Balancing Your Brain Chemistry

Our nervous system is a wonderfully complex system, which is in part regulated by neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that are released from neurons (nerve cells) and bind to a variety of other cells where they may stimulate or inhibit a response, or act as a regulation mechanism.

We have billions of neurotransmitters that are constantly at work to keep our brain functioning as well as regulate involuntary movements and also play a role in learning, memory, cognition, wakefulness, appetite, mood regulation, fear and pain.

Neurotransmitters

Major excitatory neurotransmitters include adrenaline, noradrenaline and glutamate.

The major inhibitory neurotransmitters are GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), serotonin and glycine. Some neurotransmitters like dopamine, acetylcholine and histamine can be both excitatory or inhibitory depending where they bind to and what effect they’re trying to have. *Note – this is not an extensive list.

Being in a balanced state of mental wellbeing is influenced by many factors, however how we feel on a daily basis, our thought processes, moods, attention span and capacity to learn and retain information are without a doubt influenced by the delicate balance of these chemical messengers.

Nutritional Support

The brain and nervous system requires many nutrients such as adequate protein, zinc, magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin D, omega-3 (EPA and especially DHA) and choline to function optimally. The foods we eat provide the building blocks to support optimal brain biochemistry. The gut also plays a major role in the production and regulation of neurotransmitters and the role of the gut-brain axis is profoundly significant in our mental wellbeing. Keep an eye out for a whole post on the gut-brain axis soon!

Smoking, alcohol, pharmaceutical drugs such as antidepressants and benzodiazepines as well as illicit drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA, ketamine (and many more) have their powerful effect by impacting the levels of these neurotransmitters.

Nutritional Psychiatry

There is even a new discipline with a growing body of research called Nutritional Psychiatry, which is an approach that utilises food and targeted nutraceutical supplementation as medicine in the treatment and management of mental health disorders. This is an exciting field and an area to pay attention to as it highlights the importance of taking steps towards ensuring we eat a diverse and nutrient rich diet if we want to manage, or better yet avoid, the burden of less than optimal mental health. Dietary choice is an area where we can directly influence our mental wellbeing.

What You Can Do Right Now?

• Cut back on processed and heavily refined foods. Cook one more meal this week instead of eating out/getting takeaway, swap high sugar/saturate fat cake with your coffee for a raw treat, swap out the chips or biscuits for whole grain and seed biscuits, swap the soft drink for a soda or kombucha.

• Increase fresh produce. Add two extra fresh produce items to your shopping basket this week! Try a seasonal fruit and vegetable you’ve never tried before.

• Start paying attention to how you feel mentally and emotionally in regard to what you’re eating. Notice the patterns in energy, mood, pain and sleep.

• Or if you’re ready for a deeper commitment and are ready to do a real life experiment on yourself, try cutting out all refined sugar and highly processed foods, dairy, gluten and alcohol for ONE month and see how you feel!

Every Good Choice Makes a Difference!

It’s also incredibly easy to get a case of the ‘f*ck its’ once one poor decision has been made for the day (watch this space for a new post on the role of the amygdala and inflammation in poor decision making!), but it’s important to remember that even if you make an indulgent choice for lunch, you can still make a nutritionally good choice at dinner.

Another example would be enjoying a pizza for dinner (which hey I’m absolutely a fan of from time to time) but also include a side salad and make sure to eat it first so it doesn’t get forgotten about! Just this small act will go a long way to providing your brain with the nutrients it needs to function optimally and will make a significant different to how you feel the next day.

Want to Know More?

There are many ways to identify biochemical imbalances, one such way being a specific questionnaire designed to help show which neurotransmitter pathways are in need of support. This is a great tool that can be used with everybody to help formulate an individualised treatment plan to support your specific brain chemistry.

I’m passionate about meeting you where you are in implementing changes that are manageable, not giving you a mountain to climb and then expecting you to maintain that mammoth effort for the rest of your life. One on one consults allow the opportunity to understand your individual circumstances, dietary requirements and preferences and collaborate with you to ensure you have are able to action small sustainable steps starting right now.

If you would like to know more about optimising your brain chemistry, book in for a consult by sending me a PM, calling 0417 805 708 or heading to https://www.optimalyounutrition.com.au/book-online.