NeuroTalk Support Groups - Dopamine, pleasure, and fleas....

...I meant tics...

OK, seriously...

my dear friend, NT newsbot found an article today about Brain's reaction to yummy food may predict weight.

click here for the full article

few paragraphs jumped out at me:

Quote:

...and one big culprit is thought to be dopamine, the brain chemical that's key to sensing pleasure.

Eating can temporarily boost dopamine levels. Previous brain scans have suggested that the obese have fewer dopamine receptors in their brains than lean people. And a particular gene version, called Taq1A1, is linked to fewer dopamine receptors

Quote:

...notes that "dopamine is not just about pleasure." It also plays a role in conditioning — dopamine levels affect drug addiction — and the ability to control impulses.

She wonders if instead of overeating to compensate for the lack of pleasure — Stice's conclusion — the study really might show that these people with malfunctioning dopamine in fact eat because they're impulsive.

I knew about these facts but didn't put them together until today...

what I find interesting is that when I look at a lot of the TSers that are consider *hard twitchers.

They are usually thin or of average weight...I also remember there were few studies done on metabolism on TSers from moderate to severe but I can't remember the results..

in my fainted memory I can recall that a lot of us HARD twitchers seem to eat a lot...but don't seem to gain weight.

logically it is thought that we just ticced it all off....

but there are people whose genes make them bigger and they are in great shape and would exercise and yet, they cannot lose the extra pounds...

when I was younger, I ate all the time and would not get fat...but I twitched a lot harder...

then it slowed down when I was in my 30's...and now, I twitch but not like I used to...I am considered a low moderate twitcher now...and now I do have a small gut...LOL

I am wondering about the dopamine and metabolism connection in the TSers...

we have "dysfunctional" dopamine levels...yet, we are on the more "skinnier" group (not everyone, but when I was at the TS convention, a lot of the TSers have the skinnier built)

the other thing that I am intrigued about is:

why do we tic??

I mean, what is it? When we compare it to an itch...like, for example, let's say you've been bitten by a mosquito and you are not allowed to scratch it for hours, then, finally, you can...then you go at it...

the first sensation is usually..."ahhhhhhhh" (a release...an "ease up" of sorts)

if I have to break my tics down, tic by tic, I am now realizing that it IS a satisfaction...that if I don't tic, I just get edgy...but if I tic, I get a type of "satisfaction"

My question then goes back to, how does this relate to dopamine. Is it the dopamine that make us twitch? or is the dopamine released because the "itch" was there in the first place and we produce the dopamines to make us satisfied...

kinda like which came first, the chicken or the egg? I think the medical community have long believed that the dopamine level is out of whack first and then it created the twitches...but what if it is the opposite?

And how would that be related to Parkinsons, in the other end of the spectrum? I know they have lower levels of dopamine but could there be something underlying to cause the lower level of dopamine vs. just that the dopamine level just went lower and then Parkinson Happens...

what do you guys think???

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

(I gotta run, am heading out of town, but will be back on Sunday...so, if you have input, don't think I'll forget about you... :) )