Favorite Neurotransmitter/Peptide

[mr715]

I'm a neurogeneticist that is in love with psychopharmacology. Wanted to take a pulse to see which pop culture chemical is most popular on these forums

13 votes, 1 pass | Time left: Unlimited
	Acetylcholine
	0 (0%)
	Glutamate
	0 (0%)
	GABA
	0 (0%)
	Serotonin
	3 (23%)
	Dopamine
	6 (46%)
	Norepinephrine
	1 (8%)
	Histamine
	0 (0%)
	Anandamide
	1 (8%)
	Endorphin
	2 (15%)
	1 DU member did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[PuraVidaDreamin]

1. Gotta love Anandamide.

Peace and love, baby!

[mr715]

2. Takes the edge off the sharper sides of a dopamine high

And retrograde neurotransmission is pretty cool.

[mr715]

3. I voted for serotonin

Because it is involved in basically everything that goes on upstairs of your neck and downstairs of your stomach.

It is ancient, universal, and hella cool

[Ponietz]

4. You're an expert in love -- what's your favorite?

[mr715]

5. Serotonin for the science

GABA takes the Trump terrors away.

Dopamine gives me volition.

Serotonin gives me sentience.

Norepinephrine keeps me typing when I want to do something else.

Acetylcholine helps me learn and keeps me from suffocating.

Anandamide makes weed a lot of fun.

And glutamate? Well, it keeps me working. And thinking. Plus it makes food taste good.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. Does this mean you take these at times as supplements?

It hadn't occurred to me to take supplements. Can one burn out receptors by using supplements? Not sure I want to take them, though I would be interested in food components. Reminds me about tryptophan. I should start have turkey for dinner instead of chicken perhaps

I've heard of acetylcholine as a supplement but I thought it was a more generic precursor.

[mr715]

12. Supplements, no

But some Rx/drugs. Beer will hit up your GABA receptors and context may tune up some dopamine too.

Benedryl blocks histamine and makes people sleepy and, from experience, have a blunted cognition.

Cigarettes and nicotine are fascinating to me. I consider myself a non-smoker, but I do smoke socially - 1-2 a month, say. And even at that low frequency, I crave them all the time but the physiological experience I get is nauseous regret. Yet, I want more! Brain chemistry is an amazing thing.

With supplements you have to remember that most stuff taken via oral route is going to be either degraded in digestion or then detoxified by the liver before it gets anywhere. Then, it has to also be able to get through the blood brain barrier, which ain't so easy.

You can certainly end up with more or less actual receptors as a consequence of regular exposure. Supplements are probably somewhat less likely to result in up or down regulation of receptors than Rx's or other drugs, but hey, I'm not a doctor.

My understanding is that tryptophan gets converted to 5-HTP which gets to the brain and helps build serotonin molecules. Also melatonin molecules.

[hlthe2b]

6. None of us would be here if not for norepinephrine (sympathetic nervous system activation--Fight or Flight)

(and yes, epinephrine/adrenaline is part of that.

But, this has been a dangerous world from inception, so our ancestors HAD to be able to respond to threats.

Personally, those that let me sleep after a long shift: GABA, adenosine, serotonin (and others)... are those for which I am particularly grateful today.

[NNadir]

7. As an insomniac, tryptophan is my favorite amino acid, so if I voted, which I won't, I'd go with serotonin.

I don't know why one would have a "favorite" neurotransmitter.

[mr715]

9. Point Taken

I think I have a little bit of overactivity of certain molecules in my brain that make me think of them like little characters in a show that makes us us.

I'm researching tryptophan and serotonin and their effects on activity and wakefulness. They are nifty little chemicals, each with a story to tell and lots of trivia around em.

But you are correct. It isn't exactly a sane question.


MR

[EYESORE 9001]

8. Endocannabinoids?

I find them highly enjoyable.

[mr715]

10. Those would be anandamide

I think. Not an expert.

But yeah, they do mediate a nice state of being.