Sugar and dopamine
 

"...The researchers conducted the studies by restricting rats of their food while the rats slept and for four hours after waking. "It's a little bit like missing breakfast," Hoebel said. "As a result, they quickly eat some chow and drink a lot of sugar water." And, he added, "That's what is called binge eating -- when you eat a lot all at once -- in this case they are bingeing on a 10 percent sucrose solution, which is like a soft drink."

Hungry rats that binge on sugar provoke a surge of dopamine in their brains. After a month, the structure of the brains of these rats adapts to increased dopamine levels, showing fewer of a certain type of dopamine receptor than they used to have and more opioid receptors. These dopamine and opioid systems are involved in motivation and reward, systems that control wanting and liking something. Similar changes also are seen in the brains of rats on cocaine and heroin.

In experiments, the researchers have been able to induce signs of withdrawal in the lab animals by taking away their sugar supply. The rats' brain levels of dopamine dropped and, as a result, they exhibited anxiety as a sign of withdrawal. The rats' teeth chattered, and the creatures were unwilling to venture forth into the open arm of their maze, preferring to stay in a tunnel area. Normally rats like to explore their environment, but the rats in sugar withdrawal were too anxious to explore."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1210090819.htm

If you are producing dopamine in areas related to sugar, wouldn't you be using up raw material that you might need in the SN for movement?

This makes a lot of sense to me. I am the resident sugaholic, and I can tell when my system is in sugar driven mode. I even suffer from the "not wanting to leave he tunnel" behavior. It is nearly impossible to get past the sugar demons that infest our society.

My attitude is, we all have our dark side, so choose your demons, mine is sugar. At least it's a cheap readily available demon..... I'm not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing.

Well off to the Christmas "crack" season...that would be snap crackel and pop, as in rice Krispie squares, or the hard candy that is concentated sugar (aka: the hard stuff) ...

Thanks for the insight Rick. :eek::eek:

hypoglycemia and dopamine
 

dear rose and rev
I have a hypothesis that hypoglycemics must use more glucose than others
because of a reaction to the adrenaline connection in the dopamine - requires more glucose -
cant prove it yet - yet I know its relevant

try cinnamon supplements to help cut the sugar cravings. it works. i'm a candy addict who never eats it anymore. :eek: i still have a plastic pumpkin filled with halloween candy.

2 of my husbands clients who have pd..also sugar addicts take the cinnamon supplements now. they both have seen great results. (the supplements are found in the vitamin section in the store..like walmart.)

http://altmedicine.about.com/od/cinnamon/a/cinnamon.htm



Recent studies have found that cinnamon may have a beneficial effect on blood sugar.
One of the first human studies was published in 2003 in a medical journal called Diabetes Care. Sixty people with type 2 diabetes took 1, 3, or 6 grams of cinnamon in pill form daily, an amount roughly equivalent to one quarter of a teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. After 40 days, all 3 amounts of cinnamon reduced fasting blood glucose by 18 to 29%, triglycerides by 23 to 30%, LDL cholesterol by 7 to 27%, and total cholesterol by 12 to 26%.

thank you dear Curious!
 

dear one,
I went to www.answers.com and looked it up you put me on the right track,
because I have been researching aromatic essential oils, and cinnamon is mixed with the one oil called "spikenard" - very very expensive essential oil
when Y'shua/ Hebrew for Jesus was teaching the goodnews....
*lightbulb

http://dl4.glitter-graphics.net/pub/...q3cnyu19qy.gif
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Health benefits and risks
The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page. (December 2007)
Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.
Dried cassia barkCassia (called ròu gùi; 肉桂 in Chinese) is used in traditional Chinese medicine, where it is considered one of the 50 fundamental herbs.[6]

On 2008, a study reported no statistically significant difference on type 2 diabetes patients treated with cinnamon cassia powder when studying the anti-diabetic effects of cinnamon.[7] A systematic review of research indicates that cinnamon may reduce fasting blood sugar, but does not have an effect on hemoglobin A1C, a biological marker of long-term diabetes.[8]

Chemist Richard Anderson says that his research has shown that most, if not all, of cinnamon's antidiabetic effect is in its water-soluble fraction, not the oil (the ground cinnamon spice itself should be ingested for benefit, not the oil or a water extraction). In fact, some cinnamon oil-entrained compounds could prove toxic in high concentrations. Cassia's effects on enhancing insulin sensitivity appear to be mediated by polyphenols.[9] Despite these findings, cassia should not be used in place of anti-diabetic drugs, unless blood glucose levels are closely monitored, and its use is combined with a strictly controlled diet and exercise program.

Due to a toxic component called coumarin, European health agencies have warned against consuming high amounts of cassia.[10]


History
In classical times, four types of cinnamon were distinguished (and often confused):

Cassia (Hebrew qəṣi`â), the bark of Cinnamomum iners from Arabia and Ethiopia
Cinnamon proper (Hebrew qinnamon), the bark of Cinnamomum zeylanicum from Sri Lanka
Malabathrum or Malobathrum (from Sanskrit तमालपत्त्रम्, tamālapattram, literally "dark-tree leaves"), Cinnamomum malabathrum from the North of India
Serichatum, Cinnamomum aromaticum from Seres, that is, China.
In Exodus 30:23-4, Moses is ordered to use both sweet cinnamon (Kinnamon) and cassia (qəṣî`â) together with myrrh, sweet calamus (qənê-bosem, literally cane of fragrance) and olive oil to produce a holy oil to anoint the Ark of the Covenant. Psalm 45:8 mentions the garments of the king (or of Torah scholars) that smell of myrrh, aloes and cassia.

An early reference to the trade of cinnamon occurs around 100 BC in Chinese literature. After the explorer Zhang Qian's return to China, the Han Dynasty pushed the Xiongnu back and trade and cultural exchange flourished along the Northern Silk Road. Goods moving by caravan to the west included gold, rubies, jade, textiles, coral, ivory and art works. In the opposite direction moved bronze weapons, furs, ceramics and cinnamon bark.[11] The first Greek reference to kasia is found in a poem by Sappho in the 7th century B.C.

According to Herodotus, both cinnamon and cassia grow in Arabia, together with incense, myrrh, and ladanum, and are guarded by winged serpents. The phoenix builds its nest from cinnamon and cassia. But Herodotus mentions other writers that see the home of Dionysos, e.g., India, as the source of cassia. While Theophrastus gives a rather good account of the plants, a curious method for harvesting (worms eat away the wood and leave the bark behind), Dioscorides seems to confuse the plant with some kind of water-lily.

Pliny (nat. 12, 86-87) gives a fascinating account of the early spice trade across the Red Sea in "rafts without sails or oars", obviously using the trade winds, that costs Rome 100 million sesterces each year. According to Pliny, a pound (the Roman pound, 327 g) of cassia, cinnamon, or serichatum cost up to 300 denars, the wage of ten months' labour. Diocletian's Edict on Maximum Prices[12] from 301 AD gives a price of 125 denars for a pound of cassia, while an agricultural labourer earned 25 denars per day.

The Greeks used kásia or malabathron to flavour wine, together with absinth (Artemisia absinthia). Pliny mentions cassia as a flavouring agent for wine as well[13] Malabathrum leaves (folia) were used in cooking and for distilling an oil used in a caraway-sauce for oysters by the Roman gourmet Gaius Gavius Apicius.[14] Malabathrum is among the spices that, according to Apicius, any good kitchen should contain.

Egyptian recipes for kyphi, an aromatic used for burning, included cinnamon and cassia from Hellenistic times onwards. The gifts of Hellenistic rulers to temples sometimes included cassia and cinnamon as well as incense, myrrh, and Indian incense (kostos), so we can conclude that the Greeks used it in this way too.

The famous Commagenum, an unguent produced in Commagene in present-day eastern Turkey, was made from goose-fat and aromatised with cinnamon oil and spikenard (Nardostachys jatamansi). Malobrathum from Egypt (Dioscorides I, 63) was based on cattle-fat and contained cinnamon as well; one pound cost 300 denars.

Cinnamon, as a warm and dry substance, was believed by doctors in ancient times to cure snakebites, freckles, the common cold, and kidney troubles, among other ailments

http://www.answers.com/Cinnamomum+ca...ookup&nafid=27