Skip to main content

Scientists Find Link Between Dopamine and Obesity

Scientists Find Link Between Dopamine and Obesity

Scientists Find Link Between Dopamine and Obesity

UPTON, NY -- Dopamine, a brain chemical associated with addiction to cocaine, alcohol, and other drugs, may also play an important role in obesity. According to a study by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, obese people have fewer receptors for dopamine, a neurotransmitter that helps produce feelings of satisfaction and pleasure. The findings, which will appear in the February 3, 2001 issue of The Lancet, imply that obese people may eat more to try to stimulate the dopamine "pleasure" circuits in their brains, just as addicts do by taking drugs.

"The results from this study suggest that strategies aimed at improving dopamine function might be beneficial in the treatment of obese individuals," says physician Gene-Jack Wang, the lead scientist on the study.

Brookhaven scientists have done extensive research showing that dopamine plays an important role in drug addiction. Among other things, they¹ve found that addictive drugs increase the level of dopamine in the brain, and that addicts have fewer dopamine receptors than normal subjects.

"Since eating, like the use of addictive drugs, is a highly reinforcing behavior, inducing feelings of gratification and pleasure, we suspected that obese people might have abnormalities in brain dopamine activity as well," says psychiatrist Nora Volkow, who was also involved in the study.
The lower PET scan images, labeled FDG, show glucose metabolism in the brains of obese and control (comparison) subjects. There are no differences. The upper PET scans show where the radiotracer C-11 raclopride binds to dopamine receptors. These images show that obese subjects have fewer dopamine receptors than control subjects.


To test this hypothesis, the scientists measured the number of dopamine receptors in the brains of ten severely obese individuals and ten normal controls. Their method consisted of giving each volunteer subject an injection containing a radiotracer, a radioactive chemical "tag" designed to bind to dopamine receptors in the brain. Then, the researchers scanned the subjects' brains using a positron emission tomography (PET ) camera. The PET camera picks up the radioactive signal of the tracer and shows where it is bound to dopamine receptors in the brain. The strength of the signal indicates the number of receptors.

Obese individuals, the scientists found, had fewer dopamine receptors than normal-weight subjects. And within the obese group, the number of dopamine receptors decreased as the subjects' body mass index, an indicator of obesity, increased. That is, the more obese the individual, the lower the number of receptors.


"It's possible that obese people have fewer dopamine receptors because their brains are trying to compensate for having chronically high dopamine levels, which are triggered by chronic overeating," says Wang. "However, it's also possible that these people have low numbers of dopamine receptors to begin with, making them more vulnerable to addictive behaviors including compulsive food intake."

You know, this makes alot of sense too. I've been theorizing that insulin insensitivity causes dopamine problems. For instance, insulin lowers dopamine levels. But it's also possible that low dopamine, which means less of the reward chemicals in the brain, also called reward deficiency syndrome, causes people with low dopamine to eat more, and/or do drugs and stuff. Could also be both, in a vicious cycle.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Insulin Resistance- cause of ADD, diabetes, narcolepsy, etc etc

Insulin Resistance Insulin Resistance Have you been diagnosed with clinical depression? Heart disease? Type II, or adult, diabetes? Narcolepsy? Are you, or do you think you might be, an alcoholic? Do you gain weight around your middle in spite of faithfully dieting? Are you unable to lose weight? Does your child have ADHD? If you have any one of these symptoms, I wrote this article for you. Believe it or not, the same thing can cause all of the above symptoms. I am not a medical professional. I am not a nutritionist. The conclusions I have drawn from my own experience and observations are not rocket science. A diagnosis of clinical depression is as ordinary as the common cold today. Prescriptions for Prozac, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, etc., are written every day. Genuine clinical depression is a very serious condition caused by serotonin levels in the brain. I am not certain, however, that every diagnosis of depression is the real thing. My guess is that about 10 percent of the people taking ...

Could Narcolepsy be caused by gluten? :: Kitchen Table Hypothesis

Kitchen Table Hypothesis from www.zombieinstitute.net - Heidi's new site It's commonly known that a severe allergy to peanuts can cause death within minutes. What if there were an allergy that were delayed for hours and caused people to fall asleep instead? That is what I believe is happening in people with Narcolepsy. Celiac disease is an allergy to gliadin, a specific gluten protein found in grains such as wheat, barley and rye. In celiac disease the IgA antigliadin antibody is produced after ingestion of gluten. It attacks the gluten, but also mistakenly binds to and creates an immune reaction in the cells of the small intestine causing severe damage. There is another form of gluten intolerance, Dermatitis Herpetiformis, in which the IgA antigliadin bind to proteins in the skin, causing blisters, itching and pain. This can occur without any signs of intestinal damage. Non-celiac gluten sensitivity is a similar autoimmune reaction to gliadin, however it usually involves the...

Blue-blocking Glasses To Improve Sleep And ADHD Symptoms Developed

Blue-blocking Glasses To Improve Sleep And ADHD Symptoms Developed Scientists at John Carroll University, working in its Lighting Innovations Institute, have developed an affordable accessory that appears to reduce the symptoms of ADHD. Their discovery also has also been shown to improve sleep patterns among people who have difficulty falling asleep. The John Carroll researchers have created glasses designed to block blue light, therefore altering a person's circadian rhythm, which leads to improvement in ADHD symptoms and sleep disorders. […] How the Glasses Work The individual puts on the glasses a couple of hours ahead of bedtime, advancing the circadian rhythm. The special glasses block the blue rays that cause a delay in the start of the flow of melatonin, the sleep hormone. Normally, melatonin flow doesn't begin until after the individual goes into darkness. Studies indicate that promoting the earlier release of melatonin results in a marked decline of ADHD symptoms. Bett...