissa (lemon balm) in lemon vodka. When are we having screwdrivers?
( notes )

I look up cocaine and find this impressive list of slang about it. My goodness. I have never tried it in any form. It was "discovered" in 1860 when someone happened to notice that tasting it numbs the tongue. Pretty soon everybody was using it for toothaches, and in 1894 doctors started using it as a local anesthetic for surgeries, especially to the nose, eyes (lacrimal ducts!), and sinuses. Freud didn't think it was addictive, but it is, because it activates the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, the reward and desire pathway, the addiction pathway. Cocaine is a dopamine reuptake inhibitor. It is also a serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. But these effects should not happen if it is a tiny local dose. The local numbing effect occurs because cocaine blocks nerve permeability to sodium, preventing nerve transmission. The vasoconstrictive effect is due to the inhibition of norepi reuptake. Cocaine is the only anesthetic that is vasoconstrictive, the rest vasodilate necessitating the use of injected epinephrine to minimize bleeding and loss of the anesthetic into the systemic circulation. Can anybody tell me where the world's bounty of cocaine is coming from these days?

--second messenger = diffusable signaling molecule produced or secreted after signal is received
--molecule activates effector proteins inside cell-->cell response to signal
--can be synthesized/released and broken down again in specific rxns
--production, storage, and destruction can be localized
( this stuff is pretty hazy so far, clarification much needed )

What does pituitary mean, from the Latin? (think onomatopoeia...)
to spit mucus
ptuo = to spit, pituita = mucus

What do you call a hormone that acts on neighboring cells?
paracrine

Are pituitary hormones steroid, steroid type, or peptide hormones?
peptide, all of them are

What do you call the loss of lateral visual fields?
bitemporal hemianopsia

Damage to what part of the pituitary causes diabetes insipidus, and which hormone is lacking?
( self quiz from SSL's notes )

Practiced yoga at the school this morning. Was up before 6am. Mind is going. I believe that there is a biological link between the strength of the core and the experience of BEING. Notice how all the really brilliant, centered people all sit up so straight? Walk so tall? Having a strong core and an aligned spine links, I think, into our limbic systems, into the most primitive part of our brains. Walking resets the emotions. Terry male says I have an overactive amygdala which is what causes me to have religious experiences. Brons says the amygdala is all about fear and aversion, anxiety, fear conditioning, antinociception and autonomic adjustments. Religious experiences, fear and aversion. I wonder where awe falls into that mix.
( I am fascinated by all my coursework right now but especially the brain material from Brons )